Looking at potatoes that are grown in air really makes our voice dumb! Because during our conventional methods in order to get our pretty potatoes, we have to dug over much soil ,but this technology makes potatoes available in air and can be easily harvested with out dugging soil!
Aeroponics is a technique that is more or less similar to hydroponics . The only difference is that under aeroponics, plants are grown with the help of support and fine droplets (fog or mist) of nutrient solution, and they do not need a single particle of soil or substrate to support the plants . The term “aeroponics” is from the Latin “aero” meaning air and “póno” meaning works and is another method of soilless cultivation for growing plants in a controlled environment . Aeroponics techniques allow for higher growth rates and healthy, uniform, and vigorous potato tubers. This can produce up to 10 times the yield of conventional production systems. These techniques are credited for making potato production more efficient , and can reduce the number of steps in the potato seed multiplication costs as well as plant health and quality of the first field.
The aeroponic system is the best system for producing potatoes . Using this approach, plant roots can be quickly nourished under controlled conditions. These conditions include uniform nutrient concentrations, pH, EC, humidity, atomization spray time, atomization interval, atomization frequency, oxygen availability, temperature and light intensity However, plants grow rapidly in the growth chamber due to the disinfected environment and the availability of sufficient oxygen that improves potatoes growth
Can we grow potatoes aeroponically!
- Seed potatoes were positioned within the dark root chamber of an aeroponic system
- A nutrient solution was supplied to mother tubers in the form of a mist, which was recirculated around the aeroponic system
- As the potato stems increased in height they needed to be supported with a wire frame, to prevent the stems from crossing and reducing air circulation
- The potatoes were ready to harvest after 16 weeks in the aeroponic system and were detached from the stolons using a pair of sterile secateurs
Benefits of aeroponics
There are many benefits of growing potatoes aeroponically which mirrors the benefits of growing other crops in this way. The amount of water being used is reduced by 90% as the nutrient solution was recirculated and therefore recycled through the system, and there is no need to use environmentally damaging pesticides.
The higher exposure of root aeration within the root chamber helps to produce a higher yield weight of crop, and growing potatoes in an indoor farm or polytunnel also prevents the crop being affected by high levels of rainfall or hot weather.
More specifically, a soilless growing medium allows for a convenient and clean harvest that allows all of the potato tubers to be collected more easily. Perhaps the most pertinent benefit is that aeroponic growing can help to achieve virus free seed potatoes, due to the lack of soil medium.
The International Potato Center (CIP) has been developing aeroponic technology as a means of producing pre basic potato seed, nothing that this method results in higher yield and gets greater profits. A method of producing seed potatoes that maximizes the chances of growing disease-free potatoes and is more cost efficient could enable and improve access to high-quality, certified seed potatoes for farmers all around the world.