Repeated use effort of hydroponic planting media in caisim cultivation with leaching treatment during plant maintenance

The objectives of the study were to measure the growth and production of caisim plants, amount of irrigation water used, water productivity, and the salinity of the planting media. The research was a randomized block design with 3 leaching periods, such as leaching periods every 3 days (L3), 5 days (L5), and 7 days (L7), and a control without leaching (L0). The variables observed include plant growth and production, amount of water used, EC and water productivity. Data analysis used ANOVA at a significant difference test level of 5%. The results showed that leaching has a significant effect on the production and water productivity. The leaching treatment every 7 days gave the highest caisim production (86.12 g/plant), not significantly different from the leaching treatment every 5 days, but significantly different from the leaching treatment every 3 days (66.22 g/plant) and control treatments (62.91 g/plant). The amount of nutrient consumption in all treatments was the same, that is 7.61 liters per plant. The highest average caisim water productivity was 11.32 kg/m3 in the L7 treatment and the lowest was 8.3 kg/m3 in the control treatment without leaching. The average EC of the planting media before planting in treatments L3, L5, L7, and L0 was 197.3; 161.3; 251.5; and 234.4 mS/cm respectively. After the research was completed, the average EC of the planting media decreased in the L3, L5, and L7 treatments by 16.78%, 28.52%, and 50.46% respectively, while in the treatment without leaching (L0) it increased by 114.80%.