Using Environmental Enhancements to Increase Vitamin-C Production in Spinacia oleracea in Varied Agricultural Environments

Overview

Vertical Farming (VF) has emerged to feed Earth’s growing population. VF grows crops indoors without sunlight or soil. VF produce has less vitamin Cand is less nutritious than conventionally-farmed produce because abiotic stress is removed to achieve faster growth times and higher yields. The top twenty vitamin-Cproducing crops have one thing in common; harsh growing conditions. The ascorbate-glutathione cycle is a plant metabolic pathway that produces vitamin Cas a reaction to increased H2 O 2 ; a result of plant stress. It was hypothesized that adding abiotic stress to the VF environment would stimulate the enzymatic pathway, resulting in increased vitamin -C production. Stress in the form of wind, heat and drought was applied to Spinacia oleracea in a VF environment and vitamin Cwas measured by titration. Thirty samples were taken from each of three plant groups (outdoor farming, VF and VF+stress). The VF groups had statistically significantly lower vitamin-Clevels than the outdoor produce (p<0.01) . The three stress groups had statistically significantly higher vitamin-Clevels than the traditional VF groups but lower levels than the outdoor group (p<0.01) . The vitamin-Clevels of an interaction group combining wind and heat stress were higher than those of the other stress groups (p<0.01) and were statistically equal to the outdoor group. The addition of abiotic stress to the VF environment can increase vitamin -Clevels and, with the addition of both wind and heat stress together, vitamin-Clevels can be equal to that of conventionally-farmed produce.

Competition history

• JSHS 2020 Category not listed

Resources

• National JSHS abstract book ↗

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