Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

EVALUATION OF SPLIT-ROOT SYSTEM IN SHRIMP EFFLUENT-BASED SALINE AQUAPONICS FOR MANAGING SALINITY STRESS IN RED KALE (‘KX-1’) Brassica napus L. var Pabularia

Dorcas Lukwesa* Arnold Katende,  Emmanuel Ayipio,  Daniel E Wells

 

Department of Horticulture,

Auburn University

101 Funchess Hall, Auburn, AL-36849

dzl0102@auburn.edu

 



 The split-root technique  is a promising system for cultivating plants under saline conditions, facilitating the production of salt-sensitive vegetables in saline aquaponics .  While saline aquaponics typically  uses salt-tolerant plants due to high salinity levels, these plants  have not yet reached consumer acceptance. Integrating high-value vegetables like red kale could significantly enhance economic feasibility. Split-root  enables a plant to  have m ore than one  root zone environment,  which is  crucial for nutrient and water uptake under salinity stress. The system allows direct use of shrimp aquaculture effluents at high salinity levels, without dilution, avoiding reduced nutrient concentrations for plants.

 Despite its potential, there is a lack of studies on split-root application in Deep Water Culture (DWC), a prevalent aquaponics system. Thus, a study was conducted to evaluate the split-root system  in managing salinity stress in red kale within a DWC aquaponics setup based on shrimp effluent. The experiment encompassed a completely randomized design with three treatments: Hydroponics at 0 parts per thousand (ppt),  Saline  Hydroponics at 10 ppt , and Shrimp effluent at 10 ppt. Two split-root conditions, homogeneous and heterogeneous, were used to create different root environments.

The results  of the ANOVA showed significant interactions (p<0.05) among the conditions and salinity levels for size index, biomass accumulation, and plant height. Heterogeneous conditions demonstrated higher performance  at 10 ppt salinity compared to  homogeneous conditions and there were no significant differences (p>0.05) between  the saline hydroponics and  the shrimp effluent treatments.  However, in photosynthesis measurements and tissue analysis, no interactions were found between conditions, but  there  were significant differences among the salinity levels. Hydroponics (0 ppt) was significantly different (p<0.05) from  the  rest of the treatments under both  the  homogenous  and  heterogenous conditions, whereas saline hydroponics and shrimp effluent did not show significant differences (p>0.05). Th e  study highlights the effect of the split-root heterogeneous condition in managing salinity stress in red kale ,  offering valuable insights into optimizing plant growth under saline conditions while  showing  potential opportunities for further research.