Study on the Lettuce Growth Using Different Water Sources in a Hydroponic System

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Plants can be grown using a culture medium without soil using a hydroponic system. Crop production by the hydroponic system is likely to increase as a means of solving various problems in the agricultural sector such as aging of rural population and climate change. Different water sources can be used to prepare the culture medium used in the hydroponic system. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effect of different water sources on crop production by the hydroponic system in order to ex-plore the applicability of various water resources. METHODS AND RESULTS: Lettuce was cultivated by the hydroponic system and three different water sources [tap water (TW), bottled water (BW), and groundwater (GW)] were used to compare the effect of water sources on lettuce growth. The three kinds of waters with a nutrient solution (TW-M, BW-M, GW-M) were also used as the media. After the six-week growth period, the lettuce length and weight, the number of leaves, and the contents of chlorophylls and polyphenols were compared among the different media used. The lettuces did not grow in the waters without the nutrient solution. In the media, the lettuce growth and the contents of chlorophylls were affected by the different water sources used to prepare the media, while the contents of polyphenols were not affected. The absorbed amounts of ions by lettuces, espe-cially Ca and Zn ions, and the dry weight of the harvested lettuces showed a strong positive correlation. CONCLUSION(S): Overall, this study shows that different water sources used for growing lettuce in a hydroponic system can affect lettuce growth. Further studies on the enhancement of crop qualities using different water sources may be required in future studies.