Under-cover soilless cultivation is an important technique of crop production. Due to the lack of contact with soil and precipitation, the root system of crops grown must be provided with water and all necessary nutrients in the form of a solution (nutrient medium). This nutrient medium needs to be fed in excess to ensure proper plant development and the expected qualitative and quantitative parameters of the crop yield, which means that in the case of, e.g., tomato cultivation, 20–80% of the supplied medium must be removed from the root system and managed. Uncontrolled discharge of this drainage water poses a significant threat to the environment, causing contamination of surface waters and groundwaters. The article presents the latest solutions for drainage water management as well as technologies and systems that allow saving water and fertilizers, and thus recovering elements. It also characterizes methods deployed for the treatment of overflow that enable its recirculation, its re-use for fertilization of other less demanding crops (including soil crops), and its final management in the form of a discharge to the natural environment. Due to depleting resources of adequate-quality water, increase in the prices of mineral fertilizers, and depletion of natural phosphorus deposits, the future trends in water and nutrients management in this cropping system aim at closing circuits of drainage water and recovering elements before their discharge into the natural environment. These measures are expected not only to protect the natural environment but also to reduce the costs of crop production.

This manuscript presents results of a study on sorption effectiveness of orthophosphate and nitrate III and V in an equimolar mixture of P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3 using chitosan in the form of hydrogel beads. Analyses were carried out for: the effect of pH on sorption intensity of orthophosphate and of nitrate III and V onto chitosan, sorption kinetics onto chitosan, and the maximum sorption capacity of P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3 by chitosan in a mixture.The most effective sorption of P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3 was observed at pH 4. In turn, at pH 6–11 the sorption of orthophosphate and nitrate onto chitosan proved ineffective. P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3 sorption kinetics was best described by the pseudo-second order model. The model of intraparticle diffusion fitting to experimental data demonstrated that the process of orthophosphate and nitrate sorption onto chitosan proceeded in 2 phases, i.e. 1 – adsorption and 2 – absorption.A phenomenon of the partial release of P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3 after a specified period of time was observed in the study, which was due to a change in solution pH induced by the sorbent. The period after which desorption occurred was 120min in the case of phosphates and 60min in the case of nitrates III and V. The quantity of bound sorbate (a mixture of orthophosphate and nitrate) was the highest in the 60th minute of sorption.The study demonstrated evident competition between H2PO4−, NO2− and NO3− ions. The affinity of orthophosphate and nitrate to the sorption centers of chitosan could be ordered as follows: P–PO4>N–NO2>N–NO3. Sorption equilibrium isotherms were best described by a heterogeneous Langmuir’s model. In the equimolar mixture of P–PO4, N–NO2 and N–NO3, the sorption capacity of 1g of chitosan reached 0.507mmol H2PO4−/g, 0.373mmol NO2−/g and 0.350mmol NO3−/g, which means a total of 1.23mmol nutrients