PRODUÇÃO DE RÚCULA EM SISTEMA AQUAPÔNICO NO CERRADO

Abstract

The rapid population growth has stimulated the development of sustainable technologies aimed at food production. In this scenario, the aquaponics system emerges as a highlight, given that it allows to optimize the use of soil and water for food production. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the vegetative development and the arugula production in an aquaponic system, with different densities of fish in the production tanks and volume of filtering material. The experiment was carried out at the experimental station of the Instituto Federal Goiano – Campus Rio Verde – GO. The experimental design was an randomized blocks, set up in a 3 x 2 x 2 factorial scheme, with three replications, totaling 36 experimental plots. With three fish densities (20, 40 and 60 fish per box), two volumes of filter material (40 and 60 L per biofilter) in the first experiment; and (50 and 70 L per biofilter) in the second one; and two varieties of arugula (cultivated giant broadleaf and cultivated). Plant height, number of leaves, number of plants, root length, fresh mass of leaves, fresh mass of roots, dry mass of leaves and dry mass of roots were evaluated. The filter material volume of 70 L together with the stocking density of 40 fish provided the best arugula crop yield for the second experiment. Regardless of the filtering material volume used (40 and 60 L), the stocking density of 40 fish together with the cultivated arugula variety provides greater leaf fresh mass (production) in the first experiment.