Performance of Greenhouse-Grown Beit Alpha Cucumber in Pine Bark and Perlite Substrates Fertigated with Biofloc Aquaculture Effluent

Abstract

Using aquaculture effluent (AE) to fertigate plants is gaining popularity worldwide. However, in substrate-based systems, the choice of substrate is essential due to their effects on crop productivity. Differences in the retention of nutrients by substrates makes it necessary to assess suitability for use in AE. This study was conducted from January to July in 2016 and September to October in 2019 to evaluate greenhouse-grown Beit Alpha cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. ’Socrates’) performance fertigated with AE in pine bark or perlite substrates, grown either as one plant or two plants per pot. A 2 × 2 factorial arrangement in a randomized complete block design with four replications for each season was used. The substrate effect on yield in 2016 depended on the density and season. The pooled yield over seasons in 2016 showed pine bark had a significantly higher yield than perlite by 11% in one plant per pot but lowered by the same amount in two plants per pot. In 2019, pine bark significantly reduced the leachate pH in both plant densities and reduced the leachate EC by about 15% in two plants per pot. The foliar boron was occasionally below sufficiency whilst manganese was above sufficiency in pine bark due to its inherently low pH. We conclude that the effect of the substrates on cucumber yield fertigated with AE is dependent on the season and the number of plants per pot. Therefore, due to the local availability of pine bark, it could be a potential substitute for perlite especially when using one plant per pot for AE. In addition, pine bark could be used as an intermediate substrate to reduce the pH in AE for downstream use.

Optimising Soilless Culture Systems and Alternative Growing Media to Current Used Materials

“…With sustainability in mind, the performance of greenhouse beit-alpha-cucumber in pine bark and perlite fertigated with biofloc aquaculture effluent was analysed [17]. In another study, hemp fibres were used to cultivate tomato plants as an organic alternative to mineral wool [18].…”

FLOCponics: The integration of biofloc technology with plant production

“…Finally, it should be mentioned that as FLOCponics is a novel and emergent system, some papers were published after the settled literature search period for this review 176‐178 and many others are expected to be published in the next few years. It is, however, noteworthy that our group has been advancing research in this field and recently published the results of a study in which decoupled layout allowed reduction of critical issues related to FLOCponics systems, leading to similar lettuce growth and an 8% reduction in the Nile tilapia dietary crude protein compared to decoupled aquaponics using RAS 177 …”