Abstract
Interest in hydroponic home gardening has increased in recent years. However, research is lacking on minimum inputs required to consistently produce fresh produce using small-scale hydroponic systems for noncommercial purposes. Our objectives were to 1) evaluate the effect of biweekly nutrient solution replacements (W) vs. biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O) on final growth, yield, and nutrient uptake of hydroponic tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) plants grown in a greenhouse, and 2) characterize growth over time in a greenhouse or an indoor environment using W. For each environment, ‘Bush Goliath’ tomato plants were grown for 12 weeks in 6.5-gal hydroponic systems. The experiment was replicated twice over time. In the greenhouse, plants were exposed to the following day/night temperature, relative humidity (RH), and daily light integral (DLI) in 2018 (mean ± SD): 31 ± 6/22 ± 2 °C, 67% ± 8%, and 32.4 ± 7 mol·m ‒2 ·d ‒1 ; and in 2019: 28 ± 6/22 ± 3 °C, 68% ± 5%, and 27.7 ± 6 mol·m ‒2 ·d ‒1 . For both experimental runs indoors, the day/night temperature, RH, and DLI were 21 ± 2 °C, 60% ± 4%, and 20 ± 2 mol·m ‒2 ·d ‒1 provided by broadband white light-emitting diode lamps. The W/O treatment resulted in a higher-than-desired electrical conductivity (EC) and total nutrient concentration by the end of the experiment. In addition, compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight. Nonetheless, the final concentration of all nutrients was almost completely depleted at week 12 under W, suggesting that the applied fertilizer concentration could be increased as fruiting occurs. Surprisingly, shoot biomass, leaf area, and leaf number followed a linear trend over time in both environments. Nonetheless, given the higher DLI and temperature, greenhouse-grown plants produced 4 to 5 kg more of fruit than those grown indoors, but fruit from plants grown indoors were unaffected by blossom-end-rot. Our findings indicate that recommendations for nutrient solution management strategies should consider specific crop needs, growing environments, and production goals by home gardeners.
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Claims 13
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment resulted in a higher-than-desired electrical conductivity and total nutrient concentration by the end of the experiment.
- Taxon
- Tomato
Solanum lycopersicumt0 - Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- electrical conductivity (EC) and total nutrient concentratione1
- Direction
- higher-than-desirede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e1“The W/O treatment resulted in a higher-than-desired electrical conductivity (EC) and total nutrient concentration by the end of the experiment”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment gave less leaf area than the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- leaf areae2
- Direction
- lesse2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment gave more shoot growth than the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- shoot growthe2
- Direction
- moree2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment gave less water uptake than the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- water uptakee2
- Direction
- lesse2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment gave a similar fruit number to the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- fruit numbere2
- Direction
- similare2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment increased blossom-end-rot incidence in tomato compared with the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- blossom-end-rot incidencee2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment delayed fruit ripening compared with the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- fruit ripeninge2
- Direction
- delayede2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
The W/O treatment gave lower fruit fresh weight than the W treatment.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacemente0
- Outcome
- fruit fresh weighte2
- Direction
- lowere2
- Comparator
- the W treatmente2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e0“biweekly fertilizer addition without a nutrient solution replacement (W/O)”
e2“compared with the W treatment, W/O resulted in less leaf area, more shoot growth, less water uptake, and similar fruit number—but increased blossom-end-rot incidence, delayed fruit ripening, and lower fruit fresh weight”
Claim · model-written summary
Under biweekly nutrient solution replacement, the final concentration of all nutrients was almost completely depleted at week 12.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- biweekly nutrient solution replacementse6
- Outcome
- final concentration of all nutrientse3
- Direction
- depletede3
- Qualifier
- at week 12e3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e3“the final concentration of all nutrients was almost completely depleted at week 12 under W, suggesting that the applied fertilizer concentration could be increased as fruiting occurs”
e6“biweekly nutrient solution replacements (W)”
Claim · model-written summary
The applied fertilizer concentration could be increased as fruiting occurs.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- the applied fertilizer concentration could be increasede3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e3“the final concentration of all nutrients was almost completely depleted at week 12 under W, suggesting that the applied fertilizer concentration could be increased as fruiting occurs”
Claim · model-written summary
Shoot biomass, leaf area and leaf number followed a linear trend over time in both environments.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Outcome
- shoot biomass, leaf area, and leaf numbere4
- Qualifier
- followed a linear trend over timee4
- Setting
- both environmentse4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e4“Surprisingly, shoot biomass, leaf area, and leaf number followed a linear trend over time in both environments”
Claim · model-written summary
Greenhouse-grown tomato plants produced 4 to 5 kg more fruit than plants grown indoors.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- greenhouse-grown plantse5
- Outcome
- fruite5
- Direction
- moree5
- Value
- 4 to 5 kge5
- Comparator
- those grown indoorse5
- Setting
- greenhousee5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e5“greenhouse-grown plants produced 4 to 5 kg more of fruit than those grown indoors, but fruit from plants grown indoors were unaffected by blossom-end-rot”
Claim · model-written summary
Fruit from tomato plants grown indoors was unaffected by blossom-end-rot, unlike greenhouse-grown plants.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicumt0
- Treatment
- plants grown indoorse5
- Outcome
- blossom-end-rote5
- Direction
- unaffectede5
- Comparator
- greenhouse-grown plantse5
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“on Tomato in Small-scale Hydroponics”
e5“greenhouse-grown plants produced 4 to 5 kg more of fruit than those grown indoors, but fruit from plants grown indoors were unaffected by blossom-end-rot”
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