AGRICULTURE CASE STUDY

+40%

Yield Increase

in Sunflower Microgreens

A controlled vertical-farm trial conducted at the Microshoots Laboratory (Dundee, UK) demonstrated that nanobOx nanobubble-treated water increased sunflower microgreens yield by approximately 40% over a 10-day growth cycle.

nanobOx nanobubble water increased biomass with no changes to inputs or growing conditions.

Key Outcomes:

1. Significant Biomass Increase (+40%)

nanobOx-treated trays delivered roughly 40% higher fresh weight at harvest. This magnitude of increase is substantial given the short crop cycle and high-density production typical of microgreens.

2. Improved Canopy Structure & Stem Physiology

Nanobubble-treated plants showed:

  • Denser and more uniform canopy coverage

  • Noticeably thicker stems

  • Improved turgor and structural robustness

Shoot height distribution remained similar to the control, suggesting that nanobubbles influenced overall mass accumulation more than vertical elongation.

3. Enhanced Crop Vigour

Treated trays exhibited vibrant colouration and no visual signs of abiotic stress. This indicates that nanobubbles may enhance water uptake, oxygen availability, or nutrient mobility within the substrate environment.

Technical Interpretation

Microgreens respond strongly to oxygen availability and water–substrate dynamics due to their rapid growth and shallow rooting. The results suggest that nanobubbles:

  • Increase dissolved oxygen stability in irrigation water

  • Improve root-zone oxygenation

  • Potentially influence nutrient solubility and diffusion

  • Enhance early root establishment, driving higher shoot mass

Because no fertilisers or environmental conditions were altered, the observed gains can be attributed to the water treatment variable alone.

Implications for Growers

This study demonstrates that nanobubble technology can:

  • Boost yield and product quality without additional inputs

  • Improve cycle efficiency in high-turnover crops

  • Integrate easily with existing irrigation systems

  • Deliver benefits that scale proportionally with tray volume and frequency

For commercial microgreens production, where margins are tight and throughput is critical , the ability to achieve a 40% yield uplift through water treatment alone is highly impactful.

Agricultural trial results: Comparison of sunflower microgreen growth showing significant yield increase using nanobOx nanobubble enriched irrigation water.

Control nanobOx

Data chart showing a significant increase in sunflower shoot biomass when using NanoBox nanobubble water compared to the control group on Day 10.

AGRICULTURE CASE STUDY

- 40% nitrogen

Yields Maintained in Tomato

A 2025 field trial conducted in Vila Franca de Xira, Portugal evaluated nanobOx nanobubble treatment of irrigation water under commercial outdoor drip fertigated processing tomato farming conditions. Despite starting late in the crop cycle and operating under near fully oxygen-saturated water conditions, the nanobOx treatment maintained crop yield and quality while reducing nitrogen application by 40%, demonstrating a substantial increase in nutrient-use efficiency and strong commercial potential for optimisation-focused agriculture.

Tomatoes growing in field in Portugal irrigated with NanobOx nanobubble-treated water and 40% less nitrogen.
Bar chart comparing nitrogen applied (Kg/Ha) between control and Nanobox treatments, with control at 407 Kg/Ha and Nanobox at 250 Kg/Ha.
Aerial images of a triangular field taken on four different dates, showing the progression of crop growth and health, with sections labeled S1 to S4, and sector tops marked.

Given ever tightening regulations around fertiliser use, the ability to maintain yield with such drastic reductions in nitrogen will be highly impactful to growers everywhere.

  • Crop: Processing tomatoes

  • Trial Type: 1.5 ha trial plot, drip-fertigated

  • nanobOx Equipment Used: Inline nanobubble generator, 36 m3/h water flow capacity

  • Treatment Duration: Start at 49 days after transplanting until one week before harvest

Key Results

1. Yield maintained using ~40% less nitrogen

Despite substantially reduced nitrogen, yield in the nanobOx-treated sector was only 2.7% lower than the fully fertilised control plots.

2. Mitigating negative effect of lower fertiliser

A neighbouring sector, which also received the 40% less fertiliser but without nanobOx nanobubble water treatment, showed significantly lower yield (−10.7% vs control), whereas the nanobOx-treated field outperformed it by +9.0% (11.9 t/ha).

Interpretation: nanobOx mitigated typical yield losses associated with fertiliser reduction, supporting better nutrient availability and fertiliser use efficiency.

3. Product quality maintained

  • Brix and colour were nearly identical between nanobOx and control

  • No negative impact on product quality attributes.

4. Seamless technical integration

nanobOx equipment operated continuously and integrated smoothly with the existing pressurised fertigation system, requiring no changes to pumps, hydraulics, or water scheduling.

Why These Results Matter

nanobOx nanobubble treatment demonstrated:

  • Strong fertiliser use efficiency (FUE)

  • Yield was maintained with much lower fertiliser applied

  • No negative impact on fruit quality

  • System reliability and low-maintenance operation of nanobOx

This shows that nanobOx provides significant economic and environmental advantages by reducing input costs and enabling growers to meet any regulatory limitations on fertiliser use.

Commercial Takeaways

nanobOx offers growers a pathway to:

  • Cut nitrogen use dramatically while maintaining yield

  • Improve fertiliser use efficiency

  • Increase environmental sustainability

  • Easy plug-and-play deployment without operational disruption

AGRICULTURE CASE STUDY

- 50% Fertiliser

Quality and Yield Maintained in Hydroponic Lettuce

Hydroponic and vertical farming systems depend on efficient nutrient and water use to deliver consistent, profitable yields. Rising fertiliser costs and the need to shorten crop cycles push growers to find new ways to increase efficiency without compromising plant health.

