Application of plasma and aeroponic technologies for increasing plant biomass gain and yield of biologically active compounds – AEROPLASMA (S-MIP-23-8)

The ultimate need for the development of the innovative agricultural technologies is driven by the challenges to feed a growing world population in asustainable way. In this respect, seed treatments with plasma or plasma activated water (PAW) is one of the starting points for a wide area of applications ofplasma in agriculture due to numerous positive effects reported on crop germination and growth. The potential benefits and value of indoor vertical farminghas caused the proliferation of novel cultivation technologies such as aeroponics. Both aeroponic cultivation and plasma treatments may lead to increase inbiologically active secondary metabolite (SM) content in plants. The main idea of the project is to test the efficiency of combining these two innovativetechnologies for the enhancement of plant biomass gain and production of valuable SMs. The goal of project is to substantiate basis for the novel agriculturaltechnology based on the combination of plasma use for the treatment of water, plants and plant seeds with aeroponic cultivation. For this, we plan to create, construct and test two novel plasma devices for the production of PAW. The characterization of chemical composition and stability of PAW will be performedaiming to optimize protocols for different modes of plant treatments, including treatment of seeds, watering or spraying aeral parts of seedlings, as well as PAW application for supplementing medium of aeroponic cultivation. The impact of PAW application as well as effects of combination of PAW with seed treatment with plasma on stimulation of secondary metabolism and increasing productivity of plants grown will be estimated under a variety of conditions. The significance of such study is determined by the fundamental and applied importance of the results – new knowledge will broaden the understanding of plant response to stress, and will be valuable for developing innovative sustainable agrobiotechnology.

 
Keywords: aeroponics, plasma, plasma activated water, plant seeds, secondary metabolism

Acronym: AEROPLASMA

Projecto ID: S-MIP-23-8

Call:

Coordinator: Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas

Partners: Lietuvos energetikos institutas

Funding was provided by the Lithuanian Science Council (LMT) under the instrument Lithuanian Science Council Support for Scientific Research, Research Group Projects.