Query: Hydroponics

title: An Optimization Scheme Based on Fuzzy Logic Control for Efficient Energy Consumption in Hydroponics Environment
abstract: As the world population is increasing rapidly, food and water demands are the most crucial problem for humanity. In some areas of the world, water or environment is unsuitable for plant growth; hydroponic systems can provide a suitable environment for crop production with effective management of natural resources. Internet of Things paradigm based automated systems has been creating an excellent opportunity for monitoring and controlling agriculture by minimizing the cost and maximizing the profit significantly over the past decade. The reduction of the cost can be achieved by sufficient usage of resources and setting up optimum operational parameters for agricultural devices. This paper presents an optimization scheme with novel objective function for hydroponics environment parameters management with efficient energy consumption. The proposed approach provides optimal energy and resource utilization in the hydroponics system with setting up a working level and operational duration to the actuators. We have developed an optimization scheme with objective function for optimal humidity and water level control based on fuzzy logic, which can support the optimal measurement for crop growth with energy efficiency. Fuzzy logic control is applied for the compromise between actuators working level and operational duration. A real hydroponics environment has been implemented and presented to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. It can be assessed through the simulation results that the optimization module achieves a signification reduction (18% in energy consumption as compared to the other scheme.

title: Total Coliform and Generic E. coli Levels, and Salmonella Presence in Eight Experimental Aquaponics and Hydroponics Systems: A Brief Report Highlighting Exploratory Data
abstract: Although many studies have investigated foodborne pathogen prevalence in conventional produce production environments, relatively few have investigated prevalence in aquaponics and hydroponics systems. This study sought to address this knowledge gap by enumerating total coliform and generic E. coli levels, and testing for Salmonella presence in circulating water samples collected from five hydroponic systems and three aquaponic systems (No. of samples 79) While total coliform levels ranged between 6.3 Most Probable Number (MPN)/100 mL and the upper limit of detection (2496 MPN/100 mL) only three samples had detectable levels of E. coli and no samples had detectable levels of Salmonella. Of the three E. coli positive samples, two samples had just one MPN of E. coli/100 mL while the third had 53.9 MPN of E. coli/100 mL. While the sample size reported here was small and site selection was not randomized, this study adds key data on the microbial quality of aquaponics and hydroponics systems to the literature. Moreover, these data suggest that contamination in these systems occurs at relatively low levels, and that future studies are needed to more fully explore when and how microbial contamination of aquaponics and hydroponic systems is likely to occur.

title: The Effects of Condensed Molasses Soluble on the Growth and Development of Rapeseed through Seed Germination, Hydroponics and Field Trials
abstract: Condensed molasses soluble (CMS) has been reported to be rich in mineral nutrients and organic matter. However, the potential of CMS as a new organic fertilizer for crops is poorly understood. In this study, we explored the effects of CMS on seed germination, plant growth and field production of Brassica napus through seed germination, hydroponics and field trials. The results demonstrated that a small amount of CMS (0.05 g L 1 on the basis of normal nutrient supply significantly increased plant biomass, root vigor and root development, and improved the superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity of shoot at the seedling growth stage. Nevertheless, a high concentration of CMS (0.2 g L 1 inhibited plant growth, root development, the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) and elevated accumulation of malondialdehyde (MDA) in the shoot at the same stage. In the field, exogenous application of CMS as well as chemical fertilizers increased seed yield up to 20% compared with chemical fertilization only. Collectively, our results conclude that the appropriate amount of CMS could promote the growth and development of rapeseed at both seedling and mature stages. Hence, CMS may be used as a new potential organic fertilizer for crop production in the future.

title: Evaluation of Multiple Responses Associated with Arsenic Tolerance and Accumulation in Pteris vittata L. Plants Exposed to High As Concentrations under Hydroponics
abstract: Chinese brake fern (Pteris vittata L. is recognized as an arsenic hyperaccumulating plant. Mechanisms underlying this capability and the associated hypertolerance have been described even if not completely elucidated. In this study, with the aim to expand the knowledge on the matter, an experimental trial was developed to investigate an array of responses, at the morphological, physiological, and biochemical level, in P. vittata plants exposed to high As concentrations in a long term experiment under hydroponics. Results confirmed the ability of fern plants to both tolerate and accumulate a remarkable amount of As, especially in fronds. Notably, in As treated plants, a far higher As content was detected in young fronds compared to old fronds, with bioaccumulation (BCF) and translocation (Tf) factors in accordance. At the biochemical level, As treatment affected macro and micronutrient, thiol, and phytochelatin concentrations in fronds of treated plants differently than that of the control. Physiological measurements accounted for a reduction in the photosynthetic activity of As treated plants in the absence of visual symptoms of damage. Overall, the observed As tolerance and accumulation processes were discussed, evidencing how young fronds developed during As treatment maintain their physiological status while accumulating a high As content. Such indications could be very useful to improve the effective utilization of this plant species for phytofiltration of As polluted water.

