Automation of lettuce seedlings irrigation with sensors deployed in the substrate or at the atmosphere

Seedling production is an important step in the lettuce production system. However, there is a tendency to apply excessive irrigation at this stage. The aim of this study was to test the use of the Simplified Irrigation Controller (SIC) under two conditions: first, with the sensor installed in the substrate (measuring the soil water tension) and second, in the atmosphere (“atmospheric” - responding to vapor demand in the atmosphere) to control the irrigation of lettuce seedlings. The performance of the SIC was evaluated by monitoring plant traits. The lettuce seeds of the Regina cultivar were sown in styrofoam trays with commercial organic substrate. Both experiments were conducted under greenhouse conditions and evaluated under different SIC activation tensions. Shoot fresh weight and dry weight, height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf area, water use efficiency (WUE) (ratio between the dry mass of plant produced by the volume of water applied), chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll a fluorescence were assessed. In the experiment with the substrate sensor, the tension of 11.5 kPa caused death in 94 % of the seedlings and was disregarded in the statistical analysis. All biometric and physiological traits evaluated decreased as the SIC tensions increased. Thus, tensions of 4.0 (substrate sensor) and 3.5 kPa (atmospheric sensor) showed greater potential for producing vigorous seedlings, with WUE average values of 1.86 and 1.37 g L−1, respectively. Cultivation of lettuce seedlings proved viable under both conditions when the SIC was used, with the emergence of a number of practical advantages of the atmospheric sensor over the substrate one.

Automation of lettuce seedlings irrigation with sensors deployed in the substrate or at the atmosphere

Seedling production is an important step in the lettuce production system. However, there is a tendency to apply excessive irrigation at this stage. The aim of this study was to test the use of the Simplified Irrigation Controller (SIC) under two conditions: first, with the sensor installed in the substrate (measuring the soil water tension) and second, in the atmosphere (“atmospheric” - responding to vapor demand in the atmosphere) to control the irrigation of lettuce seedlings. The performance of the SIC was evaluated by monitoring plant traits. The lettuce seeds of the Regina cultivar were sown in styrofoam trays with commercial organic substrate. Both experiments were conducted under greenhouse conditions and evaluated under different SIC activation tensions. Shoot fresh weight and dry weight, height, number of leaves, leaf length, leaf area, water use efficiency (WUE) (ratio between the dry mass of plant produced by the volume of water applied), chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll a fluorescence were assessed. In the experiment with the substrate sensor, the tension of 11.5 kPa caused death in 94 % of the seedlings and was disregarded in the statistical analysis. All biometric and physiological traits evaluated decreased as the SIC tensions increased. Thus, tensions of 4.0 (substrate sensor) and 3.5 kPa (atmospheric sensor) showed greater potential for producing vigorous seedlings, with WUE average values of 1.86 and 1.37 g L−1, respectively. Cultivation of lettuce seedlings proved viable under both conditions when the SIC was used, with the emergence of a number of practical advantages of the atmospheric sensor over the substrate one.(AU)

Automatically controlled deficit irrigation of lettuce in organic potponics

Concerns with water crisis involve all sectors of society and irrigated agriculture remains the main water consumer. This study evaluated an agricultural production system for lettuce cultivation in greenhouse, organic potponics, to economize water and manure use, using a Simplified Irrigation Controller (SIC), based on soil matric potential monitoring. Five irrigation volumes were evaluated in pots with 4.8 L, fertilized with 200 g of vermicompost. One of the volumes was controlled with the SIC. The other volumes represented 130, 80, 60 and 33 % of that controlled by the SIC and all treatments received water at the same time. Shoot fresh weight, head diameter and stomatal conductance (gs) increased linearly with irrigation volumes. For shoot dry weight, number of leaves and water use efficiency (WUE), the regression was quadratic with maximum values at 126, 114 and 83 %, respectively. Leaf relative water content did not show variation among treatments and changes in some fluorescence parameters (Reo/RC, Sm, N and R0) were much more remarkable to drought compared with the FV/ FM ratio, one of the most commonly used stress indicators. The data indicated a tradeoff between WUE and plant growth thus the economic values of water and lettuce should be taken into account to indicate the best SIC irrigation volume. Organic potponics is promising and should be further improved to save on water, labor and fertilizer use.

Automatically controlled deficit irrigation of lettuce in organic potponics

Concerns with water crisis involve all sectors of society and irrigated agriculture remains the main water consumer. This study evaluated an agricultural production system for lettuce cultivation in greenhouse, organic potponics, to economize water and manure use, using a Simplified Irrigation Controller (SIC), based on soil matric potential monitoring. Five irrigation volumes were evaluated in pots with 4.8 L, fertilized with 200 g of vermicompost. One of the volumes was controlled with the SIC. The other volumes represented 130, 80, 60 and 33 % of that controlled by the SIC and all treatments received water at the same time. Shoot fresh weight, head diameter and stomatal conductance (gs) increased linearly with irrigation volumes. For shoot dry weight, number of leaves and water use efficiency (WUE), the regression was quadratic with maximum values at 126, 114 and 83 %, respectively. Leaf relative water content did not show variation among treatments and changes in some fluorescence parameters (Reo/RC, Sm, N and R0) were much more remarkable to drought compared with the FV/ FM ratio, one of the most commonly used stress indicators. The data indicated a tradeoff between WUE and plant growth thus the economic values of water and lettuce should be taken into account to indicate the best SIC irrigation volume. Organic potponics is promising and should be further improved to save on water, labor and fertilizer use.(AU)

Petroleum contamination and bioaugmentation in bacterial rhizosphere communities from Avicennia schaueriana

Anthropogenic activity, such as accidental oil spills, are typical sources of urban mangrove pollution that may affect mangrove bacterial communities as well as their mobile genetic elements. To evaluate remediation strategies, we followed over the time the effects of a petroleum hydrocarbon degrading consortium inoculated on mangrove tree Avicennia schaueriana against artificial petroleum contamination in a phytoremediation greenhouse experiment. Interestingly, despite plant protection due to the inoculation, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of the bacterial 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified from the total community DNA indicated that the different treatments did not significantly affect the bacterial community composition. However, while the bacterial community was rather stable, pronounced shifts were observed in the abundance of bacteria carrying plasmids. A PCR-Southern blot hybridization analysis indicated an increase in the abundance of IncP-9 catabolic plasmids. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis of naphthalene dioxygenase (ndo) genes amplified from cDNA (RNA) indicated the dominance of a specific ndo gene in the inoculated petroleum amendment treatment. The petroleum hydrocarbon degrading consortium characterization indicated the prevalence of bacteria assigned to Pseudomonas spp., Comamonas spp. and Ochrobactrum spp. IncP-9 plasmids were detected for the first time in Comamonas sp. and Ochrobactrum spp., which is a novelty of this study.(AU)