1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Development of plant production system using sea water

Research Project

Project/Area Number	08456011
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	作物学
Research Institution	Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University
Principal Investigator	INANAGA Shinobu Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University Professor, 乾燥地研究センター, 教授 (40124664)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	MUROTA Kenichi Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University Part-time Lecturer, 乾燥地研究センター, 講師(COE研究員) SUGIMOTO Yukihiro Arid Land Research Center, Tottori University Associate Professor, 乾燥地研究センター, 助教授 (10243411)
Project Period (FY)	1996 – 1997
Keywords	salt water / desalinization / solar energy / plant cultivation / water bath / culture pot / mulch / temperature difference
Research Abstract	We established a novel simple system for plant cultivation using salt water. The system comprised of a flat plastic container, filled with salt water, and a plastic pot with a hole in the bottom. The bottom hole in the plastic pot was covered with a nylon net. Stones and glasswool were placed as a bottom layr and the rest of the pot was filled with vermiculite. The pot was placed on top of the plastic container. During the daytime, water absorbs solar energy and evaporates. However, because of high pot temperature, no water is retained by vermiculite. During the night, temperature of the pot drops below that of the bath and accordingly evaporating water is trapped as pure water by vermiculite in the culture pot. This system depends completely on solar energy. The latter is free, limitless and dose not require sophisticated or costly equipment or facilities. We investigated several cultural conditions with the prime objective of increasing water supply and retention by the vermiculite. Mulching with vinyl sheets on both the bath and the pot increased water evaporation from the bath and water retention by vermiculite. Increasing the bottom area of the pot as well as amount of vermiculite promotes capturing of water vapor and water supply and net retention by vermiculite. Rapessed and Chingensai plants were grown in this system using salt water as only water source.