title: Effects of Different Hydroponics Systems and Growing Media on Physiological Parameters of Spinach
abstract: Hydroponics is a science of growing plants using a solution of suitable nutrients instead of soil and considered one of the most innovative agricultural strategies to produce more from less, in order to feed the estimated 11 billion people in the world by 2100 (Lal, 2016) This can either be through the use of non soil growing medium or no growing medium at all. The plants thrive on the nutrient solution alone. The growing media, if any, is totally inert and merely acts as a support for the plants and their root systems, while the nutrient solution passes freely. Though, growing media plays an important role in seed germination, seedling growth and vigour in hydroponics. Several studies reported the favorable effect that organic materials have on plant growth (Hardgrave and Harriman, 1995; Ayuso et al. 1996; Tzortzakis and Economakis, 2005, 2008)  (2020)  http:/www.ijcmas.com

title: Automated smart hydroponics system using internet of things
abstract: This paper presents a design and implementation of an automated smart hydroponics system using internet of things. The challenges to be solved with this system are the increasing food demand in the world, the need of market of new sustainable method of farming using the Internet of Things. The design was implemented using NodeMcu, Node Red, MQTT and sensors that were chosen during component selection based on required parameters and sending it to the cloud to monitor and be processed. Investigation on previous works done and a review of Internet of Things and Hydroponic systems were done. First the prototype was constructed, programmed and tested, as well as sensors data between two different environments were taken and monitored on cloud based web page with mobile application. Moreover, a bot has been introduced to control the supply chain and for notification purposes. The system improved its performance and allows it to successfully achieve the aim of the entire system implemented. There are some limitations which can be improved as future work such as including data science with the usage of the artificial intelligence to further improve the crops and get better outcome. Lastly to design end user platform to ease user interaction by using attractive design with no technical configuration involved.

title: Automated Hydroponics with Remote Monitoring and Control using IoT
abstract: Today, India wants to be fitter and this healthconsciousness drives for healthier food. Vegetables available in urban India are usually highly contaminated with pesticides wrecking our health and the cultivating land instead. Organic Farming as an alternative is not very feasible due to its exorbitant prices. Hydroponics along with our designed system offers a new way of cultivation which promotes all aspects of sustainable agriculture thereby providing an alternative to organic farming. In this paper, we have designed a hydroponic system which ensures higher growth rate with controlled environment. The main function of our hydroponic system is to monitor and to control parameters with the help of actuators present in the system to produce plants and exotic vegetables at a faster rate and by revoking the necessity of the arduous activities generally associated with farming. Apart from that, remote monitoring and controlling of the artificial environment to eliminate the dependency on the natural habitat to ensure year round availability of all plants and vegetables is one of the main objectives of this project. The project shows that hydroponic systems which are monitored and controlled properly show higher rates of growth and also reduce human dependency.  Hydroponics, IoT, Sensors

title: Comparative Cultivation and Biochemical Analysis of Iceberg Lettuce Grown in Sand Soil and Hydroponics With or Without Microbubbles and Macrobubbles
abstract: Freshwater resources comprise only 2.5 2.75% of all water on the Earth, 1.75 2% from them are frozen. We urgently desperately need to conserve water and find an effective alternative agriculture system. Other techniques agricultural practices and food sources must be used to avoid disasters. We aimed to compare two farming systems (hydroponic with microbubbles or macrobubbles and sand soil) and to find the best system with the lowest cost and high production of low water plants. We used three hydroponic system: (i) without the application of bubbles (T1) (ii) with the application of microbubbles (T2) (iii) macrobubbles (T3) and the conventional cultivation based soil (T4) The results show significant differences in the morphological and biochemical parameters of lettuce plants grown in the hydroponic system and conventional cultivation based soil. The morphological characteristic, chlorophyll, phenol, flavonoid content, enzymatic and non enzymatic antioxidants, mineral content, and dissolved oxygen were significantly greater in plants grown in the microbubble hydroponic system. In addition, total soluble sugars, proline, and MDA content were significantly greater in plants grown in sand soil (T4) as compared to the plants grown in different hydroponic systems (T1, T2, T3) The results show that the water consumed in the hydroponic system is lower than used in sandy soil. Our findings suggest that the hydroponic system can increase income and reduce the amount of water consumed; therefore, plants grown in hydroponic systems with microbubbles have achieved the best plant growth, secondary metabolites, and antioxidants compared to plants grown in other systems.

title: Autotoxicity in Strawberry Under Recycled Hydroponics and Its Mitigation Methods

title: Mineral nutrient deficiencies in quinoa grown in hydroponics with single nutrient salt/acid/chelate sources
abstract: Major crop nutrient symptoms are well documented. In contrast, there is often minimal or no similar information for minor crops, including quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd. This knowledge gap can be efficiently filled by using hydroponic systems. However, creating multiple nutrient deficiencies with plants in the same study is challenging because nutrients are often added as dual nutrient salts. For example, if potassium sulfate is the potassium (K) source, varying K concentration also impacts sulfur (S) concentration, possibly creating dual deficiencies or other interactions. A new hydroponic system was created to impose nutrient deficiencies using single nutrient sources: ammonium nitrate; phosphoric, sulfuric, hydrochloric, and boric acids; potassium, calcium, magnesium, zinc, and copper carbonates; manganese acetate; sodium molybdate; iron EDDHA, with HEDTA as an additional chelate. Fourteen treatments were established including a positive control with nutrient concentrations anticipated to be optimal compared with individual deficiencies of nitrogen (N) phosphorous (P) K, S, calcium (Ca) magnesium (Mg) zinc (Zn) iron (Fe) manganese (Mn) copper (Cu) boron (B) molybdenum (Mo) and chloride (Cl) The "deficient" treatments were created by reducing concentrations by 80% for N and 90% for the others. The solution proved to be mostly effective as quinoa plants were grown to maturity. Stem size, plant height, and shoot and root biomass were impacted, especially for treatments with reduced N, P, and K. Unfortunately, the predicted adequate levels of some nutrients were likely excessive, especially B and Mn. Additional fine tuning is required to create a solution optimal in all nutrients.