NASA researcher checking hydroponic onions with Bibb lettuce to his left and radishes to the right
Hydroponics is a subset of
hydroculture and is a method of growing
plants using mineral
nutrient solutions, in water, without
soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their
roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as
perlite or
gravel.
History
The earliest published work on growing terrestrial plants without soil was the 1627 book
Sylva Sylvarum by
Francis Bacon, printed a year after his death. Water culture became a popular research technique after that. In 1699,
John Woodward published his water culture experiments with
spearmint. He found that plants in less-pure water sources grew better than plants in distilled water.
By 1842, a list of nine elements believed to be essential to plant growth had been compiled, and the discoveries of the German botanists
Julius von Sachs and
Wilhelm Knop, in the years 1859-65, resulted in a development of the technique of soilless cultivation.
[1] Growth of terrestrial plants without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It quickly became a standard research and teaching technique and is still widely used today. Solution culture is now considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium.
In 1929, William Frederick Gericke of the University of California at Berkeley began publicly promoting that solution culture be used for agricultural crop production.
[2][3] He first termed it aquaculture but later found that
aquaculture was already applied to culture of aquatic organisms. Gericke created a sensation by growing tomato vines twenty-five feet high in his back yard in mineral nutrient solutions rather than soil.
[4] By analogy with the
ancient Greek term for agriculture, γεωπονικά (
geoponica),
[5] the science of cultivating the earth, Gericke coined the term
hydroponics in 1937 (although he asserts that the term was suggested by W. A. Setchell, of the University of California) for the culture of plants in water (from
Ancient Greek ὕδωρ,
water,
[5] and πόνος,
labour [5]).
[1]
Reports of Gericke's work and his claims that hydroponics would revolutionize plant agriculture prompted a huge number of requests for further information. Gericke had been denied use of the University's greenhouses for his experiments due to the administration's skepticism, and when the University tried to compel him to release his preliminary nutrient recipes developed at home he requested greenhouse space and time to improve them using appropriate research facilities. While he was eventually provided greenhouse space, the University assigned Hoagland and Arnon to re-develop Gericke's formula and show it held no benefit over soil grown plant yields, a view held by Hoagland. In 1940, he published the book,
Complete Guide to Soil less Gardening, after leaving his academic position in a climate that was politically unfavorable.
Two other plant nutritionists at the University of California were asked to research Gericke's claims.
Dennis R. Hoagland[6] and
Daniel I. Arnon[7] wrote a classic 1938 agricultural bulletin,
The Water Culture Method for Growing Plants Without Soil,.
[8] Hoagland and Arnon claimed that hydroponic crop yields were no better than crop yields with good-quality soils. Crop yields were ultimately limited by factors other than mineral nutrients, especially light. This research, however, overlooked the fact that hydroponics has other advantages including the fact that the roots of the plant have constant access to oxygen and that the plants have access to as much or as little water as they need. This is important as one of the most common errors when growing is over- and under- watering; and hydroponics prevents this from occurring as large amounts of water can be made available to the plant and any water not used, drained away, recirculated, or actively aerated, eliminating anoxic conditions, which drown root systems in soil. In soil, a grower needs to be very experienced to know exactly how much water to feed the plant. Too much and the plant will not be able to access oxygen; too little and the plant will lose the ability to transport nutrients, which are typically moved into the roots while in solution. These two researchers developed several formulas for mineral nutrient solutions, known as
Hoagland solution. Modified Hoagland solutions are still used today.
One of the earliest successes of hydroponics occurred on
Wake Island, a rocky atoll in the Pacific Ocean used as a refuelling stop for
Pan American Airlines. Hydroponics was used there in the 1930s to grow vegetables for the passengers. Hydroponics was a necessity on Wake Island because there was no soil, and it was prohibitively expensive to airlift in fresh vegetables.
In the 1960s, Allen Cooper of England developed the
Nutrient film technique.
The Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and prominently features a variety of hydroponic techniques. In recent decades,
NASA has done extensive hydroponic research for their
Controlled Ecological Life Support System or CELSS. Hydroponics intended to take place on Mars are using LED lighting to grow in different color spectrum with much less heat.
Origin
Soilless culture
Gericke originally defined hydroponics as crop growth in mineral nutrient solutions. Hydroponics is a subset of soilless culture. Many types of soilless culture do not use the mineral nutrient solutions required for hydroponics.
