- Space
to grow
- May 5,1997
By Felicia Jordan
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer
- A Berthoud company's method of helping plants
fight diseases is going into space as part of a study on how crops might
be produced on future space stations.
Aeroponics International has spent the last few years perfecting an organic disease control . method to help plants fight off fungal infections.
Sealed test tubes containing treated seeds will fly to the Russian space station Mir aboard a U.S. shuttle flight in September. The method might be used someday to grow food for future long term space missions or colonies.
Reporter-Herald/Bill
Snow Jr.
Dr. Jim Linden, left, Dr. Ken Knutson and Richard Stoner of Aeroponics International are planning an experiment for crop disease control on the Mir space station.
The company surrounds the plant's seed with an organic compound that activates the plant's natural defenses, said company President, Richard J. Stoner.
"The encased seed is then planted in the ground. The compound stimulates the production of disease fighting enzymes in the plant. The advantage is the plant is predisposed to fighting the disease," said Dr. Jim Linden, co-inventor of the method and a microbiologist at Colorado State University.
We've had several field tests with encapsulated potatoes, and we've been able to statistically verify that organic disease control decreases common diseases," said company vice president and co inventor Ken Knutson.
Microbes that cause diseases could be introduced into a colony by space flights or be carried within the seeds themselves, he said.
Using chemicals to kill plant diseases in space likely would poison the inhabitants of an enclosed colony, Stoner said. The big advantage of Aeroponics International's method is that it protects plants without the use of pesticides or herbicides, Knutson said.
The method also does not require genetic manipulation of the plant itself.
"It's a significant departure from the traditional methods of disease control," Knutson said. "We're really excited about the possibilities. It comes at a time when the whole world is concerned with the use of pesticides."
The company has tested its method mainly on potatoes.
"We have reason to believe our technology will work on a wide variety of crops, " Knutson said.
Aeroponics International is looking for commercial partners to help market the technique once it's perfected.
"We're a research company right now. The technology is so new that our research efforts will be long term," Stoner said. "There's a lot we need to find out before we market this as a commercial product. "
