Improving water/fertilizer use efficiency of hydroponically cultured greenhouse cucumber by grafting and hydrogel amendment

Soilless culture of greenhouse vegetables has been a fast developing section in Iran during recent years. Most growers use hydroponics systems with artificial substrates. Some of the used substrates have low water retention which results in wasting a great deal of solution. On the other hand, low vigor of cucumber root in water and fertilizer absorption, especially in low media temperatures causes decrease of absorption and yield as well as appearing deficiency symptoms. In this research we studied effect of hydrogel amendment and Cucurbita pepo. Rootstock on hydroponicaly cultured greenhouse cucumber. Results showed that incorporating hydrogel into media could improve perlit physical properties and increased it’s water holding capacity. This condition could also decrease leaching fraction and increase yield and water/ fertilizer use efficiency. Furthermore, grafted plants grown in non-amendment substrates had higher yield and water/ fertilizer use efficiency compared to non grafted ones.