CTI funding for a study on plant electrophysiology | Phytl Signs

par Agroscope Conthey

Agroscope received the support of the Commission for Technology and Innovation CTI for the project on the electrophysiology of greenhouse plants together with three partner organizations. The basis for this was a promising preliminary study. 

Cédric Camps of the group “greenhouse cultures” will carry out the study together with the Swiss startup Vivent , which produces innovative biosensors. Other contributors are Dr Marco Mazza of the University of Applied Sciences Freiburg HES Friborg and Dr Laura-Elena Raileanu of the HEIG-VD .

The four organizations will investigate plant physiology in this project by recording electrical signals from plants. For the interpretation of this data, high technology used in medicine for data acquisition and modeling will be used. The goals of the study are:

• the development of a multi-channel electrophysiological receiver device,
• its use for detecting electrical signals from greenhouse plants,
• the evaluation of the data by means of suitable algorithms to characterize the stimuli of the plants,
• the first concrete results of this innovative new tool for practical use with greenhouse crops (fertilization, pests, etc.)

Thanks to this project, Agroscope will gain valuable new knowledge in plant physiology, tackling one of the great challenges of specialty crops: managing a greenhouse culture in real time thanks to non-destructive monitoring.

Read more on Agroscope’s webpage Agroscope News