Growth and Yield of Hydroponic Lettuce as Influenced by Different Growing Substrates

Abstract

The experiment was conducted in the greenhouse at the Horticulture Farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka 1207, Bangladesh during September 2015 to February 2016. Four different types of growing substrates, such as, M 1 = 60% rice husk + 30% coconut coir + 10% vermicompost, M 2 = 60% coconut coir + 30% brocken brick + 10% vermicompost, M 3 = 60% sawdust + 30% brocken brick + 10% vermicompost, and M 4 = 60% ash + 30% brocken brick + 10% vermicompost were used in this experiment. Growth and physiological parameters of lettuce were measured in this experiment. The maximum number of leaves per plant (21.44) and the highest fresh weight (92.49 g plant -1 ) were recorded from M 1 while the lowest in M 3 . Therefore, the study revealed that the rice husked based growing substrates can be used for growing lettuce cv. ‘Legacy’ in aggregate soilless system in the tropics like Bangladesh.