Phytotron Technology Accelerates Innovation In A Changing World
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
2:00 PM - 2:20 PM
Every year, extreme weather destroys thousands of hectares of agricultural produce around the world. Meanwhile, farmers are forced to wait a few years to obtain commercial quantities of new or improved plants that would be more tolerant of these extremes. Various systems are being used to produce seedlings for subsequent field multiplication. Current solutions rely on hydroponic, aeroponic and tissue culture technologies, production in greenhouses, which requires significant space, energy and thousands of tissue plants produced in a sterile laboratory. A better and less expensive solution for initial planting material production is to employ CETS phytotrons. CETS LLC phytotron technology has been designed to accelerate breeding, germplasm evaluation as well as rapidly introduce commercial quantities of new or improved plants varieties. However, greenhouses present their own set of challenges, requiring significant space, energy, water, and thousands of expensive plantlets that are typically produced in the laboratory following a very strict costly sterile procedure. Perhaps most importantly, a greenhouse requires an unrelenting, labor intensive control of the inevitable pests and diseases. This is the biggest challenge in greenhouse research and farming. In contrast, CETS LLC (Controlled Environment Technology System) provides a less expensive solution. Only 10 phytotrons, requiring 1000 square feet space, Only 100 tissue plantlets (purchased annually from variety owner), $4,000.00 of energy and 30 hours of labor per week will clonally propagate millions seedlings every three weeks for direct field planting. This technology will pay for itself after 3 years. The CETS phytotron interior walls and floor are stainless steel and consequently thoroughly sanitized after each harvest. More costly disinfection is not required. The sanitizing procedures eliminate any possibility of carry-over disease from one growth period to subsequent ones. This feature plus the use of fresh rooting material for subsequent plantings and fresh nutrient solution during the growth period, provides an optimum solution for elimination of any potential for disease infection during the production of disease-free planting material.