DIFFERENT SOILLESS CULTURE SYSTEMS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Soilless culture is growing plants without use of soil as a rooting medium, and divided into water culture and substrate culture. Among the water culture techniques, float hydroponics is adopted for the cultivation of fresh-cut leafy vegetables and aromatic plants. Substrate culture by using plastic bags has been applied successfully at commercial level for fruiting vegetables. Production scale, crops, growing cycles and length of each cycle, cost and management skills should be considered as well as environmental concerns in the decision of soilless culture system. Therefore, closed loop systems have gained importance for increasing sustainability in soilless cultivation. This presentation aims to summarize different soilless culture systems and the potential of their use in vegetable production.