Hydroponic Growing of Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) Using Bioorganic Liquid Fertilizer from Groundnut Husk and Onion Bulbs

Wondu Girma, Zekeria Yusuf* and JM Sasi Kumar

Received: May 19, 2020;   Published: July 20, 2020

DOI: 10.32474/CTBM.2020.02.000128

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Abstract

Bioorganic liquid fertilizer not only increases bioorganic fertility of crops (in comparison to the control and prototype fertilizer), but also accelerates their maturation and nutrient quality. Thus, the present study was aimed to produce bioorganic liquid fertilizer from groundnut husk and onion bulbs through aerobic fermentation in open containers. The result indicated that bioorganic liquid fertilizer solution from groundnut husk and banana peels through aerobic fermentation in open containers. Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), and calcium (Ca) were found to be significant between bioorganic liquid fertilizer and compost tea (used as a control) solution. The quality of bioorganic liquid fertilizer solution produced in the present study was indicated that all measured parameters including PH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Carbon(C), Nitrogen (N), and C:N ratio was found to be significant between compost tea and bioorganic fertilizer solutions. The performance of lettuce irrigated with bioorganic fertilizer solution in both soil and hydroponic medium (sawdust) was performing better than compost tea solution. It was found that most of the measured parameters including above ground biomass per plant (BMW), Days to Maturity (DM), and Head Weight Per Plant (HWP) were found to be significant, between compost tea and bioorganic fertilizer solutions, for all soil grown lettuce and hydroponic growth using sawdust. However, there was no significance difference observed for Number of Leaves per Plant (NLP). Further evaluation of fertilizer should have to be done by conducting field experiments for various crop plants.

Keywords: Compost tea; Electrical conductivity; Lettuce; Organic fertilizers; Plant macronutrients

Abstract| Introduction| Materials and Methods| Determination of Quality of Bioorganic Fertilizer Solution| Result and Discussion| Conclusion| References|