ISHS Acta Horticulturae 35: Symposium on Water Supply under Glass and Plastics
IV. SOURCES AND QUALITY OF THE IRRIGATION WATER - THE EFFECT OF SALINE IRRIGATION WATER ON SOME VEGETABLES UNDER GLASS |
| Authors: | C. Sonneveld, J. van Beusekom |
| Abstract:
For vegetables grown in greenhouses it is necessary to have available irrigation water with a low salt content. Already between 1934 and 1945 in The Netherlands investigations were made on the influence of sodium chloride in the irrigation water. Besides sodium chloride, however, other salts play an important part in the salinisation of greenhouse soils. For this reason there was need of investigations in which both the sodium chloride content and the electrical conductivity could be tested and then used as standards for the quality of the irrigation water. In 1966 such a series of investigations was started at the Experiment Station at Naaldwijk. During the last years a great number of crops were investigated. The results for lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and spinach are discussed. If the electrical conductivity of the irrigation water was increased with 1 mmho/cm (25° C) the yields of lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers decreased 4, 7 and 14 per cent, respectively. The spinach yields did not show any difference. Sometimes crop quality was affected adversely. In case of lettuce, for instance, addition of sodium chloride to the irrigation water greatly increased the occurence of tipburn. In the investigation attention was also paid to soil and leaf analysis. It was found that the uptake of several nutrients was influenced by the salt content of the irrigation water | |
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