Hydrogel for soil-less farming
The super-absorbent biopolymer material retains water and reportedly presents a fully biodegradable system.
At Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) laboratories in Genoa, Italy, researchers have produced hydrogels from biopolymers, specifically carrageenan, a polysaccharide extracted from red algae and widely used for its gelling, thickening, and stabilising properties.
The resulting hydrogel is said to be biodegradable and can be safely applied to soil.
The team enriched the porous material with whole-algae extracts, which serve as biostimulants: substances that stimulate natural plant processes to improve nutrient efficiency, stress tolerance, and crop quality, regardless of nutrient content.
The final material reportedly has ideal properties for hydroponic agriculture, and requires only minimal amounts of water.
The study has been published in the American Chemical Society (ACS)’s journal Agricultural Science & Technology.
Partner researchers at the Faculty of Engineering of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (UniBz), Italy, plan to integrate flexible, biodegradable sensors into the hydrogel scaffolds, enabling precision farming by monitoring plant health and soil conditions in real time.
