Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995

A comparison between two methods to control

nutrient delivery to greenhouse melons grown
in recirculating nutrient solution culture
Alberto Pardossia,*, Fernando Malorgiob, L. Incroccib,
Carlo Alberto Campiottic, Franco Tognonib
a
Dipartimento di Produzione Vegetale, Universita degli Studi di Milan, Via Celoria 2, 20133 Milan, Italy
b
Dipartimento di Biologia delle Piante Agrarie, Universita degli Studi di Pisa, Viale delle Piagge 23, Pisa, Italy
c
Dipartimento Innovazione, ENEA, La Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, 00060 S. Maria di Galeria, Rome, Italy
Accepted 9 May 2001

Abstract

Two methods to control nutrient delivery to greenhouse melon plants grown with the nutrient lm
technique were compared: a conventional control system based on the adjustment of electrical
conductivity (EC) of the recirculating nutrient solution, and a programmed nutrient addition, which
was based simply on pre-established weekly supply of N, P and K without any attempt to maintain
constant values of nutrient concentration and EC. The method to control nutrient supply did not
inuence signicantly fruit yield or quality, but the nutrient addition reduced the crop consumption
of water, N, P and K by 4060% with respect to the EC method. # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All
rights reserved.

Keywords: Cucumis melo; Hydroponics; Electrical conductivity; Nutrient addition; Nutrient lm technique

1. Introduction

In closed-loop hydroponics, the plants are fed by a recirculating nutrient solution with
relatively high ion concentration that is adjusted by monitoring electrical conductivity
(EC) and injecting two or more stock solutions to maintain the conductivity reading that
has been set on the control equipment. This procedure is effective, but it may cause waste of
water and nutrients. Indeed, the differential ion uptake by the crop and the use of irrigation
water with ions, such as sodium and chloride, that are not or scarcely absorbed by the crop

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: 39-02-5835-6564; fax: 39-02-5835-6575.
E-mail address: alberto.pardossi@unimi.it (A. Pardossi).

0304-4238/02/$ see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
PII: S 0 3 0 4 - 4 2 3 8 ( 0 1 ) 0 0 2 9 2 - 8
90 A. Pardossi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995

cause nutritional imbalance and make it necessary to replace more or less frequently the
recirculating nutrient solution. Moreover, the crop may absorb large amounts of nutrients
and this can be responsible for deleterious effects on crop yield and quality. The use of ion-
selective electrodes will allow a more efcient control of mineral supply, but presently
these systems are too expensive for commercial application.
Programmed nutrient addition, proposed for both experimental and commercial hydro-
ponics (Asher and Blamey, 1987; Ingestad and Lund, 1992; Lea-Cox et al., 1999; Zerche,
2000), may represent an alternative method to control mineral nutrition. It may increase
nutrient use efciency and reduce the environmental impact caused by nutrient solution
runoff; in this case a desired rate of nutrient uptake is maintained rather than a
concentration set-point.
In this work, we compared two methods of controlling the delivery of nutrients to melon
plants grown with the nutrient lm technique (NFT) under greenhouse: a conventional EC-
based control system versus a programmed nutrient addition. The analysis of N concen-
tration of the recirculating solution was a part of the measures to control nutrient delivery.
Nutrient addition was based on a pre-arranged weekly supply of N, P and K without any
attempt to maintain constant values of ion concentration and EC. As a matter of fact, every
week N, P and K doses were fed to the crop on the basis of the expected requirements that
had been established in previous experiments (Falossi, 1997; A. Pardossi, F. Malorgio,
unpublished).

