HYDROPONIC GROWING OF LETTUCE (Lactuca sativa L.) AND PRODUCTION OF BIOORGANIC LIQUID FERTILIZER FROM CHICKEN MANURE AND ONION PEELS.

Abstract

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is one of the most popular leafy salad vegetables for fresh consumption and containhealth-promoting compounds.Hydroponic method is a techniques of cultivation plants using bioorganic liquid fertilizer without soil and is more important than soil because of efficient resourcesmanagement and quality food production. This study,wasaimed to produce bioorganic liquid fertilizer from fermented of fresh chicken manure and onion peels that can be used for hydroponic growing of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.). Bioorganic liquid fertilizerwas obtained from co-fermented offresh chicken manure and onion peels in the open container.The composition of macronutrients was analyzed in the organic liquid fertilizer. Additionally, the quality of organic liquid fertilizer was evaluated. The results indicated that the N, P, K, Mg, Ca, C and Na content of the bioorganic liquid fertilizer amounted to 3.75%, 2.4%, 4.13%, 6.4%, 3.34%, 49.8% and 2.85%) respectively. On the other hand analysis of the quality of the bioorganic liquid fertilizer revealed that the C:N, pH, EC were 13.29%, 7.28 and 0.69dS/m respectively. Furthermore, for comparison purpose the composition as well as the quality of compost tea were also analyzed. The results indicated that compost tea contained 2.61%, 1.07%, 2.90%, 3.67%, 2.64%, 20.07%,2.34% N,P,K,Mg,Ca,C and Na respectively, while its quality was indicated by 7.70%,5.65,0.32dS/m C:N, pH, EC, respectively. In the pot culture experiments lettuce seeds were germinate on sawdust. In the pot culture experiments the lettuce planted treated withbioorganicliquid fertilizer on sawdust and soilmeasuredshowed(85.87, 11.5, 56.35, 70.5 and 71.71, 9.5 46.25, 69) BMW, NLP, HWP, DM, respectively. On the other hand lettuce cultivated by using compost tea on sawdust and soil showed that (55.95, 7.5, 44.9,79.5 and 48.6, 6.5, 37.4,82) BWP,NLP, HWP, DM, respectively. Bioorganic liquid fertilizer contains high composition of plant macronutrients that improve lettuce yields.It is recommended that farmers should cultivate lettuce plant on hydroponic system to get high yield by usingbioorganic liquid fertilizer produced from fresh chicken manure and onion peels.