Abstract
The endeavour to employ CO2 from natural sources to improve plant growth is often challenging, especiallyin tropical climates. While mycelium bags from the mushroom industry can generate CO2, they need indoorconditions with controlled temperature, high humidity, and low light. These conditions are not present inopen fields, leading to low CO2 production. Inspired by the ancient clay evaporative cooling device calledthe zeer pot, a new solution was developed to address this problem. The eventual design was a confinementchamber that housed the mycelium bags and the okra seedlings. The chamber conditions were sufficientlyconducive for the mycelium bags to produce an ambient CO2 level of around 800 ppm during the day. Theresulting okra seedlings under this high CO2 concentration of natural origin had a notable increase in overallbiomass accumulation (+ 277%), carbon assimilation rate (+103%) as well as improved water use efficiency(+95%) compared to seedlings grown under ambient CO2 level. These promising findings not only provedthe capability of mycelium as a natural CO2 generator but also as an additional economic potential for thefarmers to gain income from the CO2-enriched crops as well as the harvested mushroom bodies at the timeof mycelium bags maturity. Furthermore, this simple innovation opens the avenue for furtherinterdisciplinary research in other agricultural efforts to improve crop yield and quality.
Published Version
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