Root Zone Chilling: Handling the Heat

Heat loading in indoor hydroponic gardens is a common problem. The

combination of high intensity lighting, small enclosed spaces, limited air
exchange and sweltering summers all take their toll on plants. Small volumes
of recirculating nutrient and restricted growing containers also make a
contribution to heat build-up in the root zone, often to the point where roots
can cook without the grower even being aware of the problem. A hot
environment is hard to handle, often rather expensive to keep cool, and if
combined with high humidity, the tropical conditions have some nasty
consequences for plant growth and development. However, hydroponic
systems can offer some significant advantages when it comes to a little
manipulation of a plants physiology to boost yields and keep crops happy.
Root zone temperature strongly affects shoot growth. In fact root zone
temperatures play more of a role in growth and development than that of the
air surrounding the plant. This is because the root tissue sends numerous
`non hydraulic messages to the shoot, which influence the way the shoot
responds to the environment. So with many plant functions under the control
of what goes on down in the roots, temperature in the root zone becomes an
extremely important factor to be keeping an eye on.

Ignorance is not bliss

Many of us have probably seen the effects of high air temperatures of crops
wilting, reductions in growth, tip burn, premature bolting, loss of chlorophyll
(leaves going pale and yellow), flower and fruit let drop, overall losses in yield
and increases in root disease pathogens such as pythium that prey on
stressed root tissue. At high temperatures, plant tissue has a rapidly
increased rate of respiration that burns up sugars produced during
photosynthesis, leaving much less for growth and development.

Lettuce being grown in a deep flow system with chilled nutrient solution
under tropical conditions, showing the impressive root structure of aeroponic
production.
While most growers keep a regular check on the air temperature surrounding
their plants and aim to keep this within an ideal range for the species being

grown, few realize the potential of root zone temperature control. Nutrient
temperature build-up can be surprisingly fast and become excessive under
hot lights and in systems with very limited root zones, so regular root zone
temperature checks are a good idea. Research has shown that even a short
duration, less than 30 minutes of root zone heat build-up, can have a very
negative effect on many crops, which can not be compensated by having a
low daily temperature average. Just a few minutes a day of root zone
temperatures over 86F have been shown to retard the growth of some heat
sensitive crops such as lettuce and parsley.

Root zone temperature physiology

It seems that chilling in the root zone via the nutrient solution affects the
plants physiology in a number of different ways, which allows the aerial
portion of the plant to withstand higher than optimal temperatures. Firstly, we
know a cooler nutrient solution holds more dissolved oxygen for root uptake,
so that oxygen starvation is likely to be far less of a problem than it would be
with a warm nutrient. Secondly cooling of the roots to well below ambient air
temperatures seems to allow higher assimilation rates by reducing both
photo inhibition and stomatal closure that typically occur once the plant
becomes temperature stressed. What is even more interesting is that the
positive effects of nutrient chilling seem to be largely the result of changes in
the production of plant growth hormones abcissic acid (ABA) and cytokinins
that control a range of plant responses. Cytokinins are mainly synthesized in
roots and any environmental stress in this tissue such as high temperature,
results in a shortage of this hormone being sent up to the shoots. Very low
cytokinin concentrations in the roots of even warm season crops have been
found after only five days at 90 to 100F suggesting that the response of
cyctokinin deficiency to high temperatures is very rapid. Cytokinins are
important as they stimulate cell division, cell enlargement, chloroplast
formation, synthesis of chlorophylls and proteins and in general, drive plant
growth and development. The small leaf area, stunted growth and leaf
yellowing often seen in heat stressed plants may be at least particularly
attributable to a reduction in cytokinin synthesis in the roots. ABA is known as
a stress hormone and has been found to increase in leaves when roots are
exposed to high temperatures. ABA is inhibitory to growth and results in
stomatal closure and the reduction in photosynthesis that results as the plant
starts to shut down.

