Cultivation in substrate has expanded considerably among farmers, but studies are still scarce for many crops. This research was developed at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, in Mossoró, Brazil, to evaluate the yield of gherkin plants cultivated in coconut fiber and fertigated with different nutrient solutions. We used a completely randomized design with seven treatments and four replications. Treatments consisted of different nutrient solutions, based on the recommended solutions for melon and cucumber for the NFT hydroponic system. Three solutions were defined from the recommended solution for melon (S1: 50%, S2: 100% and S3: 150%), three solutions based on recommendations for cucumber plants (S4: 50%, S5: 100% and S6: 150%), and a solution obtained from the average values of nutrient solutions for melon and cucumber plants (S7: average value of S2 and S5). Five harvests were carried out at weekly intervals, the first 60 days after sowing. We evaluated the yield parameters: number of fruits per plant, mean fruit mass, transversal and longitudinal diameters and fruit production per plant. Cultivating gherkin plants on substrate with fertigations is potentially interesting using recommended nutrient solution corresponding to 100% of the recommendation for melon or greater than 50% the solution concentration for the cucumber.
Cucumis anguria; soiless culture; mineral nutrition.
