Soilless culture in controlled environment: Mechanisms of recovering crop production of the salt affected lands due to seawater intrusion

Seawater intrusion in Al-Batinah region, the largest agricultural area in Oman, has played a key role in soil salinization, which resulted in the abandonment of the vast majority of agricultural lands and contributed to the disruption of crop production. This study analyzes two combined mechanisms, using soilless culture in a controlled environment agriculture structure, as an option to overcome the soil salinity problem and recover the crop production of these lands. Cucumber crops were planted in two different growing media; soil (SS) and soilless culture consisting of wood straw (WS). Both growing media were placed in two different controlled environment structures; a greenhouse and a screenhouse. In greenhouse structure, the leaf area index (LAI) of cucumber plants in WS and SS were close to each other whereas the crop water requirements (ETc) for cucumbers planted in the WS were less than those planted in SS with an average of 2.3 and 2.6 mm/day respectively. Cucumbers planted in WS produced yield faster than those planted in SS. The WS planted cucumber produced 22 kg/m2 whereas the SS planted cucumbers produced 26 kg/m2. In screenhouse, the average LAI were 1.0 and 1.3 for cucumbers planted in the WS and in the SS respectively. The ETc of cucumbers planted in the WS were less than those planted in SS by 0.2 mm/day. Similar to greenhouse, cucumbers planted in WS produced yield faster than those planted in SS. The WS cucumber plants produced a yield of 22 kg/m2 whereas the SS planted cumbers produced a yield of 31 kg/m2. These results provide promising solution of recovering the crop production in salt affected lands due to seawater intrusion.