Effects of Growing Bed with Various Number of Holes in the Growth and Yield of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) in Passive Hydroponics System

Abstract

This study assessed the effect of growing bed with a different number of holes in cultivating crops. Hence, this study aimed to determine the growth performance of Carlo Rossa variety of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)planted in above mentioned condition. The treatments used in the study are the following: T1, growing bed with 8 holes; T2, growing bed with 10 holes; and T3 composed of 12 holes. The growth performance of lettuce (L. sativa)was observed per week. And the water parameters such as pH level (5.80-6.80), electrical conductivity (600-1200ms) and water temperature (22 ̊C) were maintained every day. As the 35 days of culturing period of lettuce, the results from the data gathered showed that T1 gained the highest mean among all treatments in all factors probably because it has the fewest number of holes in growing bed. Therefore, the competition of absorption of nutrients is low when there are fewer plants which made each plant absorbed higher nutrients just like what happen in T1. On the other hand, T3 with 12 holes gained the lowest record in all factors due to the high competition on nutrients absorption. The study promotes the soil-less cultivation of lettuce crops using passive hydroponics system which provides high resource efficiency because water and fertilizer consumption is minimized in passive hydroponics, there is no run off and minimized evaporation. It is also profitable to small holder farmers in urban zones, the ones with no access to land and has poor soil fertility.