In parallel with world population growth, demand for healthy and clean agricultural products is increasing day by day. To satisfy expected increases in agricultural products within traditional ...methods becomes more and more difficult, considering the climate change and soil degradation. There is a need to adopt and develop innovative agricultural practices. One of the most effective and new methods that can be used is Aeroponics. Aeroponics is a process of growing plants, within a controlled environment, in the absence of soil, with a small amount of water, using a minimum area of 3-dimensional greenhouse farming, where the cultivation period, compared to the traditional, is faster and prolonged throughout the year. Regarding this matter, we find it reassuring, that Georgian companies are not lagging behind the current global processes and are actively involved in refining or developing the Aeroponics system.
The advantages of Aeroponics over the traditional method (Geoponics) can be classified as follows:
• Requires less water.
• Plant fertility does not depend on soil quality, or weather conditions. moreover, soil is not required at any stage of plant vegetation.
• Has the highest vegetation per square meter compared to all other existing methods (Geoponics, Hydroponics), which is due to the possibility of 3-dimensional farming in Aeroponics.
• Reduces transportation cost, since greenhouses can be organized directly in the cities and in urban areas.
• The plans can be planted all year round regardless of meteorological conditions and seasonality.
• Since nutrients and minerals are systematically provided to the plants’ roots, the process of its growth and consequently fertility lasts longer than the traditional method.
As for disadvantages of using Aeroponics can be summarize as following:
• At the beginning stage, set up costs of all components for the Aeroponics are relatively high.
• Aeroponics requires specialized knowledge not only regarding the needs for plants, but also of the whole electronic systems and tools, which are widely used in Aeronautics (for example: pH / EC / humidity meter, timers, high pressure atomizers, etc.)
• Even minor mistakes can have negative effect. Specifically, if the plants do not get exactly as many vital minerals as needed, they will not survive. As already mentioned, soil is not used in Aeronautics which would neutralize excess minerals or nutrients.
In conclusion, Aeroponics is the one of the most innovative and efficient ways of farming, which promises sustainable future production of the agricultural products. Furthermore, Aeroponics has minimal or no negative impact on the environment, while traditional farming uses water and land resources insufficiently.
Nitrogen (N) is an essential nutrient for plant growth and tuber yield in potato. Its excess application is harmful for environment, and therefore dissecting traits involved in improving nitrogen use ...efficiency (NUE) and yield is essential to address them. This study was conducted to analyze variation in 56 Indian potato varieties at optimal N concentration (2 milli molar) under aeroponics for two years based on 17 different traits for root system architecture (length, surface area, diameter and volume), plant height, leaf area, root and shoot dry weight, tuber traits (number, yield and dry matter), and NUE parameters viz., NUE, agronomic NUE (AgNUE), nitrogen uptake efficiency (NUpE), nitrogen utilization efficiency (NUtE), harvest index (HI) and N harvest index (NHI). Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in the varieties for most traits under the investigation. The Agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) analysis clearly distinguished the varieties into two main groups, and principal component analysis (PCA) analysis showed total 64.78% variability in the first two components. Significant and positive correlations were found for tuber yield with AgNUE, NUE and NUpE. On the other hand, top 10 promising varieties under aeroponics for above traits were Kufri Badshah, Kufri Frysona, Kufri Chipsona-3, Kufri Pushkar, Kufri Lalit, Kufri Ashoka, Kufri Sutlej, Kufri Jyoti, Kufri Mohan and Kufri Khyati. This study implies that a great variation exists in the Indian potato varieties including old and new categories and they can be exploited in breeding for increasing resource capture to improve NUE in potato.
The burgeoning population and climate change posing a challenge to meet the sufficient and quality food, fodder and fuel demand in 2050.The cultivable land is also shrinking due to industrialization ...and urbanization as the availability was 0.50 ha in 1960 which has come down at 0.25 ha. The continuous intensive agriculture led to poor soil health. The demand of food, fodder and fuel is ever rising with rise in population therefore; it is very difficult to sustain supply with present cultivation practices under climate change regime. To overcome this problem, soilless culture is one of the best alternatives. Soilless culture is a novel methodology for growing of crops or plants without soil by using growing media which can be solid, liquid, organic or inorganic material. One of the major advantages of soilless media is saving of water up to 85-90%, as water is recycled and provide better yield as compared to conventional cultivation with almost zero environmental pollution. Plug tray nursery raising using soilless medium is being done on commercial scale at many places. Research on Soilless cultivation is being carried out at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa, New Delhi since 2016. Hydroponic has been emerged as a new technique to grow plants in recent era. Aeroponics is one of the most successful and rapid methods of seed potato production in which large numbers of mini tubers can be produced in one generation which reduces time and cost. Plants grown in soil less culture are of superior quality with high yield, rich in nutrient content and rapid harvest as compared to conventional cultivation/soil. The growing conditions are generally regulated resultantly a robust resilient production system may be developed for continued supply of vegetables/fruits/flowers, it can synergistically add in total production.