2. Materials and methods

Two experiments were conducted during the spring of 1996 and 1999 using melon plants
grown in a plastic greenhouse located in Pisa, central Italy. Mean air temperature was
around 20 8C with mean daily global radiation of approximately 10 MJ m 2. Forty days
after sowing, the plants were planted into six separate NFT systems with a density of
1.5 plants m 2. Each NFT system, representing one replicate, contained 32 plants with
approximately 320 l of recirculating solution.
Two treatments were compared as follows:
In the control treatment (T1), the plants were grown with the following nutrient solution
(mg l 1): 210 N (100% NO3 -N), 390 K, 31 P, 120 Ca, 25 Mg (plus Hoagland's
concentration of microelements). The nutrient solution was maintained at EC value of
2.5 mS cm 1 by adding concentrated nutrient solutions; when EC exceeded 2.8
3.0 mS cm 1 with the N concentration lower than 8590 mg l 1, the nutrient solution
was completely replaced.
In the other treatment (T2), N, P and K were supplied to the plants following a pre-
arranged weekly addition of calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and
nitric and phosphoric acid, as reported in Table 1. Nutrient addition was devised on the
basis of the rates of nutrient uptake which was determined in previous experiments
conducted between 1992 and 1995 (Falossi, 1997; A. Pardossi, F. Malorgio, unpublished).
In those experiments, melon plants were grown with NFT using different compositions of
the nutrient solution and mineral uptake was assessed by the ion-depletion method, that is
by measuring the changes in the concentration of the recirculating solution. It had been
 A. Pardossi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995 91

Table 1
Programmed weekly supply of N, P and K to melon plants grown with the NFT

Weeks from planting (mg/plant)

N P K
1 14 16 15
2 42 16 30
3 140 31 195
4 210 31 312
5 560 62 975
6 700 124 1170
7 980 124 1560
8 980 124 1560
9 980 124 1560
10 980 124 1560
11 700 62 975
12 420 6 390
13 140 31 195
14 70 16 78

found that rising the ion concentration of the culture solution increased the plant uptake and
the leaf concentrations of macronutrients, but it had no signicant inuence on fruit yield
or quality. Therefore, the nutrient addition was programmed with the aim of reducing
mineral supply to the crop, in particular during the rst week after planting and during the
harvest, which lasted roughly for 3 weeks.
The concentration of N, P and K in the recirculating solution in T2 did not exceed 100,
12 and 160 mg l 1, respectively. All nutrient solutions were prepared with irrigation water
containing approximately 300 mg l 1 NaCl.
Macronutrient uptake, yield component and fruit quality were determined. The macro-
nutrient uptake by the plants was estimated by measuring the decrease in the ion
concentration of the culture solution; solutions were sampled once or twice a week
and analysed for nitrate with a Boheringer enzymatic method, for P colorimetrically and
for K by ame photometer.
Fruit quality was assessed by measuring esh soluble solids content (SSC, expressed as
8Brix) with a hand refractometer.
Further details on growing conditions and experimental determinations were reported in
a previous paper (Pardossi et al., 1999, 2000).

3. Results and discussion

The EC of the recirculating nutrient solution in T1 remained relatively constant at values

between 2.4 and 3.0 mS cm 1 (Fig. 1), while in T2 it gradually increased reaching values
higher than 5.0 mS cm 1 by the end of the experiment due to the accumulation of ions,
such as sodium, chloride and sulphate, that were contained in the irrigation water (data not
shown).
92 A. Pardossi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995

Fig. 1. Changes in EC of the recirculating nutrient solution in two NFT cultures of melon. In T1 (thick line) an
EC-based control of the recirculating nutrient solution was adopted, while in T2 (thin line) mineral supply was
based on programmed nutrient addition (see text for details). Mean values of three replicates (the variation
coefficients of the means ranged between 9 and 13%).

