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Plant Nutrition: From Liquid Medium to Micro-farm

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Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 14

Part of the book series: Sustainable Agriculture Reviews ((SARV,volume 14))

Abstract

Soil fertility and plant nutrition have played an important role in the agricultural science during the twentieth century in increasing crop yields. In the twenty-first century, importance of this field is still expanding due to the limitations of natural land and water resources, sustainable agriculture, and concern about environmental pollution. Under these conditions, improving food supply worldwide with adequate quantity and quality is fundamental. Supply of adequate mineral nutrients in adequate amount and proportion to higher plants will certainly determine such accomplishments. Further, in developing crop production technologies, research work under field and controlled conditions is necessary to generate basic and applied information. In addition, research is very dynamic and complex due to variation in climatic, soil, and plant factors and their interactions. This demands that basic research information can only be obtained under controlled conditions to avoid or reduce effects of environmental factors on treatments. Hence, the objective of this review article is to discuss basic principles of research in soil fertility and plant nutrition under different conditions from to liquid or solid media, micro-farm, green house and field experiments. These information will be included the management of different tools of plant nutrition even on the small or large scale i.e., Petri dishes (in case of medium) or hectare unit (in case of fields). Topics discussed are soil and solution culture experimental techniques including, fertilizer application and planting, experimental duration and observations, considerations of pot or field experimentations.

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Acknowledgment

Dr. Hassan El-Ramady acknowledges Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture (Hungarian Scholarship Board, HSB and the Balassi Institute) and the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education (The Partnership and Ownership initiative, ParOwn grant) for funding and supporting this work. He also thanks Prof. N. K. Fageria, National Rice and Bean Research Center of EMBRAPA, Brazil for his support and help. The authors also acknowledge Prof. Eric Lichtfouse for his support and revising this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Soil and Water Sciences Department, Kafrelsheikh University, 33516, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt

    Hassan R. El-Ramady & T. A. Alshaal

  2. Plant Biotechnology Department, Debrecen University, Böszörményi Útca. 138, 4032, Debrecen, Hungary

    Hassan R. El-Ramady, T. A. Alshaal, É. Domokos-Szabolcsy & N. Elhawat

  3. Institute of Bio- and Environmental Energetics, Debrecen University, Böszörményi Útca. 138, 4032, Debrecen, Hungary

    Hassan R. El-Ramady, J. Prokisch & M. Fári

  4. Vegetable Crops Department, Cairo University, El-Gammaa Str., 12613, Giza, Egypt

    S. A. Shehata

  5. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

    N. Elhawat

  6. Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    L. Marton

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  1. Hassan R. El-Ramady
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Correspondence to Hassan R. El-Ramady .

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  1. UR1321, ASTRO Agrosystèmes Tropicaux, INRA, Petit-Bourg, Guadeloupe, France

    Harry Ozier-Lafontaine

  2. HortSysResearch Unit Caribbean Agroenvironmental Campus, CIRAD, Le Lamentin, Martinique, France

    Magalie Lesueur-Jannoyer

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El-Ramady, H.R. et al. (2014). Plant Nutrition: From Liquid Medium to Micro-farm. In: Ozier-Lafontaine, H., Lesueur-Jannoyer, M. (eds) Sustainable Agriculture Reviews 14. Sustainable Agriculture Reviews, vol 14. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06016-3_12

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