Microshoots Lab (Dundee, UK) has completed a series of controlled trials showing that nanobOx nanobubble technology can maintain full crop performance in hydroponic lettuce while reducing fertiliser use by up to 50%. This breakthrough suggests a step-change in how indoor farms can grow more with less -ower input costs, reduced environmental impact, and greater operational resilience.

Bar graph showing mean shoot yield in grams of lettuce 'Green Batavia' under control and water treatment with NanobOx nanobubbles, indicating higher yield with less fertilizer.
Hydroponic trial comparing Lettuce control group with 100% fertiliser and NanobOx nanobubble-treated group with 50% fertiliser.

The Challenge

Hydroponics is already resource-efficient, but fertiliser inputs remain one of the largest operating costs and environmental burdens. Microshoots Lab set out to answer a fundamental question:

Can growers maintain commercial-grade crop quality while significantly reducing nutrient strength?

The Approach

Working with a Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) system in the Microshoots Laboratory (Dundee, UK), researchers compared:

  • Control: Standard commercial hydroponic fertiliser program

  • nanobOx Treatment: Only 50% of the standard nutrient concentration, enriched with nanobOx nanobubbles

Throughout the growth cycle, the team monitored:

  • Leaf growth and visual quality

  • Root development

  • Stability of the nutrient solution (pH, EC, DO)

  • Overall nutrient uptake behaviour

Environmental conditions were kept within best-practice ranges for lettuce, ensuring a fair comparison.

The Results

1. Full-quality lettuce with half the fertiliser

Plants grown with nanobOx enrichment at 50% nutrients showed:

  • Equivalent shoot yield to the control

  • Normal leaf morphology, colour, and turgor

  • No visible nutrient deficiency symptoms

  • Bright, robust, healthy root systems

In short: nanobOx delivered the same outcomes with half the inputs.

2. More efficient nutrient uptake

The nutrient solution remained stable, and early indicators suggest the presence of nanobubbles enhances nutrient availability and uptake efficiency.

Why It Matters

Cutting fertiliser input by 50% without sacrificing crop quality can unlock:

  • Substantial cost savings per kg harvested

  • Reduced environmental footprint (manufacturing, transport, and runoff risk)

  • Greater resilience against supply chain shortages and regulatory pressure

This positions nanobOx as one of the most effective technologies available for boosting nutrient-use efficiency in controlled-environment agriculture.

AGRICULTURE CASE STUDY

+30% Yield

Faster Time to Harvest in Radish Microgreens

Microshoots Lab (Dundee, UK) has carried out multiple controlled trials showing that nanobOx nanobubble-treated water can increase radish microgreen yield by more than 30%, while also enabling trays to reach market-ready size up to one day earlier. These gains were achieved without changing lighting, substrate, seed rate, or nutrient recipe - only the water treatment was different. For high-throughput microgreen systems where margins are tight and rapid turnover is essential, these results point to a powerful opportunity to increase profitability and operational efficiency using nanobOx technology.

Bar graph comparing shoot harvest weight for control and nanobubble water treatments, with the nanobubble treatment showing higher weight.
Radish microgreens grown in coco coir, irrigated with or without nanobOx nanobubbles, showing greater yield with nanobubbles.

The Challenge

Radish microgreens grow rapidly, leaving very little room for improvement. Small changes in oxygen availability, moisture dynamics, or nutrient transport can greatly influence:

  • Biomass accumulation

  • Shoot strength

  • Root structure

  • Harvest timing

The goal: Can NanobOx nanobubble-enriched irrigation water meaningfully increase yield or accelerate growth without any other changes to the production system?

The Approach

Trial 1 - Yield Comparison (7 days)

  • Control: Standard filtered water

  • NanobOx treatment: Water enriched with nanobubbles

  • All other variables identical (seed density, substrate, nutrients, lighting)

Objective: Measure yield differences at typical harvest time.

Trial 2 - Harvest Timing Study (Days 5–7)

  • Trays harvested on Days 5, 6, and 7

  • Measured fresh weight and yield per gram of seed

Objective: Identify whether nanobubbles speed up maturity.

The Results

1.Over 30% higher yield at harvest

nanobOx-treated trays showed:

  • Stronger turgor

  • Thicker stems

  • More vigorous, dense root systems

  • Significantly greater fresh weight (>30% increase)

Across repeated cycles, this yield enhancement remained consistent.

2. Faster growth and earlier harvest readiness

Nanobubble irrigation accelerated crop development:

  • Day 6 nanobubble trays reached the same weight as the Day 7 control

  • Faster canopy coverage earlier in the cycle

  • Higher efficiency measured as yield per gram of seed

This effectively gives growers an extra harvest day - a major productivity benefit in microgreens production.

3. Better seed efficiency and biomass accumulation

nanobOx nanobubbles improved:

  • Nutrient transport

  • Root oxygen availability

  • Moisture balance in the substrate

The result: More output from the same amount of seed, energy, and labour.

AQUACULTURE CASE STUDY

35 g in 80 days

Average shrimp weight

NanobOx’s electric field nanobubble technology improved water conditions, supporting accelerated shrimp growth with weights up to 42 g.

In collaboraion with Three Sixty Aquaculture, NanobOx’s patented electric field nanobubble system was deployed in a shrimp RAS environment.

The trial demonstrated:

  • Increased biomass

  • Improved feed conversion

  • Shorter production cycles