High salinity in T2 did not produce important effects on melon, which is moderately
resistant to salt stress. No symptoms of salt toxicity were observed in the plants grown in
T2; nevertheless, these plants did not exhibit the vegetative luxuriance of those grown in
T1.
The uptake rate of N, P and K in T1 plants was higher than in T2 plants, particularly
during the reproductive stage (Fig. 2). When plants were grown with programmed nutrient
addition, ion uptake and supply corresponded, since one week after salt addition, the
concentration of N, P and K determined in the recirculating solution was invariably
negligible.
The total consumption of N, P and K was lower in T2 compared to T1, while no
differences were found between the two treatments when Ca and Mg were considered
(Table 2). Due to the smaller leaf area (data not shown), T2 plants absorbed less water than
T1 ones (Table 2).
In the control treatment, the nutrient solution was renewed six times during the whole
growing period, starting ve weeks from planting. On the contrary, T2 plants were grown
with the same nutrient solution over the whole growing period, and therefore there was no

Table 2
Water and nutrient uptake in melon plants grown with the NFT for 14 weeks using two different methods of
controlling nutrient deliverya

T1 (EC control) T2 (nutrient addition)

Water (l/plant) 145  21 105  11

N (g/plant) 13:9  0:4 7:0  0:2
P (g/plant) 1:6  0:1 1:0  0:1
K (g/plant) 16:6  0:3 10:6  0:2
a
In T1 an EC-based control of the recirculating nutrient solution was adopted, while in T2 mineral supply
was based on programmed nutrient addition (see text for details). Mean values (S.E.) of three replicates; all
means are significantly different (t-test).
 A. Pardossi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995 93

Fig. 2. Nutrient uptake in two NFT cultures of melons. In T1 (thick line) an EC-based control of the
recirculating nutrient solution was adopted, while in T2 (thin line) mineral supply was based on programmed
nutrient addition (see text for details). Mean values of three replicates (the variation coefficients of the means
ranged between 11 and 14%).

nutrient runoff. Nutrient use efciency (i.e. the ratio between mineral supply and crop
removal) was 0.82, 0.66 and 0.73 for N, P and K, respectively. We calculated that the total
waste of N, P and K provoked by the renewal of solution was around 150 kg ha 1, a
massive dose for a crop cycle of three months. With respect to EC method, nutrient addition
reduced the use of water and macronutrients by 4050%.
94 A. Pardossi et al. / Scientia Horticulturae 92 (2002) 8995

Table 3
Fruit yield and quality in melon plants grown with the nutrient film technique for 14 weeks using two different
methods of controlling nutrient deliverya

T1 (EC control) T2 (nutrient addition)

Yield (kg/plant) 2.4  0.4 2.2  0.3

Fruits (per plant) 3.0  0.4 2.7  0.2
Fruit size (kg) 0.80  0.15 0.81  0.21
Soluble solids content (8Brix) 12.2  0.3 12.6  0.2
a
In T1 an EC-based control of the recirculating nutrient solution was adopted, while in T2 mineral supply
was based on programmed nutrient addition (see text for details). Mean values (S.E.) of three replicates; all
means are not significantly different (t-test).

The method of controlling plant mineral nutrition did not inuence signicantly fruit
yield or quality, as indicated by SSC (Table 3); therefore, luxury nutrient consumption
occurred in T1 plants. The leaf concentration of N, P and K were reduced in T2 plants with
respect to the other group (data not shown), but the values remained within the optimal
range reported previously (Mills and Jones, 1996) and the plants never showed any
symptoms of nutritional deciency.
Some conclusions can be derived from these results.
Firstly, the conventional EC-based control of recirculating nutrient solution may lead to
luxury consumption due to the maintenance of relatively high ion concentration in the root
zone and environmental pollution, since the nutrient solution has to be renewed periodi-
cally because of the accumulation of non-essential ions contained in the irrigation water.
Secondly, the programmed nutrient addition tested in our experiments proved to be
effective and efcient, as it did not affect fruit yield, reduced the use of water and fertilisers,
and eliminated nutrient runoff. One limitation of this procedure is that the nutrient demand
determined from the previous experiments can be used only under comparable growing
conditions. Moreover, it may result in a progressive increase of EC, particularly when
irrigation water with relatively high content of non-essential ions are used, and, therefore, it
appears feasible in the case of species with some degree of salt resistance, such as melon.
Work is in progress to evaluate this control system for growing more salt-sensitive crops,
such as lettuce and bean.

Acknowledgements

Research supported by ENEA-PNRA (Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide).

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