Plants that are not traditionally grown in a climate would be possible to grow using a controlled environment system like hydroponics. NASA has also looked to utilize hydroponics in the space program. Ray Wheeler,a plant physiologist at Kennedy Space Center’s Space Life Science Lab, believes that hydroponics will create advances within space travel. He terms this as a bioregenerative life support system.
[9]
Techniques
The two main types of hydroponics are solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture does not use a solid medium for the roots, just the nutrient solution. The three main types of solution cultures are static solution culture, continuous-flow solution culture and aeroponics. The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g., sand culture, gravel culture, or rockwool culture.
There are two main variations for each medium,
sub-irrigation and top
irrigation[specify]. For all techniques, most hydroponic reservoirs are now built of plastic, but other materials have been used including concrete, glass, metal, vegetable solids, and wood. The containers should exclude light to prevent algae growth in the nutrient solution.
Static solution culture
In static solution culture, plants are grown in containers of nutrient solution, such as glass
Mason jars (typically, in-home applications), plastic buckets, tubs, or tanks. The solution is usually gently aerated but may be un-aerated. If un-aerated, the solution level is kept low enough that enough roots are above the solution so they get adequate oxygen. A hole is cut in the lid of the reservoir for each plant. There can be one to many plants per reservoir. Reservoir size can be increased as plant size increases. A home made system can be constructed from plastic food containers or glass canning jars with
aeration provided by an aquarium pump, aquarium airline tubing and aquarium valves. Clear containers are covered with aluminium foil, butcher paper, black plastic, or other material to exclude light, thus helping to eliminate the formation of algae. The nutrient solution is changed either on a schedule, such as once per week, or when the concentration drops below a certain level as determined with an
electrical conductivity meter. Whenever the solution is depleted below a certain level, either water or fresh nutrient solution is added. A
Mariotte's bottle, or a float valve, can be used to automatically maintain the solution level. In raft solution culture, plants are placed in a sheet of buoyant plastic that is floated on the surface of the nutrient solution. That way, the solution level never drops below the roots.
Continuous-flow solution culture
In continuous-flow solution culture, the nutrient solution constantly flows past the roots. It is much easier to automate than the static solution culture because sampling and adjustments to the temperature and nutrient concentrations can be made in a large storage tank that has potential to serve thousands of plants. A popular variation is the
nutrient film technique or NFT, whereby a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is recirculated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel and has an upper surface that, although moist, is in the air. Subsequent to this, an abundant supply of oxygen is provided to the roots of the plants. A properly designed NFT system is based on using the right channel slope, the right flow rate, and the right channel length. The main advantage of the NFT system over other forms of hydroponics is that the plant roots are exposed to adequate supplies of water, oxygen, and nutrients. In all other forms of production, there is a conflict between the supply of these requirements, since excessive or deficient amounts of one results in an imbalance of one or both of the others. NFT, because of its design, provides a system where all three requirements for healthy plant growth can be met at the same time, provided that the simple concept of NFT is always remembered and practised. The result of these advantages is that higher yields of high-quality produce are obtained over an extended period of cropping. A downside of NFT is that it has very little buffering against interruptions in the flow, e.g., power outages. But, overall, it is probably one of the more productive techniques.
The same design characteristics apply to all conventional NFT systems. While slopes along channels of 1:100 have been recommended, in practice it is difficult to build a base for channels that is sufficiently true to enable nutrient films to flow without ponding in locally depressed areas. As a consequence, it is recommended that slopes of 1:30 to 1:40 are used. This allows for minor irregularities in the surface, but, even with these slopes, ponding and
water logging may occur. The slope may be provided by the floor, or benches or racks may hold the channels and provide the required slope. Both methods are used and depend on local requirements, often determined by the site and crop requirements.
As a general guide, flow rates for each gully should be 1 liter per minute. At planting, rates may be half this and the upper limit of 2 L/min appears about the maximum. Flow rates beyond these extremes are often associated with nutritional problems. Depressed growth rates of many crops have been observed when channels exceed 12 metres in length. On rapidly growing crops, tests have indicated that, while oxygen levels remain adequate, nitrogen may be depleted over the length of the gully. As a consequence, channel length should not exceed 10–15 metres. In situations where this is not possible, the reductions in growth can be eliminated by placing another nutrient feed halfway along the gully and reducing flow rates to 1 L/min through each outlet.
