commercial hydroponics ver 1

Water is Food is Life. No Water-No Food!

Simple.

•“Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to enough safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy lifestyle”

• To be "food secure" means…

Food is available / Food is affordable / Food is utilised

Background

• Indians are demanding high quality, pesticide free, fresh produce. Money not the criterion.

• Growing demand for high quality, microbe free, medicinal and aromatic plants.

• People are aware of dangers of pesticides, global warming and its ill effects. Media plays an important role.

• Consistency, quality and yields possible only by modern techniques of cultivation.

What is Hydroponics

• Is the practice of growing plants without soil. • Plants can be grown in plain nutrient solution

or in sterile substrates, therefore microbe free.

• Hydroponics uses less than 1/10th - 1/5th of the water used in soil cultivation. Saves a lot of water.

• No weeds to deal with. Less space, higher yields.

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation- 1Field versus Soil-less grown

Open field • Farmer has no control on environment. • Yields are not accurately predicted.• Budgeting is ineffective. • Cannot always ensure adequate aeration of the root zone.

Soil-less/Hydroponics• Gives grower effective control over the environment. • Yields are very predictable.• Budgeting is easier, • Root zone aeration as well as adequate porosity of medium is ensured.

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation- 2Plant nutrition

• Hydroponic nutrient solutions can be tailored to the plant’s requirements, whereas in the field there is a tendency to over or under-fertilise.

• Hydroponic produce has all the macro-micronutrients that are needed by the human body.

• Nutrients in the soil are often fixed as insoluble compounds that are not available to plants and therefore a loss to the grower.

• Uneven nutrition is ensured by virtue of leaching and sloping of

land gradients.

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation- 3

Water Security and Savings

• Irrigation water in field grown operations cannot be effectively recycled.

• Hydroponics can reduce irrigation water usage by 70% to 90% by recycling the run-off water.

• As water becomes scarce, and important as a resource, the use of hydroponics and other water saving technologies is needed now and is poised to increase in time.

Benefits of Hydroponic Cultivation- 4Microbial Diseases

• Fungal disease can be significantly reduced through controlled humidity.

• Hydroponic systems will reduce the amount of exposed moisture in the growing environment.

• Hydroponics will effectively prevent wetting of the leaf surfaces which, in normal agriculture, provides the fungal spores with the perfect medium to proliferate.

• Hydroponics eliminates the possibilities of root diseases by allowing sufficient porosity for drainage of excess water as well as increases oxygen availability to the root zone.

• Root zone temperatures are maintained as is ideal to ensure good growth of the plant.

05/02/23 Presentation is copyright of ISH, India

Labour

• Weeds are a major problem in Soil cultivation and calls for the use of harmful herbicides. Most farmers spend an enormous amount of money on labor for weeding.

• All labour inputs associated with soil management, such as digging and weeding are eliminated with hydroponics.

• Substrates being sterile and inert, do not influence or allow weeds to flourish.



Pest Management

• The use of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in protected environments is ideally suited to hydroponic growing techniques, especially when carried out in a protected environment such as a glasshouse or plastic/polythene tunnels.

• The use of IPM can virtually eliminate the need to use toxic and expensive chemical pesticides.

• Whereas IPM is much more difficult in Soil cultivation and calls for near total use of dangerous, life threatening chemical pesticides.

• Diseases and pests from neighboring farms can cause spread of diseases in one’s field crops.



Kinds of Hydroponics

• Simplified Hydroponics is a means for small and medium farmers to manage small facilities , up to, say, 1 or 2 acres for commercial gain.

• This is a much cheaper system as it involves using cheap recyclable materials like old wooden boxes, PET bottles, bamboo, etc to grow vegetables, herbs and certain fruits.

• Commercial Hydroponic Greenhouse systems are capital expensive in the beginning but pays off rich dividends depending upon the produce cultivated, the markets these are sold to and the remuneration thus achieved by sales of premium fresh produce in the right niche segments.

• When compared to Soil cultivation, Hydroponics reduces the need for farm equipment, reduced labor , reduction of crop losses, gives consistent and predictable yields.


• Lettuce 300-400 Tons• Strawberries 50 Tons• Cucumber 200 Tons• Tomato 180-200 Tons• Bell Pepper 120-140 Tons

*Note: Figures are conservative.

• You see and ask “Why”• I believe and say “Why Not?”

Commercial Hydroponics- Some Yields Tons/Acre/Year/Season


Plant grown in a Hydroponics Greenhouse… Can be protected from increasing and damaging UV radiation. Offers the possibility of safe biological control of insect pests and

diseases. Uses Water that is reclaimed and reused. Allows nutrients to be reclaimed, re-balanced and re-used. Can be protected from unpredictable weather patterns. Have a good root system that is not at risk from contaminants and

diseases. Make efficient use of labour, which is increasingly expensive. Can be grown to take full advantage of their genetic potential Produce outstanding crops by using optimum nutrient

formulations. Off season production possible when market prices are highest.

