Aquaculture America 2024

February 18 - 21, 2024

San Antonio, Texas

PETUNIA GROWTH RESPONSE TO CONTAINER SUBSTRATE AMENDED WITH DEWATERED AQUACULTURE EFFLUENT AND TWO DIFFERENT SOURCES OF WATER

Jason Danaher *, Jeremy M. Pickens, Jeffrey L. Sibley, Jesse A. Chappell, Terrill R. Hanson, Claude E. Boyd, and Huy  K. Tran

Aquatic Equipment and Design, Inc.

 30924 Suneagle Drive Suite #210

Mount Dora, FL 32757

 



 This experiment evaluated petunia Petunia × hybrida ‘Celebrity’ growth response to amended commercial potting mix (F3B) with increased amounts (0%, 5%, 10%, 25% or 50  % container volume) of dewatered aquaculture effluent (AE) . Petunias were fertigated with  either  a  20N–4.4P–16.6K  water soluble fertilizer at 250 mg/ L nitrogen  or  municipal water. The experiment was a completely randomized 2 × 5 factorial design with eight single-pot replications per treatment. At 39 days after planting, a significant (P ≤ 0.05) substrate and water interaction existed for petunia growth index, bloom count, fresh weight, and dry weight. The 100% F3B, 5% AE, and 10% AE substrates benefited with a significantly (P ≤ 0.05) greater bloom count , fresh weight , and dry weight when fertigation was used; however, the water source had no effect on petunia bloom count , fresh weight , or dry weight for  substrate amended with greater than  25% AE. Fertigating substrates amended with 25% or greater AE did not improve petunia growth. W hen applying municipal water  to the containerized petunias , fresh weight and dry weight were the greatest  in treatments amended with 25% AE. Results demonstrate a farmer operating a freshwater, recirculating aquaculture system and treating their discharged effluent with geotextile technology for horticulture production  could replace a  commercial potting mix with dewatered aquaculture effluent at 25% container volume and not have to fertigate with a water soluble fertilizer to obtain a marketable plant.