Aeroponics
Aeroponics is a system wherein roots are continuously or discontinuously kept in an environment saturated with fine drops (a mist or aerosol) of nutrient solution. The method requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients. Excellent aeration is the main advantage of aeroponics.
Aeroponic techniques have proven to be commercially successful for propagation, seed germination, seed potato production, tomato production, leaf crops, and micro-greens.
[10] Since inventor
Richard Stoner commercialized aeroponic technology in 1983, aeroponics has been implemented as an alternative to water intensive hydroponic systems worldwide.
[11] The limitation of hydroponics is the fact that 1 kg of water can only hold 8 mg of air, no matter whether aerators are utilized or not.
Another distinct advantage of aeroponics over hydroponics is that any species of plants can be grown in a true aeroponic system because the micro environment of an aeroponic can be finely controlled. The limitation of hydroponics is that only certain species of plants can survive for so long in water before they become
waterlogged. The advantage of aeroponics is that suspended aeroponic plants receive 100% of the available oxygen and carbon dioxide to the roots zone, stems, and leaves,
[12] thus accelerating biomass growth and reducing rooting times. NASA research has shown that aeroponically grown plants have an 80% increase in dry weight biomass (essential minerals) compared to hydroponically grown plants. Aeroponics used 65% less water than hydroponics. NASA also concluded that aeroponically grown plants requires ¼ the nutrient input compared to hydroponics. Unlike hydroponically grown plants, aeroponically grown plants will not suffer transplant shock when transplanted to soil, and offers growers the ability to reduce the spread of disease and pathogens. Aeroponics is also widely used in laboratory studies of plant physiology and plant pathology. Aeroponic techniques have been given special attention from
NASA since a mist is easier to handle than a liquid in a zero gravity environment.
Passive sub-irrigation
Passive sub-irrigation, also known as passive hydroponics or semi-hydroponics, is a method wherein plants are grown in an
inert porous medium that transports water and fertilizer to the roots by
capillary action from a separate reservoir as necessary, reducing labour and providing a constant supply of water to the roots. In the simplest method, the pot sits in a shallow solution of fertilizer and water or on a capillary mat saturated with nutrient solution. The various hydroponic media available, such as
expanded clay and coconut husk, contain more air space than more traditional potting mixes, delivering increased oxygen to the roots, which is important in
epiphytic plants such as
orchids and
bromeliads, whose roots are exposed to the air in nature. Additional advantages of passive hydroponics are the reduction of root rot and the additional ambient humidity provided through evaporations.
Ebb and flow or flood and drain sub-irrigation
In its simplest form, there is a tray above a reservoir of nutrient solution. Either the tray is filled with growing medium (clay granules being the most common) and planted directly or pots of medium stand in the tray. At regular intervals, a simple timer causes a pump to fill the upper tray with nutrient solution, after which the solution drains back down into the reservoir. This keeps the medium regularly flushed with nutrients and air. Once the upper tray fills past the drain stop, it begins recirculating the water until the timer turns the pump off, and the water in the upper tray drains back into the reservoirs.
[13]
Run to waste
In a run-to-waste system, nutrient and water solution is periodically applied to the medium surface. This may be done in its simplest form, by manually applying a nutrient-and-water solution one or more times per day in a container of inert growing media, such as rockwool, perlite, vermiculite, coco fibre, or sand. In a slightly more complex system, it is automated with a delivery pump, a timer and irrigation tubing to deliver nutrient solution with a delivery frequency that is governed by the key parameters of plant size, plant growing stage, climate, substrate, and substrate conductivity, pH, and water content.
In a commercial setting, watering frequency is multi factorial and governed by computers or PLCs.
Commercial hydroponics production of large plants like tomatoes, cucumber, and peppers use one form or another of run-to-waste hydroponics.
In environmentally responsible uses, the nutrient rich waste is collected and processed through an on site filtration system to be used many times, making the system very productive.
[14]
The majority of
bonsai are now grown in soil-free substrates (typically consisting of
akadama, grit,
diatomaceous earth and other inorganic components) and have their water and nutrients provided in a run-to-waste form.
Deep water culture
The hydroponic method of plant production by means of suspending the plant roots in a solution of nutrient-rich, oxygenated water. Traditional methods favor the use of plastic buckets and large containers with the plant contained in a net pot suspended from the centre of the lid and the roots suspended in the nutrient solution. The solution is oxygen saturated by an air pump combined with
porous stones. With this method, the plants grow much faster because of the high amount of oxygen that the roots receive.
