Effect of hydroponically grown substrates on fodder production under protected environment

Paper Details

Research Paper 01/10/2019
Views (580) Download (83)
current_issue_feature_image
publication_file

Effect of hydroponically grown substrates on fodder production under protected environment

Sohail Raza Haidree, Zia-Ul-Haq, Muhammad Usman, Shahid Javed Butt, Talha Mehmood
Int. J. Biosci.15( 4), 448-453, October 2019.
Certificate: IJB 2019 [Generate Certificate]

Abstract

Fodder plays an important role in livestock feed to providing required nutrients for milk and meat production. Mostly wheat-grass is cultivated for its seeds, a cereal grain worldwide used as staple food. In Pakistan year-round fodder availability is very important especially in slack period. Hydroponic is an improved method to grow wheat-fodder without soil by using nutrients water in soilless substrate. The process of growing wheat-fodder hydroponically allows the control of climatic conditions for optimum growth. In hydroponics agriculture, only two weeks are required for the production of wheat-grass due its fast growing habit under protected environment. Keeping in view the importance of fodder, an experiment was conducted at Hydroponic Research Station Rawat, Institute of Hydroponic Agriculture (IHA), PMAS Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi. Nine plastic trays (0.3×0.15×0.076 m) were selected in the experiment with three different types of substrates i.e. coco, pasteurized soil and sand were used to grow wheat-fodder. One plants cluster was selected from each tray and data recorded for various crop growth parameters like germination rate, cluster height, number of tillers, root length, fresh weight and dry weight was statistical analyzed by using Complete Randomized Design (CRD). It was concluded from the study that coco proved to be a better substrate as compared to sand and pasteurized soil.

VIEWS 43

Butt SJ, Servet Varis. 1999. Production of Strawberry in different growing media in cold glasshouse (in Turkish). HASAD, Istanbul 14, 32-35.

Caballero R, Ordovas J, Pajuelo P, Carmona E, Delgado A. 2007. Iron chlorosis in gerbera as related to properties of various types of compost used as growing media. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 38, 2357-2369.

Carmona E, Moreno MT, Aviles M, Ordovas J. 2012. Use of grape marc compost as substrate for vegetable seedlings. Science Horticulture 137, 69-74.

Ceglie FG, Elshafie H, Verrastro V, Tittarelli F. 2011. Evaluation of olive pomace and green waste composts as peat substitutes for organic tomato seedling production. Compost Sci Util 19(4), 293-300.

Christie E. 2014. Water and nutrient reuse within closed hydroponic systems.

Chung TY, Nwokolo EN, Sim JS. 1989. Compositional and digestibility changes in sprouted barley and canola seeds. Plant Foods for Human Nutrition 39(3), 267-278.

Clemmensen AW. 2004. Physical characteristics of Miscanthus composts compared to peat and wood fiber growth substrates. Compost Sci Util 12(3), 219-224.

Fazaeli H, Golmohammadi HA, Tabatabayee SN, Tabrizi M. 2012. Productivity and nutritive value of barley green fodder yield in hydroponic system. World Applied Sciences Journal 16(4), 531-539.

Heins BJ, Paulson JC, Jones H. 2015. Evaluation of forage quality of five grains for use in sprouted fodder production systems for organic dairy cattle. Journal of Dairy Science 98.

Jayasinghe GY, Arachchi IDL, Tokashiki Y. 2010. Evaluation of containerized substrates developed from cattle manure compost and synthetic aggregates for ornamental plant production as a peat alternative. Resour Conserv Recycl 54(12), 1412-1418.

Kubota C, Chia P, Yang Z, Li Q. 2012. Applications of far-red light emitting diodes in plant production under controlled environments. International Symposium on Advanced Technologies and Management towards Sustainable Greenhouse Ecosystems 952, 59-66.

Maxwell Salinger. 2013. Grass fed beef.

Naik PK, Gaikwad SP, Gupta MJ, Dhuri RB, Dhumal GM, Singh NP. 2013. Low cost devices for hydroponics fodder production. Indian Dairyman 65(10), 68-72.

Naik PK, Swain BK, Singh NP. 2015. Production and utilization of hydroponics fodder. Indian Journal of Animal Nutrition 32(1), 1-9.

Nair A, Ngouajio M, Biernbaum J. 2011. Alfalfa-based organic amendment in peat-compost growing medium for organic tomato transplant production. Hort Science 46, 253-259.

Nichols M. 2013. Coir Sustainable Growing Media. Available online: http://cocopeatcompany. com/ report/ 1475602985.pdf.

Olle M, Ngouajio M, Siomos A. 2012. Vegetable quality and productivity as influenced by growing medium: a review. Žemdirbystė Agriculture  99(4), 399-408.

Quintero M, Gonzalez C, Guzman J. 2011. Sustratos it for crop hortícolas and flowers shear. Sustratos, handling of wheater, automation and checkpoint in sys of growing without\  soil. College Domestic of Colombia, Bogota 79-108.

Savvas D, Gruda N. 2018. Application of soilless culture technologies in the modern greenhouse industry—A review. Eur. J. Hortic. Sci 83, 280-293.

Wetherell D. 1988. Hormonal regulation of wheat growth during hydroponic culture. John F. Kennedy space center University of central Florida Report 446.