Organic arugula production in greenhouse using high seedlings from different volumes of substrates

The objective of this study was to evaluate the productivity and economic profitability the cultivation of organic arugula in greenhouse, in function of substrate volume at seedling production. The high seedling planting evaluation occurred over different substrate volumes: 50, 100, 200, 300, and 400 cm3, in two plastic-cover protected environments, with and without anti-insect screen mech 50, using randomized blocks as experiment design with four replications and 16 plants per plot. For economic evaluation was checked the agricultural production costs, to determine profitability index (PI), net profitability (NP), total cost (TC), and average total cost (ATC), considering fixed and variable costs per treatment. The highest fresh weight and productivity were obtained when the seedlings are produced on substrate with a volume of 280.3 cm3. While the substrate with 316.5 cm3 of volume provided greater dry mass of the aerial part. The environment without side screens is the most suitable for cultivation of arugula, by presenting lower production total cost (R$ 6.63 m2), the higher net revenue (R$ 6.70 m2), and the highest profitability index 117%. The use of 200 cm3 (R$ 0.37 m2 day-1) and 100 cm3 (R$ 0.36 m2 day-1) containers produce greatest profits daily per m2 for the environment with and without anti-insect screen, respectively. With the increase in the volume of the substrate, there is anticipation in the harvest.