The rice growth cycle halved in Plant factory
Recently, the plant factory innovation team of the Institute of Urban Agriculture of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences cooperated with the Qianqian team of the China National Rice Research Institute to successfully achieve an important breakthrough in rice planting about 60 days of harvest in a plant factory environment. The growth cycle has been shortened by half. This provides a new technological approach for accelerating crop breeding.
It is understood that this rice planting experiment was carried out in a fully artificial light plant factory with four-layer cultivation racks. The LED light source with customized spectrum was used to provide the best light environment for the different growth periods of rice, and the rice was planted in a nutrient solution cultivation tank. In, accurate supply of nutrients according to the nutritional needs of different periods. At the same time, the environmental elements inside the plant factory, such as light, temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration, etc., are precisely regulated to provide the best growth environment for each growth stage.
Among the 6 dwarf cultivars tested, 2 cultivars showed higher yield potential, with earing 45 days after planting, and harvest 63 days after planting. The number of tillers per plant reached 89. The comprehensive yield of single-layer cultivating rack was per square meter. 0.98 kg of rice is equivalent to more than 650 kg per mu.
Qianqian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the Institute of Crop Science of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said that an efficient breeding industry is the key to ensuring national food security. Using traditional breeding methods, usually only 1 to 2 generations a year can be produced, even in a greenhouse environment or in tropical regions, only 2 to 3 generations can be produced a year.
"For most crops, it takes several generations to reproduce in order to breed new and excellent germplasm. It usually takes several years or even decades. Relying on plant factory technology, this time and space bottleneck is broken." Qianqian said.
It is reported that in plant factories, by regulating the environment and nutrient elements, the photosynthesis rate of crops can be significantly increased, early flowering can be induced and the rapid growth of crops can be promoted, the growth cycle of crops can be greatly shortened, and "rapid breeding" can be achieved. The plant factory breeding acceleration system is not restricted by land, space and climatic conditions. It is built near the laboratory building or breeding unit, and can be used for additional generation breeding throughout the year.
Yang Qichang said that in the future, it is expected to achieve more than 6 crops of "rapid breeding" each year, and the number of cultivation layers can reach more than 10 layers. This technological breakthrough provides new ideas for the addition of breeding and high-efficiency cultivation of rice and other crops. In the next step, the research team will focus on the controllable environment of the plant factory and the characteristics of multi-layer three-dimensional cultivation, and select rice varieties suitable for planting in the plant factory to increase the yield level.
"This research has just started. We look forward to the realization of precise nutrient supply and light and temperature regulation of rice in the future, aseptic space and three-dimensional cultivation, full mechanization, and farmers can go to the factory for operation." Qian Qian said that this research will not only change the traditional breeding and cultivation methods have been established, and the foundation has been laid for the future factory cultivation.