Growing Potatoes Upside Down

A new technology makes soil no longer necessary to grow potatoes, or at least seed potatoes for now, proved a new research project carried out by Newco – Potato Technology Transference Company, and Neiker-Tecnalia – the Basque Institute for Agricultural Research and Development.

The team of researchers managed to produce tubers in the air, thanks to a new system called aeroponics, which increases productivity (obtaining 20 tubers instead of 3-4), reduces the percentage of soil-based diseases, as well as the necessary amount of water and fertilizers, and feeds the plant the necessary compounds at every phase of its development.

The principle of aeroponics is growing seed potatoes (in this case) in a greenhouse, by keeping the roots of the plant in the air in complete darkness, applying nutrients to the roots through a nebuliser system and spraying nutrient-enriched water on them, periodically.

Thanks to aeroponics, the roots grow with a very high exposure to air and avoid the contact of tubers with possible soil pathogens.

As a consequence, the production per plant is very high and the price of the tuber becomes very low.

Still, there are some strict rules that must be followed, starting with the in vitro multiplication of healthy plants.

They are then cultivated to obtain the very healthy tuber-seeds or mini-tubers, which are the first generation seeds (prebasic), and represent that starting point in obtaining the basic seed, either in elite or SuperElite category.

The potato that gets to our kitchen is produced out of the Certificate A seed, that comes from this basic seed.

Aeroponics allow the harvesting of the tubers at optimum growth, which means that future potato production will be quite homogeneous.

The Newco and Neiker-Tecnalia method aims to replace the conventional production method for first generation seed potatoes, which is very labor intensive and has very high costs.

This is a pioneer project in Spain, but in other countries, aeroponics and hydroponics are already opted for, as they are more sustainable and give better crops.

Maybe that from now on, Spain will no longer import seed potatoes from France, Holland and Scotland.