Hydroponics Essay Research Paper I decided to

Hydroponics Essay, Research Paper

I decided to research Hydroponics, which is the growing of plants without soil in water to which nutrients have been added. Hydroponics has been used for over a century as a research technique, but not until 1929 were experiments conducted solely to determine its feasibility for growing commercial crops. There are now hydroponic home gardens and commercial cropping operations in the United States and many other countries. Under hydroponics, plants can be grown closer together than in the field, thereby increasing yields, and multiple cropping (the growing of several crops in the same tank) can be practiced. In addition to conserving space, hydroponics almost eliminates weed and pest problems. The cost of equipment is high and personnel must be trained.

There are 6 basic types of hydroponic systems: Wick, Water Culture, Ebb and Flow (Flood & Drain), Drip (recovery or non-recovery), N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique) and Aeroponic. There are hundreds of variations on these basic types of systems, but all hydroponic methods are a variation (or combination) of these six. Below I will briefly describe them, and how they function.

The Wick system is by far the simplest type of hydroponic system. This is a passive system, which means there are no moving parts. The nutrient solution is drawn into the growing medium (which is the matter, surrounding the roots) from the reservoir with a wick. This system can use a variety of growing medium. Perlite, Vermiculite, Pro-Mix and Coconut Fiber are the ones that I founds that people recommended on their websites. The only set back that I found with this system is that the plants that are large or use large amounts of water may use up the nutrient solution faster than the wick(s) can supply it, thus not delivering a fully nourished plant.

The second method that I found is the water culture system. It was the simplest of all active hydroponic systems that I found. The platform that holds the plants is usually made of Styrofoam and floats directly on the nutrient solution. An air pump supplies air to the air stone that bubbles the nutrient solution and supplies oxygen to the roots of the plants. Water culture is the system of choice for growing leaf lettuce, which are fast growing water-loving plants. The one drawback with this system is that very few plants other than lettuce will do well in this type of system. The biggest drawback of this kind of system that I could find is that it doesn’t work well with large or long-term plants.

The third type of system is the Ebb and Flow system, and it works by temporarily flooding the grow tray with nutrient solution and then draining the solution back into the reservoir. This action is normally done with a submerged pump that is connected to a timer. When the timer turns the pump on nutrient solution is pumped into the grow tray. When the timer shuts the pump off the nutrient solution flows back into the reservoir. The timer is set to come on several times a day, depending on the size and type of plants, temperature and humidity and the type of growing medium used. The Ebb and Flow is a versatile system that can be used with a variety of growing mediums. The entire grow tray can be filled with gravel or granular Rockwood. Also I found that many people prefer to use individual pots filled with their choice of growing medium. This makes it easier to move plants around or move them in or out of the system. The only real problem that I found with this type of system is that with some types of growing medium (Gravel, Growrocks, Perlite), do not hold water very well, there is a vulnerability to power outages as well as pump and timer failures. If this happens the roots can dry out quickly if the watering cycles are interrupted. The only solution that I could find is to use a growing medium that holds more water, this will only give you more time to find and address the problem.

The next type of system is the system that I found the websites, used or recommended the most. It is called the drip system. The drip systems operation is simple; a timer controls a submersed pump, the timer turns the pump on and nutrient solution is dripped onto the base of each plant by a small drip line.

In a Recovery Drip System the excess nutrient solution that runs off is collected back in the reservoir for re-use. The Non-Recovery System does not collect the run off.

A recovery system uses nutrient solution a bit more efficiently, as excess solution is reused, this also allows for the use of a more inexpensive timer because a recovery system doesn’t require precise control of the watering cycles. The non-recovery system needs to have a more precise timer so that watering cycles can be adjusted to insure that the plants get enough nutrient solution and the runoff is kept to a minimum.

The non-recovery system requires less maintenance due to the fact that the excess nutrient solution isn’t recycled back into the reservoir, so the nutrient strength and pH of the reservoir will not vary. This means that you can fill the reservoir with pH adjusted nutrient solution and then forget it until you need to mix more. A recovery system can have large shifts in the pH and nutrient strength levels that require periodic checking and adjusting.

Another type of hydroponic system is the N.F.T. system. The N.F.T. has a constant flow