HYDROPONIC ROCKMELON CULTURE AS INFLUENCED BYDIFFERENT STRENGTH OF NUTRIENT SOLUTION

Abstract

Crop specific nutrient solution is important for higher yield in hydroponic system. Therefore the experiment was conducted at the Hydroponic Farm of the Horticulture farm is Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh to identify suitable strength of nutrient solution to get higher yield in Bangladesh. Two factors were used as treatments in this experiment viz, variety and nutrient solution. Three varieties, viz. V 1 = Action-434, V ii

2 = Madhurima, V 3 = F -Hybrid and three nutrient solutions viz. S 1 1 =Full strength Rahman and Inden (2012) nutrient solution, S = 3/4 strength Rahman and Inden (2012) nutrient solution, S = Full strength of Hoagland and Arnon (1940) nutrient solution were used in this experiment .The experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with three replications. Different strength of nutrient solution and different variety of rockmelon showed significant variation in most of the parameters studied. The highest plant height (7.68, 25.60, 37.78, and 54.11 cm) the maximum number of leaves/plant (9.16, 23.91, 31.10 and 50.12), the maximum number of shoots per plant (4.51, 3.56 and4.39), the maximum number of fruit/plant (4.99), individual fruit weight (1537gm), fruit length (14.78), fruit diameter (52.88cm) and yield per plant (2.48 kg) were found the highest in S 2 3 . And also all the parameters were found the highest in V 2 . But all the parameters were drastically reduced when S treatment was applied and also reduced V 1 1 . For combined effects, all the parameters were found the highest in V 2 S 2. Meanwhile all the parameters were reduced V 1 S 1 . Therefore, S nutrient solution can be used for rockmelon cv. Madhurima (V ) in soilless system in Bangladesh.