High Nutrient Concentrations of Hydroponic Solution Can Improve Growth and Nutrient Uptake of Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) Grown in Acidic Nutrient Solution

Hydroponic leafy green production offers high productivity and quality of crops but requires good management of pH and electrical conductivity (EC) to optimize the nutrient uptake. Nutrient solution pH is typically managed between 5.5 and 6.5, whereas lowering pH to more acidic range (e.g., −1) significantly improved but was still lower than those in the control (pH 5.5 and EC 1.4 dS·m−1), respectively. Plant tissue analysis showed that lowering pH to 4.5 significantly reduced tissue concentrations of P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Cu, Mn, and Zn compared with those in the control. Under low pH and increased EC treatment (pH 4.5 and EC 3.4 dS·m−1), all dry leaf nutrient concentrations were similar or higher than those of the control, except Mg and Zn, which showed a lower concentration than the control with a weak significance (P < 0.06). This suggests that additional optimization of nutrient formula might further improve the spinach growth at low pH. Together, our results will help to develop a new and low-cost nutrient management methodology to produce leafy greens hydroponically.