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More food with less water - episode 6
Be a GREEN MUSKETEER reforest the world with us!
Elshout (The Netherlands) July 2013
This is episode 6 of the series ‘More food, less water, with Groasis’.
Groasis did these vegetable trials with the Groasis Waterboxx during 2013 in The Netherlands.
The experiment has 2 objectives:
Can we grow vegetables with 90% less use of water and keep the production equal?
Can we replace artificial fertilizers through adding mycorrhizae (funguses) to the roots?
(Ton van Hulten) We want to look back on the last two months,
on What has happened in the greenhouses
with the trial of the Waterboxes with the vegetables.
When we look two months back,
we had very bad growing circumstances,
because of the late spring we had in Holland
With cold temperatures, dry air, and not so much light.
The crops did not grow that fast.
When the outside circumstances are very good,
They are also good on the inside.
When the grass is growing, we always say that
The plants inside the greenhouse are also growing
Well, here we see plants growing in special boxes
This boxes are called rhizotrons.
These rhizotrons allow us to follow the roots growth
And the mycorrhizae activity
The mycorrhizae fungi are planted beneficially
What they do is,
They take up nutrience and water from the soil,
In this case from the ground in the rhizotrons,
And bring it over to the plants.
And the plants are so grateful for that,
that they return carbon from the photosynthesis,
what they do with their leaves,
they bring back the carbon, in the form of sugars,
to the fungi.
On the right side, we see plants that have not been treated
with mycorrhizae fungi.
And they have just formed regular root systems.
The root system looks quite good.
But, it is possible to get a nicer and more developed root system
And that is seen on the left side.
this plant is treated with mycorrhizae fungi.
We see here very strong and vital roots developed.
The root density is also higher.
And we see that the roots are growing out
The bottom of the rhizotron.
We made the choice not to heat the greenhouse,
so that we can grow like we did fifty years ago.
That is why the plants in the morning, when the sun comes up,
do not pick up the climate,
because they are not warmed up,
the temperature raises to fast to high degrees.
That is why the plants get a little bit weak.
The plants are going to hang.
They cannot stand the evaporation of the greenhouse.
That is why they are not growing so fast.
When we heat the greenhouse in the morning,
the plants can better take up the climate of the day.
And we have no co2, so there is nothing.
No co2, almost no water and no heating in the morning.
That is why this plants do not give the optimum production
of a hydroponic system.
We only do this on basic elements.
The pollination of the crops is very, very important.
Paprika and the pepper are self-pollinating,
But tomatoes need pollination.
We use bumble bees.
In the morning, when the flower gets open,
He always take the good flower, and is never mistaking.
These pepper plants have been seeded a month ago.
What we can see here is the non-treated mycorrhizae plant.
And these plants are treated with mycorrhizae fungi.
You can see that is a clear difference between
the non-treated plants and the treated plants.
This difference is very pronounced.
This is why we use the rhizotrons.
Here you can see the root development
which is really poor for the small, non mycorrhizae plant.
While the plant that is treated with the mycorrhizae fungi
has a very well developed, mycorrhizae root system.
Next time: Pieter Hoff explains how the Waterboxx works and why this trial is so important
The water gets into the bucket.
Next time: Ton explains what the effects of the hot temparatures are on the paprika and pepper plants
There is no developing, because they are hanging.
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