Techniques in Hydroponics culture: What is best?
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by: hydroponics
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Hydroponics culture has
been used widely and has been proven to make agriculture more
efficient and effective, at lower overhead costs and high quality
standard of produce.
Hydroponics mainly has
two different methods of culture. These are the solution and the
medium culture. Solution culture uses nutrient solution on its
procedure. The three types of solution culture are static solution
culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics. Medium
culture on the other hand, uses solid media in its culture. It can be
gravel, soil and sand. Two main variations for each medium, sub
irrigation and top irrigation.
Static solution
culture. In static culture,
plants are grown using containers. It may be of glass, plastic
containers, tubings or tanks. Condition for culture is monitored such
as the solution of the nutrient been applied to the plants. In this
solution, culture may be aerated or not. In unaerated condition, the
nutrient solution is kept low enough so that the roots can be exposed
to the air, to supply its oxygen needs. However, aeration can also be
provided through the use of aquarium pump, airline tubing and valves.
When the nutrient solution has been depleted to a low level, fresh
water may be added. An example of culture that uses such procedure is
on garden hydroponics, this may be due to its space minimum
requirement.
Continuous flow
solution culture. Continuous
flow solution culture has the nutrient solution flowing past the
roots. This is done on large container, where solution may be kept
concentrated and potentially serves thousands of plants. A popular
variation of this is the NFT. NFT is Nutrient Film Technique where
solution is kept at a film level to enable roots exposed for aeration
and the nutrient is circulated through watertight gully called
channels. The advantage of using Nutrient Film Technique over other
solution culture is that it gives the plant adequate supply of
oxygen, nutrient and water, where in some techniques, irregularity
may occur. However, a downside of this technique may be on power
outages and water clogging.
The
key to effective Nutrient Film Technique is having the right slope
pattern for the culture. Practically the ratio for this design is
practiced at slopes of 1:30 to 1:40. Higher yields of high quality
produce are obtained over an extended period of cropping.
Aeroponics.
Aeroponics, as defined by wikipedia, is
a system where roots are continuously or discontinuously in an
environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient
solution. This entails
the plants to be suspended in the air. The key for this technique is
proper aeration. Aeroponics is widely used in studies of plant
physiology in laboratories.
Medium
Culture. Medium culture as pre-defined in the above statement is the
hydroponics culture with the use of gravel, sand or any solid media.
Subirrigation and top
irrigation. Sub-irrigation or
passive hydroponics is “a
method where plants are grown in inert porous medium that transports
water and fertilizer to the roots by capillary action from a separate
reservoir as necessary, reducing labor and providing a constant
supply of water to the roots,”
wikipedia. A simple technique of this is the container is placed over
a solution of nutrients or capillary mat.
Top
irrigation is a method where the nutrient solution is periodically
applied to the plants. This is usually done manually but may be
automated through the use of water pump.
The
use of technique for hydroponics system may vary depending on the
produce and the space available to apply it. What is advantageous,
mostly, the techniques are versatile and can be adapted to any
environment.
About the Author
Jovan Gomez is the webmaster of hydroponics dictionary . It was designed and contributed to by many authors that bring a wealth of information and experience about the hydroponics industry.
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