• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.444-451
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• 2022

Recently, long-term cultivation is becoming more common with the increase in tomato hydroponics. In hydroponics, it is very important to supply an appropriate nutrient solution considering the nutrient and moisture requirements of crops, in terms of productivity, resource use, and environmental conservation. Since seasonal environmental changes appear severely in long-term cultivation, it is so critical to manage irrigation control considering these changes. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effect of irrigation volume on growth and yield in tomato long-term cultivation using coir substrate. The irrigation volume was adjusted at 4 levels (high, medium high, medium low and low) by different irrigation frequency. Irrigation scheduling (frequency) was controlled based on solar radiation which measured by radiation sensor installed outside the greenhouse and performed whenever accumulated solar radiation energy reached set value. Set value of integrated solar radiation was changed by the growing season. The results revealed that the higher irrigation volume caused the higher drainage rate, which could prevent the EC of drainage from rising excessively. As the cultivation period elapsed, the EC of the drainage increased. And the lower irrigation volume supplied, the more the increase in EC of the drainage. Plant length was shorter in the low irrigation volume treatment compared to the other treatments. But irrigation volume did not affect the number of nodes and fruit clusters. The number of fruit settings was not significantly affected by the irrigation volume in general, but high irrigation volume significantly decreased fruit setting and yield of the 12-15th cluster developed during low temperature period. Blossom-end rot occurred early with a high incidence rate in the low irrigation volume treatment group. The highest weight fruits was obtained from the high irrigation treatment group, while the medium high treatment group had the highest total yield. As a result of the experiment, it could be confirmed the effect of irrigation amount on the nutrient and moisture stabilization in the root zone and yield, in addition to the importance of proper irrigation control when cultivating tomato plants hydroponically using coir substrate. Therefore, it is necessary to continue the research on this topic, as it is judged that the precise irrigation control algorithm based on root zone-information applied to the integrated environmental control system, will contribute to the improvement of crop productivity as well as the development of hydroponics control techniques.