An optimum management of the nutrient solution in hydroponics needs the predicition of electrical conductivity (EC) of the nutrient solution. But theoretical predicition of EC of the solution containing many kinds of inorganic compounds like the nutrient solution has been impossible because of the complex interactions among ions. By considering EC decrement caused by the interactions approximately, two experimental equations (2) and (3) for predicting EC of the nutrient solution in hydroponics were developed. Parameters of the equations (2) and (3) were calculated statistically using the measured ECs(
f) and ion concentrations of 180 kinds of nutrient solutions (0.5-6.0 mS/cm). Finally, the equations (2) and (3) were evaluated using the six samples of nutrient solutions and good agreements were obtained between the measured ECs (
fs) and the predicted ECs (
f1 and
f2) with the precision errors of ±4.1 and ±6.2%, respectively.
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