Evaluation of Vermicompost tea in fogponics system with integration of Internet of Things for Chinese Kale (Brassica oleracea) production
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Date
2024
Authors
Kenneth T. Evangelista
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Abstract
Fogponics is modernized version of the Aeroponics farming system, often known as "Aeroponics 2.0". Fogponics systems with IoT offers improved automation and control. Also, it offers significant potential for enhancing Chinese kale's (Brassica oleracea) production. By varying the nutrient solution's concentration within predefined ranges, the study explores their effects on the overall crop performance of the system. the fog is produced by placing an ultrasonic for generator inside the mixture of nutrient solution and plants nutrients inside an enclosed reservoir. Furthermore, the fogging frequency was set to be operational for 30 minutes followed by a 15-minute off. For treatment 1, the concentration used was 10% vermicompost tea to 90% commercial solution in fogponics system. In treatment 2, the concentration used was 25% vermicompost tea to 75% commercial solution in fogponics system. For treatment 3, equal amounts of vermicompost tea and commercial solution were used in fogponics system. Lastly, for treatment 4 which served as the control treatment, 100% commercial solution in hydroponics system was used. For the treatments involving the fogponics system, the 30 minutes on 15 minutes off fogging frequency was used, while for the hydroponics system, the bottom part of the net cups were submerged to the nutrient solution at a depth of 1 inch for good nutrient uptake from the roots. The programming language used in the automation was C++. The findings show that Chinese kale on Treatment 1 produced the most optimal performance among all the treatments, however, most of the results incurred that there is no significant difference between using Treatment 1 and Treatment 4. Comparison between the fogponics system and the hydroponics system shows that there is a relatively high difference in their water consumption. The results showed that the fogponics system used 61% less water than the hydroponics system which signifies that fogponics system efficiently manages the application of water to the crops' roots better than the hydroponics system. The IoT-enabled fogponics system demonstrated its ability to minimize human effort, provide remote monitoring and control capabilities that allow precise adjustment of environmental conditions, leading to optimal plant development. This research contributes to the field of sustainable agriculture by combining fogponics and IoT technologies to enhance crop cultivation offering potential benefits such as increased productivity and resource conservation.