greenhouse-technology
Greenhouse technology encompasses controlled-environment structures that regulate temperature, humidity, and light exposure to create optimized growing conditions for plants year-round. By manipulating these environmental variables, researchers can study plant physiology, growth responses, and stress tolerance under precise, reproducible conditions independent of external climate. This makes greenhouses an essential tool for accelerating crop improvement research, testing new cultivation methods, and understanding how plants respond to changing environmental factors.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-04-15
A review finds that cold plasma technology — an ionized gas created at room temperature — can effectively kill plant viruses on seeds, surfaces, and in irrigation water without chemical residues, offering a promising new tool for protecting crops from viral diseases.
Cold plasma generates reactive chemical species (including ozone and nitrogen oxides) that inactivate plant viruses by oxidizing and denaturing capsid proteins and damaging viral genomes, suppressing replication.
Highly stable, hard-to-kill plant viruses lose infectivity when treated with cold plasma or plasma-activated water, making it effective even against robust pathogens in irrigation and hydroponic systems.
Plasma-activated water shows particular promise for sanitizing recirculating hydroponic solutions and contact surfaces, though standardized dosing metrics and large-scale commercial validation are still needed.