During the past few decades, vertical farming has attracted a lot of interest as an alternative food production method. Vertical farms use engineered growth environments and hydroponic cultivation techniques for growing plants indoors. One of the important factors in vertical farming for the cultivation of different plants is the amount of nutrients, which can be measured as electrical conductivity (EC). Studying the optimal EC is important for avoiding nutrient loss and deficiency in vertical farms. In this study, we investigated the effect of five EC levels (2, 1.2, 0.9, 0.7, and 0.5 dS m−1) of Hoagland nutrient solution on the growth and development of basil cultivar ‘Emily’ and lettuce cultivar ‘Batavia-Caipira’. During the study, the environmental parameters were kept fixed using an automatic dosing machine. The experiment was done in automatic vertical farms using the hydroponic ebb–flow cultivation technique with a temperature of 20 ± 1 °C, relative humidity of 50–60%, CO2 concentration of 450 ppm, pH = 6, the PPFD (photosynthetic photon flux density) of 215 ± 5.5 μmol m−2 s−1, and the photoperiod of 16:8 h (day/night). Each treatment was replicated four times. We studied the effects on several growth parameters (including the dry and fresh weight of leaves and roots, number of leaves, and leaf area) as well as the chlorophyll and nitrogen concentration of the leaves. According to the results, the basil and lettuce growth parameters among the five treatments have been significantly higher in the treatment with EC of 1.2 and 0.9 dS m−1. These EC values are lower than the recommended EC value given as the optimum in the previous studies. However, the concentration of chlorophyll and nitrogen show different trends and were higher in full strength of nutrient solution with EC = 2 dS m−1.
Simultaneous uptake of Cd(II) and Pb(II) by corn in two artificially contaminated soils (sandy and sandy loam) amended with two doses of natural (NM) and modified (MM) montmorillonite were investigated in a pot experiment under greenhouse conditions. Results showed that the addition of NM and MM to sandy loam soils didn't have significant effect on the uptake of Cd(II) by roots, then is translocated to the aerial tissues. On the contrary, uptake of Cd(II) by shoots was increased in pots containing 10% MM in the sandy soils compared to those in the un-amended soils. In the case of Pb(II), metal uptake by corn roots and shoots was not affected by the both NM and MM in the sandy loam soils as compared to those in the un-amended soils. While in the sandy soils, Pb(II) contents of roots were decreased by the both NM and MM at level of 10%. Also, Pb(II) contents of corn shoots significantly were decreased by NM, while MM had not significant effect on uptake of Pb(II) by shoots. The transfer factor (TF) values of Pb(II) were much less than those of Cd(II) in the same treatments. The results suggest that the effects of soil texture on efficiency of the amendments for immobilization of Cd(II) and Pb(II) in polluted soils should be considered.
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