Design of experiments methodology for improvement of lettuce seedling productivity considering growing medium, complete fertilizer, and calcium nitrate: PEBRO Agri Tagaytay Farm case

• Main Authors: Cutaran, Jozelle Mary Claire M., Encarnacion, Joan Lorraine P., Sarmiento, Mary Hazel C.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2022
• Subjects: Lettuce—Seedlings—Quality; Agricultural productivity; Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_induseng/12; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_induseng/article/1017/viewcontent/DESIGN_OF_EXPERIMENTS_METHODOLOGY_FOR_IMPROVEMENT_OF_LETTUCE_SEED_Redacted.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The hydroponics Romaine lettuce seedling production of PEBCO Agri was studied. Prior to transplanting and other succeeding processes, the target seedling length of 2 inches should be met with a 90% seedling turnout rate. With the data gathered from October 2019 to April 2021, the average seedling length and turnout rate per month resulted in 1.27 inches and 47% respectively. The low average seedling length per month leads to a low seedling turnout rate which incur a monthly expense of Php 53,611.45. It was observed that the germination rate and leggy or curled seedling are the reasons for not meeting the target height. Thus, a research was made on the factors that affect seedling production. The factors identified were humidity, temperature, pH level, electrical conductivity, light intensity, growing medium, complete fertilizer, and calcium nitrate fertilizer. Of those 8 factors, the target measures of the former 5 were found to be sufficient in contributing to the growth of the seedling according to the target length. The latter 3 were found to lack significant contribution on the growth of seedlings thus were modified according to studies that produced a positive outcome. A design of experiment was conducted involving the 3 factors with 2 different levels which formed 8 combinations of the factors with different settings. To reduce variability in experimental results, 2 replicates and a validation with 40 trays, meeting the target weekly seedling production of the company, were made. The initial experiment had the highest response at 2.0866 inches with the setting 0:1 (TS2: cocopeat) for the growing medium, 16-16-16 N-P-K breakdown for the complete fertilizer, and 2.84 grams for the calcium nitrate fertilizer. When the optimal setting was validated, the average seedling length and turnout rate resulted in 2.0741 inches and 92.5% respectively. The targets were met thus the optimal setting found was able to improve the seedling production. Moreover, the cost-benefit analysis resulted in a contribution of Php 59,438.45 every four months and Php 59,771.45 for the remaining months as new sets of fertilizers are only made and supplied every 4 months. The solution proposed will be implemented with two phases: findings and implementation of the solution, and executing full implementation.