This paper reports on the findings of an experimental study that investigated the impact of various environmental factors on the growth of lettuce and basil plants in vertical farms. The study employed the Taguchi method, a statistical design of experiments approach, to efficiently identify the optimal growth conditions for these crops in a hyper-controlled environment. By reducing the time and cost of designing and running experiments, this method allowed for the simultaneous investigation of multiple environmental factors that affect plant growth. A total of 27 treatments were selected using the Taguchi approach, and the signal to noise ratio was calculated to predict the optimal levels of each environmental condition for maximizing basil and lettuce growth parameters. The results showed that most of the parameters, except for EC and relative humidity for certain growth parameters, were interrelated with each other. To validate the results, confirmation tests were conducted based on the predicted optimal parameters. The low error ratio between expected and predicted values (1–3%) confirmed the effectiveness of the Taguchi approach for determining the optimal environmental conditions for plant growth in vertical farms.
Tomatoes (Lycopersicun esculentum L.) are an important group of vegetable crops that have high economical and nutritional value. The use of fertilizers and appropriate substrates is one of the important strategies that can assist in increasing the yield and quality of fruits. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of exogenous seaweed extract (Nizamuddinia zanardinii), silicon (Na2SiO3), and selenium (Na2SeO3) on quality attributes and fruit yield (FY) of tomato under palm peat + perlite and coco peat + perlite substrates. Seaweed extract significantly improved several of the fruit quality attributes such as total carbohydrate content, total soluble solids (TSS), and pH as well as the FY. The results showed that silicon (Si) (75 mg) was the best foliar spray treatment to enhance the fruit firmness (30.46 N), fruit volume (196.8 cm3), and FY (3320.5 g). The highest amount of plant yield (3429.33 g) was obtained by the interaction effects of silicon (75 mg L-1) under the effect of palm peat. The use of selenium (Se) led to improvements in flavor index (TSS/TA). Also, the application of palm peat + perlite substrate caused an increase in vitamin C (16.62 mg/100g FW), compared to other substrates (14.27 mg/100g FW). The present study suggested that foliar spray with seaweed extract and Si had beneficial effects on the quality and FY of tomatoes. Also, the palm peat substrate can be used as a good alternative to the coco peat substrate in the hydroponic system.
Artificial light source is one of the most important factors for high quality and quantity vegetable production in plant factory. With the aim of investigating the role of light spectra on chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthesis, and stomata parameters in lettuce plants grown in plant factory, a factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with two lettuce cultivars (Rossa and Bionda) and four spectra LED illumination red (656 nm), red/blue (3:1) (656 nm), blue (450 nm), and white (449 nm). The results showed that blue and white LED light had the most significant effect on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters Fo, Fm, Fv, Area and PIabs in both lettuce cultivars compared to the other light treatments. The results also showed that the combination of red and blue LED light had the highest effect on stomatal conductance (gs), number of stomata, length and width of stomata in both lettuce cultivars. On the other hand, the maximum substomatal CO2 concentration (Ci) was observed in both lettuce cultivars when treated with red LED light. Also, transpiration rate (E) increased with the combination of red and blue LED in Rossa cultivar and red LED in Bionda cultivar. The results also showed that the maximum CO2 assimilation rate (A) was observed in Rossa cultivar under white LED and in Bionda cultivar under blue LED light. It is concluded that chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics and photosynthetic and stomatal properties can be affected by different spectra and cultivars of lettuce.
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