Study On The Application Of Electrolyzed Water For The Production Of Vegetables In The Greenhouse

In order to investigate effects of the spraying methods and electrolyzed water (EW) derived from electrolyzing potassium chloride (KCl-EW) and sodium chloride solution (NaCI-EW) on the plant growth and fruit quality of tomato and cucumber in the greenhouse, and then find the appropriate waters and spraying method for the production of the tomato and cucumber. The NaCI-EW with different spraying methods, including acidic electrolyzed water (A-NaCl) and basic electrolyzed water (B-NaCl) alone, acidic electrolyzed water followed by basic electrolyzed water (A-B-NaCl) or vice versa (B-A-NaCl), and spraying of KCl-EW and NaCI-EW with the spraying method of acidic electrolyzed water followed basic electrolyzed water (A-B-KCl and A-B-NaCl) were used in tomato and cucumber, in the autumn and spring season, respectively. The plant growth and fruit quality in tomato and cucumber were determined, and the control efficiencies to cucumber powdery mildew and downy mildew were evaluated during the two growing seasons.The results showed that spraying of NaCI-EW had inconspicuous effect on the plant growth and the yield of tomato. Spraying of A-B-NaCl and A-NaCl could increase the plant dry matter, root-top ratio and soluble protein, as well as, the soluble sugar of the fruit with that treatments significantly increased by 25.3% and 25.4%, respectively, compared with tap water; A-B-NaCl treatment made the Vitamin C content of fruit enhance by 16.9% and 23.0%, respectively, compared with tap water and pesticides.A-B-KC1 and A-B-NaCl treatments had inconspicuous effect on the plant growth of tomato, but could increase the plant dry matter, root-top ratio and the yield, especially A-B-KC1 treatment; the treatments of A-B-KCl and A-B-NaCl could increased the Vitamin C content of fruit, compared with the tap water and pesticides. Acid-sugar ratio and soluble protein of fruit with A-B-KCl treatment significantly increased by 27.0% and 23.7%, respectively, compared with tap water; A-B-KCl treatment made the simple fruit weight significantly increase by 11.8% and 14,5%, respectively, compared with tap water and pesticides. The study indicated the electrolyzed water derived from electrolyzing potassium chloride with AEW followed BEW spraying method seems to be the more reasonable and applicable for the production of tomato in the greenhouse.Spraying of NaCl-EW had inconspicuous effect on the plant growth and the yield of cucumber; the leaf area of cucumber with A-B-NaCl treatment significantly increased by 11.2%, compared with tap water; A-NaCl and A-B-NaCl treatments could increase the plant dry matter, and A-NaCl could significantly increase acid-sugar ratio of cucumber, B-NaCl and A-B-NaCl treatments could enhance the soluble protein of the fruit. At 4 days after last treatment, the control efficacies of A-B-NaCl, A-NaCl and B-A-NaCl to powdery mildew were 75.1%,72.8% and 68.6%, respectively.Spraying of electrolyzed water had inconspicuous effect on the plant growth of cucumber; fruit bow height decreased, while fruit width, fruit shape index increased with the treatment of A-B-KC1, and Vitamin C content of fruit with that treatment significantly increased 9.3%and 37.6%, respectively, compared with the tap water and pesticides; significant increased acid-sugar ratio of fruit were detected in A-B-NaCl treatment. Compared with tap water, A-B-KCl and A-B-NaCl treatments made the simple fruit weight increased by 11.0%, but the total yield had inconspicuous increase. A-B-KCl and A-B-NaCl treatments could increase cucumber leaf area, compared with tap water and pesticides. At 4 days after last treatment, the control efficacies of A-B-NaCl and A-B-KCl to powdery mildew were 72.2% and 69.0%, respectively, however, their efficacies against downy mildew were 30.5% and 26.4%, respectively, significantly lower than pesticides treatment.The study indicated the electrolyzed water derived from electrolyzing potassium chloride with AEW followed BEW spraying method can be used to improve tomato and cucumber plant growth, fruit quality, and it can be a viable alternative fungicide to control cucumber powdery mildew.