Plant Hydroponic Cultivation: A Support for Biology Research in the Field of Plant-Microbe-Environment Interactions

Plant production is essentially dependant on culture medium and conditions. Vegetable crops are known to grow in soil which, in natural conditions, acts as a mineral nutrient reservoir, but the soil itself is not essential to plant growth. Plant roots are able to absorb the mineral nutrients of the soil dissolved in water. When the required mineral nutrients are introduced into artificially synthesized medium (case of hydroponic cultivation), soil is no longer required for the plant growth. Hydroponic cultivation is a soil-free technology of vegetable growing. First reports about hydroponic culture date from the seventeenth century. Later, it was reported that in the Second World War, American soldiers grew their own food hydroponically while stationed on barren Pacific islands. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables. Hydroponic cultivation is associated to the most revolutionary future technological projects. Indeed, for “future”, NASA Scientists are researching optimization of some factor as light, temperature and carbon dioxide, along with plant species for cultivation on planets like Mars.