Protocol: optimising hydroponic growth systems for nutritional and physiological analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana and other plants

Table 1 Advantages and disadvantages between geoponics, agar plates and three distinct aggregate hydroponics methods for cultivating arabidopsis plants

Parameter	Geoponics (i.e. soil/sand)	Agar plates	Aggregate hydroponics
Parameter	Geoponics (i.e. soil/sand)	Agar plates	Polystyrene/ Rockwool	Araponics©	This system (Conn *et al.*)
Setup costs	Low	Low	Low	High	Low
Running costs
Media	Low	Intermediate	Low	Intermediate	Low
Equipment	Low	Intermediate	Low	Intermediate	Low
Footprint	Small	Small	Small	Small-to- Intermediate*	Small
Sterile culture	No	Yes	No	No	No
Batch variability	High	Low	Low	Low	Low
Experimental Flexibility	Low	Intermediate	High	High	High
Contamination (algal, bacterial)	Medium	High	High	Low	Low
Throughput	High	Intermediate	Intermediate	Intermediate	Intermediate
Root entanglement	Yes	Potential	Yes	Yes	No
Developmental window	Mature plants	< 3 week-old seedlings	Mature plants	Mature plants	Mature plants

* Can use either the low or high density trays.
The system presented in this manuscript is regarded as agar-based, aggregate hydroponics. Estimated setup costs for Araponics system is approximately US$4 per plant, while for the system presented in this paper is US$0.81 (based on 140 plants, pricing as per January 2013, http://www.araponics.com).