Astragalus membranaceus Bge. var. mongolicus (Bge.) Hsiao roots are widely used as raw materials of medicine. Due to the limited arable land, cultivating medicinal plants hydroponically is increasingly concerned. However, whether the quality of A. membranaceus grown hydroponically is better than that produced in a field is still unknown. In this study, we designed an intelligent hydroponic device for A. membranaceus, and quality of the medicinal plant cultivated by this device was compared with that cultivated in the field. Results showed that hydroponics significantly increased effective components in A. membranaceus when compared with field. Specifically, astragaloside IV contents in A. membranaceus grown hydroponically for four weeks were higher than those cultivated in the field for two years. The biomass is not significantly different between four-week hydroponics and annual cultivation. Therefore, hydroponics with our intelligent device can be used for the sustainable production of A. membranaceus in the future.
Authors’ Contributions
BZQ conceived the research and wrote the manuscript. CQY performed the experiments and data analysis and revised the manuscript. ZXJ gave the project support and the design guidance of the experiment.
3.2. The Biomass and Astragaloside IV Contents between Hydroponic Culture and Cultivation
In order to further study whether the selected cultivation has the representativeness of astragaloside IV content in the root of A. membranaceus in Inner Mongolia, three different production areas cultivation were selected for comparison. The results show that the content of astragaloside IV in hydroponic root is significantly higher than that in other areas (Figure 2(a)). At the same time, in order to understand the biomass difference between hydroponics and cultivation, their biomass was statistically analyzed. The results showed that there was significant difference between hydroponic culture, annual cultivation, and biennial cultivation (Figure 2(b)). Therefore, A. membranaceus used in this study is universal. The nutrient solution is changed every 2 weeks in the intelligent hydroponic device which can be grown continuously for 2 months of A. membranaceus.
2.2. Structure of Designed Hydroponic Device
The intelligent hydroponic device is designed according to the needs of A. membranaceus growth. It has hydroponic tank, support seat, and support leg, which are bolted with each other; the surface of the support leg is bolted with a water pump. The water outlet end of the water pump is connected with a water injection pipe and a water extraction pipe. The water extraction pipe far away from the end of the water pump is connected with a three-way water valve. The water inlet ends at the top and bottom of the right side of the three-way water valve are, respectively, connected with a nutrition pipe and a water supply pipe. The water supply pipe away from the three-way water valve is connected with a special water pipe. Both sides of the top of the hydroponic tank are bolted with a support plate. The gap inside the support frame is penetrated with a moisture discharge pipe which is connected with a moisture discharge cover. The inner part of the fixing frame is bolted with a moisture exhaust fan. The pump operates 24 hours every work day, at 25°C, humidity 30%; the cultivate medium was modified Hoagland nutrient solution (Table 1).
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Solutions
Daviteq's intelligent hydroponic system, Smart Hydroponics, ensures optimal water conditions for hydroponic farming. In this system, an IoT gateway, iConnector, collects data from Sub-Ghz wireless sensors that measure environmental parameters (temperature, humidity, light, CO2, and water's pH, EC ) and transmits the data to the server to monitor intelligent hydroponic control system. Smart Hydroponics includes the following essential functions:
- Automatically collect hydroponic system parameters such as temperature, humidity, light, O2, CO2, water pH, water EC, and nutrient solutions.
- Display current values of the hydroponic system's ambient conditions, nutrient solution level, and control statuses on dashboards.
- Visualize and export historical graphs and analysis reports of hydroponic system environmental parameters during the selected period.
- Control the water pump, water supply valve, nutrient solution supplies, and CO2 volume based on collected sensors' data and plant growth stage.
Customer challenge
Hydroponics is a model of the high-tech application in agriculture. With this model, plants grow without soil and use nutrient solutions in water. When the farmer applies an intelligent hydroponic system, the plants grow quickly with uniform product quality and yield from 30 to 40% higher than conventional cultivation. The application of the automated hydroponics system helps to overcome the following difficulties of traditional farming:
- Traditional farming requires specialized knowledge and farming experiences.
- Manual environmental monitoring and irrigation control should be intermittent and human-dependent.
- Traditional farming wastes valuable resources for management and plant cares.
- Marketed hydroponic systems are high to invest, challenging to deploy, and complex to expand.
Products used
| SKU# | PRODUCTS |
| STHC | Smart IoT Gateway - iConnector |
| WS433-M12F-ATH | Wireless Ambient Humidity Sensor |
| WS433-RL | Wireless Relays |
| WS433-AL | Wireless ambient light sensor |
| IOTPK-HYD | IoT SOLUTION PACKAGE FOR HYDROPONICS SYSTEM |
| WS433-O2 | Wireless Ambient Oxygen Sensor |
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