Strategies to decrease water drainage and nitrate emission from soilless cultures of greenhouse tomato

In the spring-summer season of 2005 and 2006, we explored the influence of three fertigation strategies (A–C) on the water and nitrogen use efficiency of semi-closed rockwool culture of greenhouse tomato conducted using saline water (NaCl concentration of 9.5 mol m−3). The strategies under comparison were the following: (A) crop water uptake was compensated by refilling the mixing tank with nutrient solution at full strength (with the concentrations of macronutrients equal or close to the corresponding mean uptake concentrations as determined in previous studies) and the recirculating nutrient solution was flushed out whenever its electrical conductivity (EC) surpassed 4.5 dS m−1 due to the…