Combination of fresh and brackish waters for hydroponic lettuce production

Plants of crisphead lettuce cv. Veronica were grown under hydroponic conditions aiming to evaluate two types of combination of brackish and fresh waters: using the brackish waters to prepare nutrient solution (NS) and fresh water to replace the evapotranspiration loss (ETc) (Experiment I) and using the fresh water to prepare NS and the brackish waters to replace the ETc loss (Experiment II). A research structure was built up with 40 experimental units which simulated the nutrient film technique (NFT). The levels of water salinity were 0.585; 1.17; 1.755; 2.925 and 4.095 g L-1 NaCl. The lettuce yield (fresh shoot matter) decreased 10.9 and 3.91% for each unit increase in water salinity (g L-1 NaCl) in Experiments I and II, respectively. According to results obtained with the two types of combination of fresh and brackish waters, the use of brackish waters to replace ETc loss may increase the lettuce yield in comparison to using these waters to prepare the NS.