Soilless agriculture is one of the advanced techniques to cultivate plants without soil, with minimal water and nutrients, and helps in vertical growth of agricultural technology. It is an ...eco-friendly approach widely used for commercial cultivation of quality vegetables. An experiment was conducted at University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, Karnataka during 2017–19 to evaluate the potentiality and suitability of the hydroponics (M2) and aeroponics (M3) methods over conventional method (M1) for hybrid seed production of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). The experiment had 12 treatments comprising 3 methods of production, 2 parental lines (TAG 1F and TAG 2F) and 2 seed treatments (S1: Control and S2: thiram @2g/kg + chlorpyrifos @3g/kg). Hoagland nutrient solution with pH 5.5–6.5 was used for soilless systems. The results revealed that, among the parental lines, TAG 1F performed better under all the methods of hybrid seed production. Seed treatment increased the per cent survival rate to the tune of 3.26%. Aeroponics and hydroponics performed better than conventional method. Aeroponics showed significantly higher plant height (140.94 cm), fruit weight (124.54 g), total biomass (106.44 g) and test weight (0.39 g) while, hydroponics showed significantly higher number of fruit/plant (45.84) and SVI (2821). It is inferred that soilless agriculture could be a promising tool for quality and year-round healthy hybrid tomato seed production under protected cultivation.
Hydroponic technologies have increased the cultivated area under greenhouses covered with UV filter polyethylene film. However, there is a concern about the antioxidant contents of lettuces produced ...under these systems. In this study, it was compared to the antioxidant contents of green and red leaf lettuces produced in two hydroponic systems in a greenhouse, against the ones produced with the conventional cultivation system by Colombian farmers. The antioxidant analysis revealed significant statistical differences for DPPH and Anthocyanin analyses (P=0) versus all other culture systems. The best results were obtained in the conventional cultivation. Red lettuce obtained the highest value of FRAP (655.3±82.6 mgAAE 100g-1), ABTS (17.8±6.9 mmolTE 100g-1), total phenols (680.2±69.3 mgGAE 100g-1) and anthocyanin (126.2±6.9 mgC3G 100g-1). Green lettuce exhibited the most antioxidant activity of DPPH (20.7±5.6 mmolTE 100g-1). These results suggest a detrimental effect of the greenhouse covered with UV filter polyethylene film in the antioxidant production of lettuce. Finally, red leaf lettuce showed better antioxidant capacity independent of the cultivation system.
Optimization of nutrients in an aeroponic culture system is the most important factor for the quantitative and qualitative production of healthy potato seeds. This study was conducted in Ardabil ...agricultural center and natural resources greenhouse in an aeroponic culture system in 2019-2020. The study was based on a completely factorial randomized design. The reactions of the seedlings of three cultivars of potato (Agria, Banba, Caesar) to the combination of three bacterial inoculants (PGPRs) (Azospirillum lipoform, Pseudomonas putida, Aztobacter crococum), and two stages of chemical fertilizer nutrition were investigated. We found out that the maximum number and weight of mini-tuber per plant was obtained in cv. Banba. The maximum number of stolons, the number of days up to tuberization, and the maximum average weight of minitubers were achieved by applying the chemical fertilizer. PGPRs had a significant impact on the increase in the plant height and on the length of stolon in cv. Banba. The largest plant height and number of days up to tuberization were achieved in the cv. Caesar, and the greatest number of stolons was obtained in cv. Banba. We concluded that the application of the chemical fertilizer in aeroponic culture system promoted the potato yield.
Biomass burning generates a substantial amount of smoke through high-energy combustion. This smoke is deposited into forest ecosystems either as aerosol smoke or as smoke-laden water in rainfall. The ...smoke contains essential elements like nitrogen (N) and other elements essential for plant growth and development. However, it is not well understood whether plant roots directly absorb the wildfire-derived N. An understanding of such a phenomenon is of significant importance in revealing the impact of forest fires on N input into forest ecosystems. Thus, this study examined the effects of different smoke concentrations on total N content in the soil and δ15N in plant and biomass production of Cunninghamia lanceolata seedlings under different cultivation methods using the 15N tracing technique. The main findings showed that smoke at a certain concentration had a promoting effect on plant growth, and the contribution of fire wildfire-derived 15N to soil total N was higher in low concentration smoke treatment than high concentration. After 180 days of cultivation, the wildfire-derived 15N content of various plant organs was higher for low than high smoke concentration treatment, and the content being higher for fine roots, where N absorption was enhanced in aeroponics-cultivated than soil-cultivated seedlings. The study demonstrated that plant roots directly absorb N from smoke and transported it to the aboveground parts for internal circulation. The effect of smoke on plant growth was concentration-dependent, with high concentration of smoke inhibiting plant growth compared to the control, while low concentration stimulated growth. The findings emphasize that smoke generated from low-intensity fires can have a positive impact on unburnt patches within the footprint of a fire through N deposition.
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•Nitrogen species from wildfire smoke are available to plants.•Plants exhibit a concentration-dependent response to wildfire smoke.•The absorption of wildfire-derived nitrogen varies across different plant cultivation methods.•Plant roots directly absorb wildfire-derived nitrogen and transport it for internal circulation.
•The aeroponics technology provided the good quality seed of potato.•Its mitigate the problem of shortage of good quality seeds, strategies to rapidly multiply the seed tubers.•The cost of growing a ...tuber using aeroponics is about one-quarter the cost of a conventionally—grown tuber.
Although potato is an important food and cash crop globally, its production in developing countries is hampered by constraints such as low soil fertility, pest and diseases and inadequate supply of good quality seed tubers. Lack of good quality seed is mostly a consequent of the prevailing seeds system; in most developing countries, majority of farmers recycle their own seeds or get them from informal sources. This leads to seed degeneration and build up of tuber-borne diseases and hence low yields. In mitigating the problem of shortage of good quality seeds, strategies to rapidly multiply the seed tubers such as tissue culture in conjunction with hydroponic and aeroponic systems have been tried. These technologies needs to be given serious thought and should be promoted in most developing countries so as to increase potato yields.
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