Availability Verification of Effluent from BFT Inland Aquaculture for Urban Agricultural Fertilizer through Cherry Tomato Cultivation

Urban Farm DB summary

This study examined effluent water from biofloc technology (BFT) inland aquaculture as a resource-recycling substitute for conventional chemical fertilizer in urban agriculture, using cherry tomato cultivation. Tomato seedlings transplanted into nutrient-free horticultural soil were grown for 8 weeks under five treatments: control, hyponex solution (HS), slow-released fertilizer (SF), daily effluent water (DE), and weekly effluent water (WE). Growth characteristics differed significantly among treatments except for root length: plant length ranked HS=WE greater than DE=SF greater than control, and stem diameter ranked DE=SF greater than WE=HS greater than control, with no significant difference between HS and WE in shoot length/diameter or between DE and SF; leaf number was significantly higher in HS, DE and WE than in SF and control. Fruit sugar content showed no significant difference among treatments except the control, but fruit weight and yield were significantly higher in HS and WE than in DE and SF. The study concludes that the use of effluent water is comparable to conventional chemical fertilizer for urban agricultural cultivation.