Crops are grown using nutrient medium that is based on water in hydroponic farming.
Another name for it is “cultivation without soil.”
Due to its advantages over conventional farming, including as higher productivity per unit area, reduced input requirements, and clean and safe food production, hydroponics is thought to be the farming method of the future.
The advantage of using vertical space is provided by hydroponics due to the system’s lower net weight.
| Convectional farming | Hydroponics |
| Soil acts as nutrient storage & support structure for plants | Water acts as nutrient storage & artificial support provided to plants |
| Production limitation due to variables in nutrient mobility , weeds competition etc. | Controlled nutrient mobility, focus on high density cropping leading to higher productivity. |
| Soil hosts microbes & helps in conversion of nutrient from no-mobile to mobile form. | Water soluble nutrient in the form of easy acceptance form. |
| Nutrients (fertilizers) are given to soil based on soil analysis. So fertilizers doses are higher. | Nutrients given based on plant demand based on tissue analysis so doses are to the lower side. |
| Traditional cultivation requiring larger lands .Useful in field crops, long term fruits etc | Precision farming technique with high density cultivation for vegetables , short term fruits. |
For more information on Hydroponics farming click on following link:
Basics of hydroponics farming
Activity performed by school students
Materials required:
- Plastic container
- 9V Submersible pump
- Arduino
- Relay module
- 9V power adapter
- Cups
- Coco pith
- Thermocol
Procedure:
Take container and attach submersible pump inside container at bottom side using glue gun.
Pump is used for Aeration so that water wont get spoiled easily.
Cut thermocol as per size of container and put cups inside it.
Connections:
Arduino Code:
void setup() {
pinMode(13, OUTPUT);
}
void loop()
{
digitalWrite(13, LOW); // turn the pump off (LOW is the voltage level)
delay(90000); // wait for a fifteen minutes
digitalWrite(13, HIGH); // turn the pump on by making the voltage HIGH at relay pin
delay(10000); // let pump on for 10 seconds for every 15minutes
}
