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.
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