Morphophysiological study of cucumber in a hydroponic system with different media.

Althought there is no soil in a hydroponic system , the plants must still be anchored . there is a wide range of inert materials wich can be used to support plants roots and we call them growing mediums. Six growing mediums were used in a hydrponic system as fallow: 1) River sand (Sa) 2) perlit ( diam.=/75- 1/5mm) (Pl) 3) Perlit ( diamo = /5- /75 mm ) (Ps) 4) vermy compost ( C ) 5) mixture of field soil & Saw dust (60/40 respectively ) (w) 6) field Soil (So) . Seeds of cucumer var ( Kian1571 ) were germinated in small pots then,first were transferred to the main media , in the pots with 5 Lit , Capacity ( hight= 20 cm , diam= 20 cm ).Each pot contained one plant. A randomised complete block design (RCBD) with 4 replicates was used. Yield, fruit number, height, leaf number, root density, and Relative Water Content (RWC) were measured. The pots containing SA,C, and PL showed higher ability for plant growth than the others. Their yield was 150302, 2240, and 2124 g/pot respectively while field soil medium yield was 934 g/pot. The trend for other morepholoyical and physioloyical caractors were similar to Yield. Higher macroporesity helped the plants developed higher root density. Therefore it made them to be able the absorb water and nutrition successfully, The root density of plants in river sand was 253040m/m while plants root density in C, Pl, So, Ws and Ps was 65.7.55.1, 283,.23.6, and 0.2 Rercent of SA respectively . Relative water content of plants at down and midday was not different for all growing medum which indicates the desirable efficiency of watering system used in the Experiment. RWC was significantly different at dawn (70%) and midday. (78%) River sand and PL medias were more successful than others, to grow plant and watering mangement was easier by using them but scince river sand is more available and cheeper than Pl , It seems to be more favorable to use rever sand rather than Pl. Vermicompost has nutrition and contains organic materials. Therefore it&rsquos utilization has lower risk than the others when nutrient solution management is difficult for nonexperienced producers.