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Indian Journal of Pure & Applied Biosciences (IJPAB)
Year : 2020, Volume : 8, Issue : 1
First page : (337) Last page : (343)
Article doi: : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2582-2845.7992

Logical Circuit for Fertigating Cucumis sativus L. in a Polyhouse

Anjaly C. Sunny* and Abdul Hakkim, V. M.**
*M.Tech Student and **Professor and Head, Department of Land and Water Resources and Conservation Engineering (LWRCE), KCAET (Kerala Agricultural University), Tavanur (P.O.),
Malappuram (Dt.), Kerala – 679573
*Corresponding Author E-mail: anjalycsunny@gmail.com
Received: 7.01.2020  |  Revised: 12.02.2020   |  Accepted: 19.02.2020 

 ABSTRACT

Automated fertigation system is a highly advanced system for water and fertilizer administration in irrigated agriculture. It promises the application of water in right quantity along with right fertilizer at right time, thereby reducing fertilizer loss and cost of labour resulting in saving of money with the help of an automated mechanism. The present study was undertaken to develop a timer based automated fertigation system using an FIP and to evaluate the performance of the system. Field evaluation of the developed automated fertigation system was carried out by growing salad cucumber variety ‘Saniya’ in grow bags inside a poly house located at Agricultural Research Station, Anakkayam, Malappuram, Kerala. Comparative evaluation was carried out between biometric observations and yield parameters of the two sets of crop grown inside the polyhouse, one fertigated automatically with the developed system and the other one fertigated using venturi injector. The crop growth parameters like height of the plant, days to first flowering, days to 50 percentage flowering, days to initial budding, days to first harvest and leaf area index and yield parameters viz. size of the fruit, number of fruits harvested per plant and average yield were recorded during the study. Data collected was subjected to statistical scrutiny viz., ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) and Student-t test. Values of all these parameters were found to be better for the crops grown with automated fertigation system compared to venture injector. The developed system operates using solar panel generating a power of 250 W on an average along with a battery, which makes the system operations possible up to 4.4 days, during periods without sunshine. Hence it can be concluded that the developed automated fertigation system can ensure better yield for salad cucumber variety ‘Saniya’ grown inside the polyhouse.

Keywords: Biometric observations, Cucumber, FIP, Irrigation, Solar, Timer, Yield parameters.

Full Text : PDF; Journal doi : http://dx.doi.org/10.18782

Cite this article: Sunny, A.C. & Abdul Hakkim, V.M. (2020). Logical Circuit for Fertigating Cucumis sativus L. in a Polyhouse, Ind. J. Pure App. Biosci. 8(1), 337-343. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.18782/2582-2845.7992