Introduction.

In Costa Rica, cultivation practices in conventional wild coriander in open field soil, make resource use inefficient and reduce quality, safety and yields; therefore, an alternative is the protected hydroponic crop.

Objective.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of protection and nutrition on water parameters: water use efficiency (WUE), crop evapotranspiration (ETc), drainage, crop coefficients (Kc) and the fresh yield of hydroponic wild coriander.

Materials and methods.

The study was conducted in 2016, at the Fabio Baudrit Moreno Agricultural Experimental Station, Alajuela, Costa Rica. It included 2 stages of a crop, stage I, in dry season protected with sarán and stage II in rainy season protected with plastic. In both stages there were 4 treatments that combined 2 environmental conditions, one with protection (CP) and the other unprotected (SP), with 2 levels of nutrition: high (NA) and low nutrient concentration (NB). A randomized 5 blocks design with bifactorial arrangement of 2 x 2 was used.

Results.

The yield was similar in CP and SP, however, a lower ETc in CP increased the WUE. The ETc was similar in both levels of nutrition, however, due to higher yield, the WUE in NA was superior. In stage I, drainage was only affected by nutrition, being lower with NB; In stage II, drainage decreased significantly with plastic roof (CP). The Kc were not affected by both factors, obtaining maximum values of 1.15 and 1.4 in stages I and II, respectively.

Conclusion.

The hydroponic cultivation system represents an excellent alternative to the conventional production system in soil and open field, since it increased the WUE, product of an appreciable reduction of the ETc under protection and a substantial increase in yields with high nutrition level.