Optimizing Nutrient and Medium Flow in Nutrient Film Technique Hydroponics with A Microcontroller for The Growth of Red Lettuce (Lactuca sativa var. crispa)

¹ Department of Agrotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture and Animal Science, University of Muhammadiyah Malang, Indonesia
² Alumni of Soil Science Study Program, Graduate School, IPB University, Indonesia

^* Corresponding author: muhidin.61@gmail.com

Abstract

Red lettuce is cultivated using hydroponics to produce better quality and quantity, as well as efficient use of fertilizers and electricity utilization. This study aimed to find the best concentration of nutrients to support the growth of red lettuce and determine the flow time of hydroponic media that is suitable for hydroponic vegetable cultivation. The study was designed using RCBD with two treatment factors, namely nutrient concentration and medium flow time. Growth observation data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and then the multiple comparison test was conducted with the average HSD (Tukey) at a 5%. The combination of concentration treatment and nutrient flow duration had a very significant effect on plant height and the number of leaves. The treatment of nutrient concentrations had a very significant effect on plant length, number of leaves, root length, wet weight and dry weight of red lettuce. The nutrient concentration treatment with the highest growth rate was 3.0 g.L^-1, although it was not significantly different compared to the other treatments, except for 1.5 g.L^-1. This study found that all of the flow time media treatments (5, 10 or 15 minutes) gave statistically similar results on the growth of red lettuce plants in the NFT hydroponic system.