Agricultural practices face a difficult dilemma of producing enough food for a growing population and evolving to greatly diminish its large impact on the environment. Soilless cultures such as hydroponics has been put forth as an alternative solution due to the possibility of larger yields and, in some departments, less impact on the environment. This study sought to investigate if there are any statistically proven differences in biomass gain for Ocimum basilicum when growing hydroponically or in course sand with full nutrient treatment, as well as growing with a calcium deficiency. Key findings show that full nutrient treatment gathered few to none differences, whilst calcium scarcity resulted in greater biomass and greater leaf biomass when planted in sand, whilst the water culture displayed less chlorophyll degradation. Due to challenges in methodology the study would benefit from being undertaken again with greater scientific precision, but variants can also be explored such as different growing mediums and nutrient scarcities. Soil-based growing is considerably more forgiving to mistakes and errors rather than soilless cultures, and so, for the positive qualities of hydroponics (space efficiency, no runoff, more effective use of resources, no pesticides/herbicides, less transport, etc.) to be effectual, knowledge, experience and further investigation is required.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-151367 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Kjellin, Rebecka |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för ekologi, miljö och geovetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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