Recycling of drained nutrient solution in hydroponic cultivation of horticultural crops is important in the conservation of the water resources, reduction of production costs and prevention of environmental contamination. Objective of this research was to obtain the fundamental data for the development of a recirculation system of hydroponic solution in semi-forcing cultivation of ‘Bonus’ tomato. To achieve the objective, tomato plants were cultivated for 110 days and the contents of inorganic elements in plant, supplied and drained nutrient solution were analyzed when crop growth were in the flowering stage of 2nd to 8th fruiting nodes. The T-N content of the plants based on above-ground tissue were 4.1% at the flowering stage of 2nd fruiting nodes (just after transplanting), and gradually get lowered to 3.9% at the flowering stage of 8th fruiting nodes. The tissue P contents were also high in very early stage of growth and development and were maintained to similar contents in the flowering stage of 3rd to 7th fruiting nodes, but were lowed in 8th node stages. The tissue Ca, Mg and Na contents in early growth stages were lower than late growth stages and the contents showed tendencies to rise as plants grew. The concentration differences of supplied nutrient solution and drained solution in NO3-N, P, K, Ca, and Mg were not significant until 5 weeks after transplanting, but the concentration of those elements in drained solution rose gradually and maintained higher than those in supplied solution. The concentrations of B, Fe, and Na in drained solution were slightly higher in the early stages of growth and development and were significantly higher in the mid to late stages of growth than those in supplied solution. The above results would be used as a fundamental data for the correction in the inorganic element concentrations of drained solution for semi-forcing hydroponic cultivation of tomato.

As basic research to develop HEV and EV agricultural field machinery, the present study analyzes the technical trend of electric agricultural field machinery through product analysis, paper analysis, and patent analysis concerning HEV and EV in the automobile, construction machinery, and agricultural machinery sectors. For product analysis, the homepages of companies in these sectors were consulted to analyze the number of products of each company. For paper analysis, key words related to HEV and EV were selected, a search formula was drawn up, and articles search sites were consulted. And for patent analysis too, key words were selected and then a search formula was drawn up to examine published patent applications or registered patent applications, and trends were analyzed by structure, country, and year. The number of HEV and EV products were 17 in the automobile area, 8 in construction machinery, and 4 in agricultural machinery. Notably, in the agricultural machinery area, all HEV and EV products were from advanced companies overseas. In terms of papers, papers published in the past 5 years were searched and 33,195 papers were from the automobile area, 3,806 were from construction machinery, and 2,687, the fewest papers, were from the agricultural machinery area. A search of patents in the electric drive technology area in Korea, USA, and Japan, and Europe showed 1,927 valid patents, with 1,120 in Japan, 497 in USA, 193 in Korea, and 117 in Europe. Analysis of the trend of research on electric agricultural field machinery by product, paper, and patent shows the development of HEV and EV technology in Korea is insufficient compared to USA, Japan, and Europe, which means rapid technological development is needed.