Hydroponic/Soil-less Greenhouses

• What is Hydroponics?• Defining hydroponics. Literally, the name means working water. Simply put, it

is the art of gardening without soil. There are six basic kinds of hydroponic systems with hundreds of possible variations.

• Myth: Hydroponics is a new technology• The Pharaohs of Egypt enjoyed fruits and vegetables grown hydroponically.

One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, was believed to be a hydroponic garden. In India, plants are grown directly in coconut husk; hydro at the most grassroots level. If hydroponics is a "new" technology, it is a new technology in general use for thousands of years. Hydroponics is not new -- just different.

• Myth: Hydroponics is artificial or unnatural• Plant growth is a real and natural happening. Plants require basic, natural

things for normal growth. Hydroponics supplies the plant with what it needs, when it needs it. There is no genetic mutation that takes place inside the equipment nor are there any mysterious wonder chemicals introduced to the plants roots that trick them into thinking they're on steroids. With the production of more refined nutrients, it is now possible to grow completely organic produce with hydroponics. You can't get more natural than that

• Myth: Hydroponics is bad for the environment• This is totally false. Growing plants hydroponically is far more earth

friendly than conventional gardening on numerous levels. As we are coming to realize that water is our most precious resource the first point worth noting is that hydroponics uses 70 to 90 percent LESS water than conventional gardening. The second greatest ecological benefit is that no fertilizer runoff escapes into our lakes, rivers and aquifers. These two items alone, water conservation and the non-pollution of lakes and streams, are major plus values.

• Myth: Hydroponics is a space-science far too sophisticated and high-tech for the average person to understand or master

• As we've stated, hydroponics is growing without soil . An inexpensive bucket or nursery pot, filled with a hydroponic growing medium and hand watered with a hydroponic nutrient is hydroponics. A sheet of Styrofoam filled with net cups and floating on an aerated tank is hydroponics. The technological potential for automation and total environmental control is virtually limitless but in no way required to have a beautiful and abundant hydroponic garden. Basic hydroponics can be taught to the very young, the very elderly and anyone open to learning a few new tricks.

• Myth: the use of Hydroponics is not widespread• Hydroponics is used extensively the world over. It is used in countries

where the climate prohibits or limits growth and where the soil is too poor to support large-scale crop production.

• Myth: Hydroponics must be used indoors• Hydroponics is as easy to use outdoors under the sun as it is indoors. One

advantage to gardening indoors under grow lights is that you, not Mother Nature, control the seasons, making the growing season twelve months long.

• Myth: Hydroponics requires no pesticides• The need should be greatly reduced because of strong & healthy plant .

Soil-born pest will be totally eliminated

• Myth: Hydroponics produces huge super-plants• Every seed, like all living things, already has a genetic code that will

determine its general size, yield potential and flavor. • Getting a plant to grow to its highest potential in common soil is difficult

because of the hundreds of variables in the soil's make-up which influence the plant and its growth. It is the ability to control these variables that makes hydroponics superior to conventional gardening. In addition, factor that a plant in soil expends a great portion of energy working for its food in a way that hydro plants do not. The diva existence of a hydroponic plant allows it to send that extra energy into faster growth, dense vegetation, larger yields and more flavorful produce.

• Dr. Howard M. Resh, in his book HYDROPONIC FOOD PRODUCTION, cites vegetable yield increases that are dramatic; identical cucumber plants produced 7,000 pounds per acre in soil but 28,000 pounds per acre when grown hydroponically and tomato yields that ranged from 5 to 10 tons per acre in soil but 60 to 300 tons per hydroponic acre.

Reduced water consumption Improved Produce Quality Increased Yields and Growth Rates Longer Shelf Life Less labour inputs . Higher Value Crops Extended Growing Season Happier Workers Lower Labour Costs Pests and Diseases No Soil – No Problem Environment Control Market Control

Summary of the Benefits

Hydroponic Cultivation/soil & Soilless cultivation

• Use of Hi-tech grow methods• Protected cultivation : Commercial Greenhouse a. Row & Hanging -plantation, with soil mulching.b. Drip system, c. Water soluble nutrient, d. Automation controlled environment; temperature,

humidity, e. Fertigation,f. Pollination, g. Concentrated high yield per plant, h. Ornamental high value Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits &

Flowers.

Hydroponic – Soilless Cultivation

National Horticulture Mission

• A National Horticulture Mission has been launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to promote holistic growth of the horticulture sector through an area based regionally differentiated strategies.

• The scheme is fully funded by the Government and different components proposed for implementation financially supported on the scales laid down.

commercial hydroponics ver 1

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