Progress 07/15/15 to 03/14/16
Outputs
Target Audience:Technologies that enhance commercial horticulture production is needed to increase the competitiveness of U.S. flowering potted plant, bedding plant, and cut flower production, seasonal crops, annuals, and perennials. The technologies developed in the program directly address the impact of plant pathogens in both recycled irrigation water and water released from the horticultural operations. The clean water can be discharged to ground and surface waters or can be reused for agriculture thereby improving the quality of our water resources. Target audience for the project includes both agricultural and environmental community. The equipment supplier will also benefit from the program through opportunities to market a pathogen control system suitable for green house. Changes/Problems:The initial plan was to test the media on two different crops. However, due to the problem innoculation of zoospores during the 1st trial only one crop (squash) was used during both trials. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Several students participated in this program at Michigan State University, primarily for testing and application of the media. The program provided the oppurtunity for the students to develop techniques to evaluate a novel dual functionality media for control of plant pathogen from irrigation water. The students also designed and developed experimental set up for evaluation of the media. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?
Nothing Reported
What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During Phase I, MetaMateria was primarily responsible for media development. Performance of the media was evaluated at MSU using their custom-built greenhouse filtration testing systems. Followings tasks were completed to achieve the goals of the program Task 1: Development of the new dual functionality media Task 2: Testing of the media performance with a vegetable crop and a floriculture crop Task 3: Assess chemical water quality of treated irrigation water regarding potential nutrient composition changes and phytotoxic microelements. The platform technology used to produce the highly porous ceramic substrate has a typical surface area of~15-20 m2/gm and a density of ~0.45 gm/cc. Three different shapes were produced, 1.59 cm (5/8″) cubes, 10.16 cm (4″) discs with 1.9 cm (0.75″) height and 15.24 cm (6″) discs with 1.9 cm (0.75″) height. The three types of media were modified with (i) iron oxide/oxyhydroxide, (ii) copper oxide/hydroxide and (iii) both iron oxide/oxyhydroxide and copper oxide/hydroxide nanomaterials to achieve the dual functionality. The two columns (Sample 1: Modified with iron oxide/hydroxide and Sample 2: Modified with copper oxide/hydroxide) were used to evaluate removal of E.coli. Based on the results obtained using columns for E.coli removal, three columns of 15.24 cm (6″) diameter and 50 cm in length were prepared and sent to MSU for further evaluation. These columns contained (i) iron oxide/oxyhydroxide, (ii) copper oxide/hydroxide and (iii) both iron oxide/oxyhydroxide and copper oxide/hydroxide nanomaterials. Two 10.16 cm diameter and 60.96 cm long columns modified by iron oxide/oxyhydroxide and copper oxide/hydroxide were also supplied to MSU. Columns, containing filter media with surface modification of either iron oxide/oxyhydroxide, copper oxide/hydroxide, or mixed iron oxide/oxyhydroxide and copper oxide were supplied to MSU and were evaluated for controlling plant disease outbreak at a custom-built greenhouse small-scale filtration system that recycle pathogen-inoculated irrigation water The tasks completed by the MSU team include: 1) Used the MSU small-scale greenhouse filtration systems to evaluate the media performance on removing and inactivating plant pathogens (Phytophthora capcisi) for squash crop; 2) Evaluated the pathogen removal efficiency under varying water flow rates; 3) Evaluated P sorption capacity of the media in batch-type or flow-through systems. It was found, that the filter media coated with iron oxide (i.e., #3-2 and iron oxide) had the greatest phosphate sorption capacity, whereas the unmodified media (#C) had the lowest. Copper oxide coating only slightly improved phosphate sorption capacity, especially for the filter media #2, compared to the unmodified control media. Therefore, copper oxide coating did not have a strong capacity to remove phosphate from water. This was supported by the slight reduction of phosphate sorption for the filter media coated with the hybrid copper oxide and iron oxide (#3-2), comparing with the iron oxide coated filter media. One 4-inch column (2 feet long) with copper oxide coated media was tested for the phosphate removal under fast flow condition suited for filtering irrigation water in greenhouses. The purpose was to evaluate if the filter media would remove substantial phosphate from irrigation water, and thus reduce the fertilizer concentration in irrigation water. Synthetic irrigation water was prepared with a commercial fertilizer to obtain desired phosphate and nitrogen concentration. This result showed that even at the fast flow condition, the copper oxide coated filter media could still remove the phosphate from water, despite its relative low phosphate sorption capacity. The phosphate removal capacity appeared to be quickly diminished because at the second trial, much greater phosphate effluent concentrations were observed. Therefore, the loss of phosphate to copper oxide coated media might not be substantial over the long term. However, the phosphate removal by iron oxide coated media needs to be evaluated because of its much greater phosphate sorption capacity. Three 6-inch columns containing filter media coated with either iron oxide (IOCM), copper oxide (COCM), or hybrid copper oxide and iron oxide (IOCM+COCM) were evaluated for controlling plant disease outbreak for a vegetable crop (i.e., squash) using MSU custom-built greenhouse small-scale filtration systems that recycle pathogen-inoculated irrigation water. These columns were 6 inch in diameter and 20 inch in height. Squash was used to test the control of Phytophthora by the filter media, as our previous work has demonstrated that squash is very sensitive to infection by this pathogen. A positive control with plant pathogen and no filtration was included. Fungicide treatment was also included for comparison purpose. Two trials were performed. The inoculation concentration of Phytophthora zoospores was 1800 spores/mL. The results showed that the IOCM filter was more effective in controlling the plant disease than the COCM and hybrid IOCM+COCM filters. In Trial 2 two previously used monolith IOCM, a new granular IOCM, and sand filters were used. The first pathogen inoculation was 3450 spores/mL. A second inoculation was performed at the 11 days after the first inoculation at 466 spores/mL. The first inoculation was two times of the previous inoculation level (i.e., 1800 spore/mL), which was intended to evaluate the performance of the filtration systems under higher pathogen loads. It was found that the used monolith IOCM filters was effective in controlling the higher load of pathogens until the second inoculation, and the new granular IOCM was less effective comparing with the used monolith filter media. A 1-inch column containing IOCM was tested to evaluate the pathogen removal at varying flow rate so as to understand how pathogen removal might vary with water flow rate. It was found that the pathogen removal was similar under tested flow rates.
Publications
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