[15]
Top-fed deep water culture
Top-fed deep water culture is a technique involving delivering highly oxygenated nutrient solution direct to the root zone of plants. While deep water culture involves the plant roots hanging down into a reservoir of nutrient solution, in top-fed deep water culture the solution is pumped from the reservoir up to the roots (top feeding). The water is released over the plant's roots and then runs back into the reservoir below in a constantly recirculating system. As with deep water culture, there is an
airstone in the reservoir that pumps air into the water via a hose from outside the reservoir. The airstone helps add oxygen to the water. Both the airstone and the water pump run 24 hours a day.
The biggest advantage of top-fed deep water culture over standard deep water culture is increased growth during the first few weeks. With deep water culture, there is a time when the roots have not reached the water yet. With top-fed deep water culture, the roots get easy access to water from the beginning and will grow to the reservoir below much more quickly than with a deep water culture system. Once the roots have reached the reservoir below, there is not a huge advantage with top-fed deep water culture over standard deep water culture. However, due to the quicker growth in the beginning, grow time can be reduced by a few weeks.
[16]
Fogponics
Fogponics is an advanced form of aeroponics which uses water in a vaporised form to transfer nutrients and oxygen to enclosed suspended plant roots. Using the same general idea behind aeroponics except fogponics uses a 5-10 micron mist within the rooting chamber and as use for a foliar feeding mechanism.
Rotary
A rotary hydroponic garden is a style of commercial hydroponics created within a circular frame which rotates continuously during the entire growth cycle of whatever plant is being grown.
While system specifics vary, systems typically rotate once per hour, giving a plant 24 full turns within the circle each 24-hour period. Within the center of each rotary hydroponic garden is a high intensity grow light, designed to simulate sunlight, often with the assistance of a mechanized timer.
Each day, as the plants rotate, they are periodically watered with a hydroponic growth solution to provide all nutrients necessary for robust growth. Due to the plants continuous fight against gravity, plants typically mature much more quickly than when grown in soil or other traditional hydroponic growing systems. Due to the small foot print a rotary hydroponic system has, it allows for more plant material to be grown per sq foot of floor space than other traditional hydroponic systems.
Substrates
One of the most obvious decisions hydroponic farmers have to make is which medium they should use. Different media are appropriate for different growing techniques.
Expanded clay aggregate
Baked clay pellets, are suitable for hydroponic systems in which all nutrients are carefully controlled in water solution. The clay pellets are inert,
pH neutral and do not contain any nutrient value.
The clay is formed into round pellets and fired in rotary
kilns at 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). This causes the clay to expand, like popcorn, and become porous. It is light in weight, and does not compact over time. The shape of an individual pellet can be irregular or uniform depending on brand and manufacturing process. The manufacturers consider expanded clay to be an ecologically sustainable and re-usable growing medium because of its ability to be cleaned and sterilized, typically by washing in solutions of white vinegar,
chlorine bleach, or
hydrogen peroxide (
H
2O
2), and rinsing completely.
Another view is that clay pebbles are best not re-used even when they are cleaned, due to root growth that may enter the medium. Breaking open a clay pebble after a crop has been grown will reveal this growth.
Growstones
Growstones, made from glass waste, have both more air and water retention space than perlite and peat. This aggregate holds more water than parboiled rice hulls.
[17] Growstones by volume consists of .5 to 5%
Calcium carbonate.
[18] for a standard 5.1 kg bag of
Growstones that's 25.8 to 258 grams of
calcium carbonate. The remainder is Soda-lime glass.
[18]
Coir
Coco peat, also known as
coir or coco, is the leftover material after the fibres have been removed from the outermost shell (bolster) of the
coconut. Coir is a 100% natural grow and flowering medium. Coconut coir is colonized with
trichoderma fungi, which protects roots and stimulates root growth. It is extremely difficult to over-water coir due to its perfect air-to-water ratio; plant roots thrive in this environment. Coir has a high
cation exchange, meaning it can store unused minerals to be released to the plant as and when it requires it. Coir is available in many forms; most common is coco peat, which has the appearance and texture of soil but contains no mineral content.
Rice husks
Parboiled rice husks (PBH) are an agricultural byproduct that would otherwise have little use. They decay over time, and allow drainage,
[19] and even retain less water than growstones.