Tricking plants into handling the heat

Apart from keeping a close check on root zone temperatures to make sure
they are not over heating and cooking the roots, there is a well proven
technique that can be used to fool the physiology of many plants into
handling higher then optimal air temperatures. Root zone chilling of the
hydroponic nutrient solution is a technique being used commercially by many
growers in warm or tropical climates, most often with cool season crops such
as butter head lettuce, herbs and other vegetables. In Singapore NFT,
aeroponic and deep flow culture systems are utilized with extensive nutrient
chilling to grow butter head and Romaine lettuce, crops that otherwise do not
grow or yield well at ambient air temperatures. Chilling the nutrient solution
down to as low as 61 to 64F, allows the cool season vegetables to crop well
at ambient air temperatures that are often well above optimal for these crops
(82 to 97F). Without nutrient chilling, the root zone usually warms to the
level of the air and this give numerous growth problems including slow
growth, lack of heart formation, bolting, tip burn and low marketable yields.
Other researchers have reported that nutrient chilling of lettuce also reduces
the occurrence of the fungal root disease Pythium aphanidermatum. Chilling
the nutrient tricks the physiology of the plant into growing in air
temperatures that would otherwise not be economic. However, trials have
shown that while root zone chilling via nutrient cooling can have these
effects, the root zone cooling must be applied soon after early crop
establishment and maintained for the life of the crop for maximum effect.

...we know a cooler nutrient solution holds more dissolved oxygen for root
uptake, so that oxygen starvation is likely to be far less of a problem than it
would be with a warm nutrient.While this technique of root zone chilling is
perhaps more economically viable with high value crops in tropical climates
such as cool season lettuce, herbs and other vegetables, it has also proven to
be beneficial for other species. Warm season plants such as capsicum and
cucumber have also been shown in research trials to respond in a similar way
to root zone chilling when ambient air temperatures are higher than optimal
for their growth and development. Cucumber is a warm season plant whose
optimal root zone temperature lies around 77F; once root temperatures
increase to 95F, severe reductions in shoot growth can begin to occur.
Cucumbers grown at high air temperatures (100F) have been found to have
a larger leaf area and higher yield when the root zone was cooled to below
77F. Capsicum (sweet pepper), another warm season crop has been found to
respond to nutrient chilling when grown under warm aerial conditions in
tropical Singapore. It was found that capsicum plants grown at a root
temperature of 68F had more leaves, greater leaf area and dry weight than
plants grown at ambient root zone temperatures of 77 to 104F even though

both were under the same ambient tropical conditions of high temperature
and light intensities. Under normal growing conditions for capsicum (71 to
79F), having a nutrient solution temperature of 68F would result in growth
reductions, however, under the high temperature tropical conditions, root
zone chilling to 68F had significant benefits to crop growth and development
via altering the physiology of the plant to handle the temperature stress. Red
basil plants, while normally considered to be a fairly warm season crop, have
been found to have increased vegetative growth, more intensive
development of purple anthocycanin pigment as well as increased
development of aromatic compounds in the leaves when grown in a chilled
nutrient at 77 to 79F under tropical conditions.

Cool season vs. warm season crops and nutrient chilling

Obviously for the technique of root zone chilling via the nutrient solution to
work effectively the correct temperature needs to be constantly maintained
and this optimal temperature is likely to not be the same for all species. Cool
season crops such as lettuce may benefit from nutrient chilling to a cooler
temperature than warm season crops and there is evidence to suggest that
root zone chilling is only beneficial when ambient air temperatures are
consistently higher than optimal. Furthermore, as with any technique or
treatment, overdoing it can have some fairly drastic resultschilling the
nutrient in a crop that is not under high air temperatures could potentially
result in growth reductions or chilling damage, particularly with warm season
plants. Such over chilling results in root tissue damage and decay, reduction
in nutrient ion absorption and water uptake.

Best systems for nutrient chilling

Various studies on the effect of nutrient or root zone chilling for hydroponic
crops under high heat conditions have shown that deep flow water culture
gives the best results for many crops such as lettuce, herbs and other
vegetables. Aeroponics and nutrient film techniques are also commonly
utilized for root zone chilling; however, these seem less effective than deep
flow methods. It is possible that the larger volume of chilled nutrient solution
in deep flow systems maintains cooler temperatures for longer, while the thin
(two to three millimeters deep) flow of NFT and fine mist of aeroponics tend
to heat up more during application. Another possibility is that the more of the

root system that is submerged in the chilled nutrient, the greater the effect
on the physiology of the plant. In general, however, solution culture methods
are the only effective way of providing consistent chilled nutrient solution and
in insulated systems can be reasonably cost effective.