Articles
The agronomic potential of a new vertical growing farming system using biofertilizers and peat-based wood fibre growing medium: lettuce as a case study
Article number
1355_58
Pages
455 – 462
Language
English
Abstract
To offer a sustainable alternative to current food production models and contribute to urban food security, we studied the agronomic performance of an automated rotative growing system using LED lighting.
We hypothesized that this vertical rotative growing system (VRGS) provides a higher yield per cultivated greenhouse area than a conventional horizontal growing system (HGS). We also studied the impact of three organic growing media (1 peat-based medium, 2 peat mix with wood fibre, and 3 peat mix with coco fibre), two biofertilizers (1 animal-based, 2 plant-based fertilizers) and four biostimulant treatments (1 bamboo vinegar in soil, 2 spruce vinegar applied in soil or 3 leaves, 4 water as control) for plants cultivated in both systems (VRGS and HGS) within a randomized complete block design with 3 to 13 replicates.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa Salanova Red Batavia) cultivated in the VRGS had 48% and 29% higher dry and fresh shoot biomass, respectively, than HGS-grown plants, explained by a higher leaf number (+35%) and specific leaf area (+9%), while no significant difference was observed for leaf photosynthetic parameters.
However, plant height of HGS-grown plants was 29% higher compared with the VRGS. Considering that the cultivated area per unit of greenhouse floor area in the VRGS is 2.25 times higher than the HGS, leafy-vegetable productivity could be increased by 2.9 times.
For both systems, animal-based biofertilizers yielded up to 46% more compared with plant-based biofertilizers, partly due to a slower and lower mineralization rate.
Biostimulant treatments had no significant impact on growth and plant photosynthetic performance.
While no difference between the growing media for the HGS was observed, plants grown in peat-based growing medium with coco fibre had 9% and 6% lower fresh biomass than plants grown in peat-based with wood fibre and peat mix only, respectively.
Our results showed that this VRGS resulted in a high potential of productivity compared with a traditional HGS and increased the use of cultivated land.
As such, a VRGS is a promising sustainable technology that can also be used for indoor production within a completely automated multilevel growing facility, and for other plant species such as herbs, strawberries, and mini-vegetables.
We hypothesized that this vertical rotative growing system (VRGS) provides a higher yield per cultivated greenhouse area than a conventional horizontal growing system (HGS). We also studied the impact of three organic growing media (1 peat-based medium, 2 peat mix with wood fibre, and 3 peat mix with coco fibre), two biofertilizers (1 animal-based, 2 plant-based fertilizers) and four biostimulant treatments (1 bamboo vinegar in soil, 2 spruce vinegar applied in soil or 3 leaves, 4 water as control) for plants cultivated in both systems (VRGS and HGS) within a randomized complete block design with 3 to 13 replicates.
Lettuce (Lactuca sativa Salanova Red Batavia) cultivated in the VRGS had 48% and 29% higher dry and fresh shoot biomass, respectively, than HGS-grown plants, explained by a higher leaf number (+35%) and specific leaf area (+9%), while no significant difference was observed for leaf photosynthetic parameters.
However, plant height of HGS-grown plants was 29% higher compared with the VRGS. Considering that the cultivated area per unit of greenhouse floor area in the VRGS is 2.25 times higher than the HGS, leafy-vegetable productivity could be increased by 2.9 times.
For both systems, animal-based biofertilizers yielded up to 46% more compared with plant-based biofertilizers, partly due to a slower and lower mineralization rate.
Biostimulant treatments had no significant impact on growth and plant photosynthetic performance.
While no difference between the growing media for the HGS was observed, plants grown in peat-based growing medium with coco fibre had 9% and 6% lower fresh biomass than plants grown in peat-based with wood fibre and peat mix only, respectively.
Our results showed that this VRGS resulted in a high potential of productivity compared with a traditional HGS and increased the use of cultivated land.
As such, a VRGS is a promising sustainable technology that can also be used for indoor production within a completely automated multilevel growing facility, and for other plant species such as herbs, strawberries, and mini-vegetables.
Authors
G. Paquet, T.T.A. Nguyen, A. Brégard, A. Barrada, G. Poirier, M. Dorais
Keywords
organic farming, organic fertilizers, vertical farming, sustainable growing system, greenhouse horticulture, artificial lighting, biostimulants
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