[17] A study showed that rice husks did not affect the effects of
plant growth regulators.
[19]
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic rock that has been superheated into very lightweight expanded glass pebbles. It is used loose or in plastic sleeves immersed in the water. It is also used in potting soil mixes to decrease soil density. Perlite has similar properties and uses to
vermiculite but, in general, holds more air and less water. If not contained, it can float if flood and drain feeding is used. It is a fusion of granite, obsidian, pumice and basalt. This volcanic rock is naturally fused at high temperatures undergoing what is called
"Fusionic Metamorphosis".
Vermiculite
Like perlite,
vermiculite is a mineral that has been superheated until it has expanded into light pebbles. Vermiculite holds more water than perlite and has a natural "wicking" property that can draw water and nutrients in a passive hydroponic system. If too much water and not enough air surrounds the plants roots, it is possible to gradually lower the medium's water-retention capability by mixing in increasing quantities of perlite.
Pumice
Like perlite,
pumice is a lightweight, mined volcanic rock that finds application in hydroponics.
Sand
Sand is cheap and easily available. However, it is heavy, does not hold water very well, and it must be sterilized between uses.
Gravel
The same type that is used in aquariums, though any small gravel can be used, provided it is washed first. Indeed, plants growing in a typical traditional gravel filter bed, with water circulated using electric powerhead pumps, are in effect being grown using gravel hydroponics. Gravel is inexpensive, easy to keep clean, drains well and will not become waterlogged. However, it is also heavy, and, if the system does not provide continuous water, the plant roots may dry out.
Wood fibre
Wood fibre, produced from steam friction of wood, is a very efficient organic substrate for hydroponics. It has the advantage that it keeps its structure for a very long time. Wood fibre has been shown to reduce the effects of "plant growth regulators."
[19]
Rock wool
Rock wool (
mineral wool) is the most widely used medium in hydroponics. Rock wool is an inert substrate suitable for both run-to-waste and recirculating systems. Rock wool is made from molten rock, basalt or 'slag' that is spun into bundles of single filament fibres, and bonded into a medium capable of capillary action, and is, in effect, protected from most common microbiological degradation. Rock wool has many advantages and some disadvantages. The latter being the possible skin irritancy (mechanical) whilst handling (1:1000). Flushing with cold water usually brings relief.
Advantages include its proven efficiency and effectiveness as a commercial hydroponic substrate. Most of the rock wool sold to date is a non-hazardous, non-carcinogenic material, falling under Note Q of the European Union Classification Packaging and Labeling Regulation (CLP).
[citation needed]
Sheep wool
Wool from shearing
sheep is a little-used yet promising renewable growing medium. In a study comparing wool with peat slabs, coconut fibre slabs, perlite and rockwool slabs to grow cucumber plants, sheep wool had a greater air capacity of 70%, which decreased with use to a comparable 43%, and water capacity that increased from 23% to 44% with use. Using sheep wool resulted in the greatest yield out of the tested substrates, while application of a biostimulator consisting of humic acid, lactic acid and Bacillus subtilis improved yields in all substrates.
[20]
Brick shards
Brick shards have similar properties to gravel. They have the added disadvantages of possibly altering the pH and requiring extra cleaning before reuse.
Polystyrene packing peanuts
Polystyrene
packing peanuts are inexpensive, readily available, and have excellent drainage. However, they can be too lightweight for some uses. They are used mainly in closed-tube systems.
Note that
polystyrene peanuts must be used; biodegradable packing peanuts will decompose into a sludge. Plants may absorb
styrene and pass it to their consumers; this is a possible health risk.
[citation needed]
Nutrient solutions
Plant
nutrients used in hydroponics are dissolved in the water and are mostly in inorganic and
ionic form. Primary among the dissolved cations (positively charged ions) are Ca
2+ (
calcium), Mg2+
(
magnesium), and
K+ (
potassium); the major nutrient anions in nutrient solutions are
NO−
3 (
nitrate),
SO2−
4 (
sulfate), and
H
2PO−
4 (
dihydrogen phosphate).
Numerous 'recipes' for hydroponic solutions are available. Many use different combinations of chemicals to reach similar total final compositions. Commonly used chemicals for the macronutrients include
potassium nitrate,
calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and
magnesium sulfate. Various micronutrients are typically added to hydroponic solutions to supply essential elements; among them are Fe (
iron), Mn (
manganese), Cu (
copper), Zn (
zinc), B (
boron), Cl (
chlorine), and Ni (
nickel).
