Improve spinach root health and crop yields
Cultivating spinach within controlled and indoor environments with hydroponics presents inherent challenges. Common difficulties include poor germination, slow early growth, vulnerability to diseases such as Pythium root rot, and plants “bolting” before harvest.
At LettUs Grow, we have been working to tackle these challenges head-on through trials with clients and partners to test our Advanced Aeroponics™ as a solution to spinach production challenges in controlled environments.
Trial aims
Evaluate growth performance
Our client’s goal was to evaluate the growth performance of the Sun Angel and Sioux spinach varieties in Advanced Aeroponics versus our clients’ existing hydroponic setups and to establish a robust protocol for high-quality commercial-scale production by benchmarking growth rates and saleable yield. A successful trial would reduce crop loss to pythium and determine a significant increase (>15%) in the packable yield using aeroponics.
Compare systems
To do this, we worked with two customers integrating Aeroponic Rolling Benches into their facilities and worked with them to conduct a range of trials to explore the yield and quality of the spinach grown across hydroponic and aeroponic equipment.
“The aeroponic system has repeatedly shown over 40% yield uplifts vs. our commercial hydroponic system. ”
Key results
Across the trials Advanced Aeroponics delivered numerous improvements over hydroponic cultivation methods:
Improved crop quality
Consistently healthy, dark green leaf colour throughout the trial, with very minimal chlorosis and no other nutrient deficiencies observed.
The aeroponic benches consistently performed significantly better than the hydroponic benches for both tested spinach varieties ('Sioux' and 'Sun Angel'). In two trials, the aeroponic system yielded over 50% more than the hydroponic system within the same 21-day growth cycle.
Superior growth rate
Improved root health & resilience
Aeroponic spinach roots were healthy throughout the trial, despite the presence of normal fungal pathogens, indicating increased plant resilience due to increased oxygenation of the root zone.
Higher scalable yield
Hydroponic batches struggled to meet quality standards at harvest because plants due to plants stunting. In contrast, aeroponic plants consistently met quality controls (averaging 96% saleable yield).
Aeroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Instead, roots are suspended in the air and irrigated with a nutrient-dense mist. This differs from hydroponics, where plant roots are submerged in a solution of water and nutrients.
In aeroponics, the roots have greater access to oxygen, which results in healthier plants, significantly faster crop growth rates and increased yields. Aeroponic farming commonly uses nozzles to create mist. However nutrients clog nozzles, so technical complexities and maintenance issues have prevented typical aeroponic systems achieving hectare scale.
At LettUs Grow, we use ultrasonic aeroponics. Ultrasonic technology is used to create high-frequency sound waves that shake water, until it disperses into lots of tiny droplets, like a mist. This removes the need for nozzles and unlocks hectare scale aeroponics.
What is Advanced Aeroponics™?
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Equal a quicker turnover of your product.
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Enables you to consistently tune crop quality.
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The growing medium remains dry, so there is less chance of losing profit to pests or disease.
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Mean you can have consistent sales projections and estimates.
Talk to us
Reach out to one of our experts and we will be happy to help bring your project into reality.