A Decision Support System to optimise fertigation management in greenhouse crops

Optimal operation of greenhouse crops requires an appropriate management of fertigation, especially when the availability and/or the quality of irrigation water are limited and/or there are environmental constraints, such as those derived from Nitrate Directive in Europe. The paper illustrates the main features of a decision support system (DSS) for the fertigation management in soilless culture, which is still under development in the framework of the European research project EUPHOROS. The DSS modules provide information on the optimal irrigation regime (based on the static hydrological properties of the growing medium) and on crop water and nutrients requirements (including both plant uptake and leaching requirement in open and semi-closed growing systems). An easy-to-use nutrient solution calculator and an extendable crop database have been integrated in the DSS. The DSS can assist the grower in daily operational management of fertigation as well as for off-line (prior-to-planting) simulation, for instance to compare - in terms of water and nutrients use efficiency - different fertigation strategies, growing system layouts, water qualities and/or crop species (analysis of the scenario). An example of such simulation is provided for tomato grown under saline conditions.