Hydroponics

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Introduction

It may sound complicated to become a hydroponic grower, however, actually with the right guidance and patience hydroponics can produce more food per square metre than you think. You can do this growing higher quality produce, in a faster time while being located in the middle of your city. Hydroponics is a great solution for food production and is becoming more and more popular primarily because of its efficiency. One of the main advantages of hydroponics is that it can solve the problem of food loss due to external environmental catastrophes! And, unlike many people think, it can be as nutritious as food grown in soil because nutrition is a matter of balancing your nutrients and feeding these properly to your growing crops.

This section provides an introduction to the knowledge necessary to enter into the wonderful world of hydroponics. And if you are interested in what you learn, then I can assure you that there is more science to be explored with this.

What you can learn

In the links to learn section you can get a basic introduction and understanding of hydroponics. There is information about the different parts of the hydroponic system and the different types of hydroponic systems. There are also videos covering this learning.

The measurement section will help you understand what you need to know about PH levels; nutrient and water solutions; water temperature and oxygen; substrate and growing medium. There are also videos covering this learning.

If you want to learn how to build a DIY hydroponics system, look at professional models and see how hydroponics works in industrial greenhouses then we have that covered too.

At the bottom of the page we have included some questions to help you with your learning and please use the forum to answer the forum questions or to post questions of your own to the community learning with you.

 

Basics of Hydroponics

by Alice Bulukin

NFT-system explained in 6 minutes

Eb & Flow explained in 6 minutes

DWC explained in 6 minutes

PH Level

And all you need to know about it

pH for Hydroponics 101

pH for Hydroponics 102

pH for Hydroponics 103

Nutrients

Beginner guide for Hydroponic nutrients and how to manage them

A Beginners Guide: Hydroponic Nutrients

Bright Agrotech

Dr. Chris Currey of Iowa State University

Designing & Building DIY Home hydroponic system:

DIY Hydroponic NFT PVC System – Greenhouse Everbearing Strawberries

Small DIY Drip-irrigated DWC system

Small DIY Drip-irrigated DWC system (part 1)

Small DIY Drip-irrigated DWC system (part 2)

How to build a Bato-Bucket system (by Bright Agrotech)

 

Professional hydroponic systems

Closed loop professional greenhouse

Greenhouses

Introduction

The Future of Farming: Hydroponic Tomatoes

How Vertical farms will solve the land problem

DIY Resources

Building a greenhouse at home

Part 1

Part 4

Part 2

Part 5

Part 3

Part 6

Another example

Cheap DIY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thcOugEKOr0

Aeroponics

Sophisticated farm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_tvJtUHnmU

Hydroponics vs Aeroponics vs Soil Growing Systems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlANYrr4g5Q

Copyright http://www.hydro-scope.com/index_en.html

Questions

  • PH level:
      1. What is PH level and why is it important?
      2. How do you measure Ph level?
      3. Would all the crops need the same Ph level?
      4. Would growing steps of the same crop need the same PH level?
      5. How do you rise PH level?
      6. How do you decrease PH level?
      7. What will happen if the PH is too high?
  • Nutrient & water solution:
      1. What is water solution?
      2. How do you measure the solution?
      3. Do all the crops need the same solution?
      4. Is there different nutrient requirements for different growing steps?
  • Water temperature & oxygen
      1. Why is the water temperature important?
      2. Is there any relation between water temperature and oxygen?
      3. How can you raise the dissolved oxygen in the water solution?
  • Substrate & growing medium:
      1. What is the difference between growing medium and substrate?
      2. What is the role of the growing medium?
      3. What is the role of substrate?
      4. Is it possible to grow without any substrate at all?
      5. Which kind of substrates are commonly used today in professional horticulture?
  • Hydroponic systems:
    1. Describe the different parts that hydroponic system has.
    2. Which hydroponic system are used and what is the difference between them?
    3. What is NFT system?
    4. What is DWC system?
  1. Greenhouses
  1. What is the importance of a greenhouse?
  2. What are some of the basic requirements?
  3. What is being produced and how is it more efficient?
  4. Where do you think this industry is going?

Forum Questions

  1. What is your preferred hydroponic system? Why does it fit better with your project?
  2. What plants do you want to grow?
  3. Where are you going to grow? How big?
  4. What technology would you use?
  5. What are in your experience with hydroponics the biggest challenges you faced or are still facing?