The Brazilian semiarid is historically characterized by the water scarcity of good-quality. In this region there is great availability of groundwater reserves, however, these waters has high concentrations of dissolved salts, that makes them inappropriate to be used in the irrigation of most crops. The objective of this study was to evaluate the growth, production and salinity tolerance of three cauliflower cultivars in hydroponics NFT (Nutrient Film Technique), subjected to different electrical conductivities of the nutrient solution (ECsol) prepared with saline water. The experiment was carried out in a randomized blocks design in split-plot, with six replications. The plants were subjected to six levels of ECsol (1.94 - control, 3.24, 4.10, 5.04, 5.92 and 7.01 dS m-1) in the main plots, with three cauliflower cultivars (‘Piracicaba de Verão’, ‘Sabrina’ and ‘SF1758’) in the subplots, which were grown in the same hydroponic channel. Vegetative growth, inflorescence production and salinity tolerance of cultivars were evaluated. In general, except for the number of leaves, leaf width and fresh matters of leaves and shoot, the different ECsol levels negatively influenced the vegetative growth and inflorescences yield of cultivars cauliflower. The cultivars ‘Piracicaba de Verão’ and ‘Sabrina’ were considered moderately sensitive to salinity, while cultivar ‘SF1758’ was moderately tolerant to salinity.
Historically, and in the aggravating climate change scenario, droughts are increasingly severe in arid and semi-arid regions, limiting the use of irrigation. As an alternative for these regions, brackish waters have been used, despite the severe risks of soil salinization, as well as losses in crop production and quality. Thus, the adoption of adequate technologies should mitigate or control the impacts caused by salt stress. Therefore, in the present study two experiments were conducted to evaluate the cultivation of cauliflower with brackish waters using a nutrient film technique (NFT) hydroponic system from July to October 2019 (winter-spring) and from October 2019 to January 2020 (spring-summer). Cauliflower plants were subjected to six values of ECw: 0.3 - control (without NaCl), 1.5, 2.5, 3.5, 4.5, and 5.5 dS m-1 (with NaCl), in a randomized block design with six replicates. For the leaf blade area at inflorescence harvest, reductions per dS m-1 increment in ECw of 7.22 and 6.41% were found in the winter-spring and spring-summer experiments, respectively. The quality losses of cauliflower inflorescences were more pronounced in the spring-summer experiment, varying according to the ECw used. Therefore, it is possible to grow cauliflower hydroponically under ECw of up to 5.5 dS m-1; however, in the hottest seasons these waters should be reserved and used only for the preparation of nutrient solutions or replacement of water consumed by plants.
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