Ethyleneproduction as an indicator of stress conditions in hydroponically-grown strawberries

As a soilless system, hydroponics eliminates competing weeds and soil-born pests while conserving water and providing conditions that can be quickly altered to suit specific crops. However, stress-induced physiological conditions may arise within the system from factors such as mechanical injury, pests, or inconsistent nutrient flow rates that result in some plants receiving too much or too little water. Most abiotic stress conditions result in increased production of the plant hormone ethylene. High levels of ethylene inhibit growth, cause premature ripening, and induce the onset of senescence, potentially reducing the productivity of hydroponically-grown crops. In this study, we demonstrate that assessing ethylene levels from leaves of hydroponically-grown strawberry plants can be used as an early indicator of stress conditions. Our results demonstrate that there is no significant correlation between ethylene production and temperatures ranging from 15 to 37 °C or with light intensities ranging from 63 to 1500 μmol m−2 s−1. However, an increase in ethylene production tended to be positively correlated with sampling time; levels were higher during midday compared to early morning or later afternoon. The daily ethylene fluctuations under greenhouse conditions due to sampling time, light intensity, or temperature changes were not significantly high enough to indicate stress conditions. Overall, three system analyses showed altered ethylene production in plants farthest from the pump supplying the nutrient solution. This effect was interpreted to be caused by excess accumulation of nutrient solution around the plant roots, causing increased ethylene production in the leaves. Our results indicate that different watering patterns, manifested as pump pressure or drainage control, was the more difficult component to control in the design of these hydroponic systems. For example, in one system, an increase in ethylene production was measured for the position farthest from the pump, and resulted in those plants having a lower number of flowers and significantly reduced overall plant radii relative to the system average. In a separate experiment, plants from trays that had been flooded for 24 h showed a significant decrease in the plant radii and number of leaves and flowers 1 month after the flooding treatment. We conclude that system-wide ethylene measurements can be used to identify stressed plants within hydroponic systems. This type of analysis would be especially useful as an indicator of general stress conditions no matter the cause, identifying locations that may result in lower plant productivity