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

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

Parameter

Geoponics (i.e. soil/sand)

Agar plates

Aggregate hydroponics

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

  1. * Can use either the low or high density trays.
  2. 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).