Potentials of Home-made Concoction as Nutrient Solution in a Modified Hydroponic System

Abstract

A Hydroponic System is a technique that is widely used in Agriculture especially in growing plants in urban areas. A study was conducted to determine the responses of lettuce grown under a modified hydroponic system to different organic solutions at Cebu Technological University – Barili Campus, Philippines.
The treatments used in the study are T0 – commercial organic amino acid, T1 – Home-made concoction, T2 – Inorganic fertilizer and T3 - coconut water. Results showed that on the number of leaves, lettuces that were applied with home–made concoction had 10.13% and 15.23% more leaves than inorganic fertilizer and commercial organic amino acid applied treatments respectively (4^th week). No significant difference were observed among commercial organic amino acid, home-made concoction and inorganic fertilizer, in terms of leaf length from the 2^nd week to 4^th week having. Furthermore, comparable results were observed between lettuce applied with home-made concoction and inorganic fertilizer on its leaf width on the 2^nd week having 7.03 cm and 6.30 cm respectively. Moreover, comparable effects were also observed on commercial organic amino acid and home-made concoction in plant height having an average length of 17.03 cm and 17.00 cm, respectively. At harvesting, lettuces that were applied with home-made concoction had the heaviest weight having 43.23 g or 20.12% heavier than those applied with commercial organic amino acid and 23.67% heavier than inorganic fertilizer. Therefore, the home-made concoction is the best organic nutrient source in growing lettuce in a modified hydroponic system.