THE IMPORTANCE OF CUCUMBER SEEDLING IRRIGATION BY MEANS OF NUTRIENT SOLUTION

Abstract

Due to their fast growth, young seedlings have high nutrient requirements. Modern seedling production systems, particularly those with the protected root system, recommend the increased frequency of nutrient application during the process. The optimal continuous nutrient availability is primarily provided by irrigating young plants using the appropriate nutrient solution concentration. The research conducted at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Belgrade included cucumber seedlings, while its aims were to underline the impact of seedling fertilisation on the seedling quality and to find the optimal nutrient solution concentration for irrigating seedlings. The cucumber seedlings (Darina F1) were grown in grow chambers at day/night intervals of 14/10h and air temperature of 25/18oC. The seedlings were grown in 9-cm diameter pots (Teku), filled with the substrate TKS 1 (Floragard). After sprouting, the seedlings were irrigated using different nutrient solution concentrations of Fitofert Humistart fertiliser: 0.1%, 0.3%, 0.6% and 1%. The control variant was irrigated using pure water. The seedling period lasted for 22 days (after sprouting), after which the seedling quality was determined by measuring the plant height and stem height, stem diameter, leaf number, leaf surface per plant, as well as plant fresh weight. The cucumber seedlings grown in the control variant had a statistically significantly smaller plant height, stem height and stem diameter, a smaller leaf number and lower plant fresh weight. The seedling variants which were continuously irrigated using only the nutrient solution had the measured quality parameters which did not show statistically significant differences between the variants. On the basis of this research, it can be concluded that the seedling irrigation by means of nutrient solution had a positive effect on the seedling quality. Including the economic point of view, the recommended concentration of nutrient solution is 0.1%.