Automation System of Organic Hydroponics with Vermicompost as Nutrients Source Using Forward Chaining Method

This paper deals with the automated organic hydroponic system which uses vermicompost tea (VCT) as its main nutritional source and compares its performance with the traditional soil and conventional hydroponic methods to grow the lettuce variety of Lactuca sativa ‘Estrosa’. The system comprises pH, EC, temperature, humidity, and light intensity which are critical parameters for plant growth, using LED grow lights to optimize them. The result presents that the traditional farming method using soil yielded an average of 15. 78 leaves per plant, while the organic hydroponic system obtained 14 leaves, and the conventional hydroponic production was 13.89 leaves. The organic system, supported using LED lights, was only about 5% away from the traditional method's leaf area and 2% away from its leaf number. This signifies a successful attempt at achieving the desired growth. On the other hand, biomass production in the organic method was lower by 10% compared to the conventional system evidenced by the fresh and dry weight of 90% for the former. The shoot height in the organic system was 92% of that in soil-based traditional growing, showing both the effectiveness and the scope for improvement in the controlled conditions. Note that the VCT (vermicompost tea) concentration used in the organic hydroponic system was low compared to what is usually used in conventional hydroponics. Such lower concentrations could be responsible for the inhibition of growth or observational indicators like fresh weight and dry weight, thus, indicating an area for future experimentations.