Chelating agents are sometimes used to keep Fe soluble, and
humic acids can be added to increase nutrient uptake.
[21] Many variations of the nutrient solutions used by Arnon and Hoagland (see above) have been styled 'modified Hoagland solutions' and are widely used. Variation of different mixes throughout the plant life-cycle, further optimizes its nutritional value.
[22] Plants will change the composition of the nutrient solutions upon contact by depleting specific nutrients more rapidly than others, removing water from the solution, and altering the
pH by excretion of either acidity or alkalinity.
[23] Care is required not to allow salt concentrations to become too high, nutrients to become too depleted, or pH to wander far from the desired value.
Although pre-mixed concentrated nutrient solutions are generally purchased from commercial nutrient manufacturers by hydroponic hobbyists and small commercial growers, several tools exists to help anyone prepare their own solutions without extensive knowledge about chemistry. The free and open source tools HydroBuddy
[24] and HydroCal
[25] have been created by professional chemists to help any hydroponics grower prepare their own nutrient solutions. The first program is available for Windows, Mac and Linux while the second one can be used through a simple Java interface. Both programs allow for basic nutrient solution preparation although HydroBuddy provides added functionality to use and save custom substances, save formulations and predict electrical conductivity values.According to Kumar and Cho (2014) the hydroponics waste nutrient solution can be reused for growing commercially important crops and reuse of waste nutrient solution may control point source pollution.
[26]
The well-oxygenated and enlightened environment promotes the development of algae. It is therefore necessary to wrap the tank with black film obscuring all light.
Organic hydroponics uses the solution containing microorganisms. In organic hydroponics, organic fertilizer can be added in the hydroponic solution because microorganisms degrade organic fertilizer into inorganic nutrients. In contrast, conventional hydroponics cannot use organic fertilizer because organic compounds in the hydroponic solution show phytotoxic effects.
Commercial
Some commercial installations use no
pesticides or
herbicides, preferring
integrated pest management techniques. There is often a price premium willingly paid by consumers for produce that is labelled "
organic". Some states in the USA require soil as an essential to obtain
organic certification. There are also overlapping and somewhat contradictory rules established by the US Federal Government, so some food grown with hydroponics can be certified
organic. Most hydroponically grown produce cannot be sold as organic due to the fact that they do not use soil as a growing medium.
Hydroponics also saves water; it uses as little as
1⁄20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. The
water table can be impacted by the water use and
run-off of chemicals from farms, but hydroponics may minimize impact as well as having the advantage that water use and water returns are easier to measure. This can save the farmer money by allowing reduced water use and the ability to measure consequences to the land around a farm.
To increase plant growth, lighting systems such as
metal-halide lamp for growing stage only or
high-pressure sodium for growing/flowering/blooming stage are used to lengthen the day or to supplement natural sunshine if it is scarce. Metal halide emits more light in the blue spectrum, making it ideal for plant growth but is harmful to unprotected skin and can cause skin cancer. High-pressure sodium emits more light in the red spectrum, meaning that it is best suited for supplementing natural sunshine and can be used throughout the growing cycle. However, these lighting systems require large amounts of electricity to operate, making efficiency and safety very critical.
The environment in a hydroponics
greenhouse is tightly controlled for maximum efficiency, and this new mindset is called soil-less/
controlled-environment agriculture (CEA). With this growers can make ultra-premium foods anywhere in the world, regardless of temperature and growing seasons. Growers monitor the temperature, humidity, and
pH level constantly.
Hydroponics have been used to enhance vegetables to provide more nutritional value. A hydroponic farmer in
Virginia has developed a
calcium and
potassium enriched head of
lettuce, scheduled to be widely available in April 2007. Grocers in test markets have said that the lettuce sells "very well", and the farmers claim that their hydroponic lettuce uses 90% less water than traditional soil farming.
[27]
Advancements
With pest problems reduced, and nutrients constantly fed to the roots, productivity in hydroponics is high, although plant growth can be limited by the low levels of
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or limited light exposure. To increase yield further, some sealed greenhouses inject carbon dioxide into their environment to help growth (
CO
2 enrichment), add lights to lengthen the day, or control vegetative growth, etc.
