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Seed Germination and Seedling Growth on Knitted Fabrics as New Substrates for Hydroponic Systems
Our study examined whether conventional knitted fabrics, such as patches of worn jackets, can be used for hydroponics instead of the specialized nonwoven materials used in large-scale indoor systems.
To this end, seed germination and seedling growth of 14 different crop plant species on knitted fabrics with three different stitch sizes were compared.
Our results showed that hydroponic culture on knitted fabrics are indeed possible and allow for growing a broad spectrum of plant species, suggesting recycling of old textile fabrics for this purpose.
Among the 14 plant species studied, differences in germination success, average fresh and dry masses, as well as water contents were found, but these parameters were not affected by knitted fabric stitch size.
Conclusions Different plant species were investigated for germination and growth on knitted fabrics in hydroponic systems. Importantly, each fabric supported growth of the various plant species for 31 d after germination, underlining the general possibility of using knitted fabrics as substrates in vertical farming.
It was also shown that this could be used for all plant species in the study so that a broad range of species can be expected to be able to grow on knitted fabrics in a hydroponic system.
More:
https://res.mdpi.com/d_attachment/horticulturae/horticulturae-05-00073/article_deploy/horticulturae-05-00073-v3.pdf
