Greenhouse spinach production in a NFT system.

Primed spinach (Spinacia oleracea L., cv. Nordic) seed was started in rockwool slabs in a growth room for eight days before the seedlings were transplanted into a controlled environment greenhouse equipped with five identical, but separate, NFT systems. The day and night temperatures in the greenhouse were maintained at 24 and 18 degrees C, respectively, with the daytime starting at 06:00 and ending at 22:00 hr. A photoperiod of 16 hrs was maintained, to prevent early bolting, and different target daily integrated light levels (PPF, in mol m-2 d-1) were studied to observe dry weight production. HPS lamps were used as the supplemental light source. Thirty-three days after seeding a final harvest was performed. Using the expolinear growth equation, dry weight production can be predicted based solely on target daily integrated light levels. Total chlorine residuals in the nutrient solution higher than 1 ppm were observed to be toxic. Root disease (rot) in the plant crown was found to be caused by Fusarium. Several remedies, including three biofungicides and potassium silicate, were tried but none proved to be consistently successful.