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Having had experience with hydroponic horticulture, I believe you are correct. Successful hydroponic farming is much harder than it seems it would be. The amo
by jrapdx3 12y ago
Having had experience with hydroponic horticulture, I believe you are correct. Successful hydroponic farming is much harder than it seems it would be.
The amount of light energy required to grow plants properly is very large and hard to supply with artificial light sources. Fruiting plants, like tomatoes, have much higher requirements than leafy crops, like lettuce. Lamps are rather inefficient converting electricity into light.
A 1000 Watt metal halide or high-pressure Na lamp is barely adequate to cover a square meter (if the only light source). Calculate the energy cost of running it 16hr/day for a month and it gives new respect for Mother Nature.
Another headache is plant nutrition. Vegetables grow fast and suck nutrients out of their environment at an alarming rate. There are many systems but the short version is reusing nutrient fluids requires constant chemical monitoring to assure proper pH, mineral content. Automated equipment is out of the question, and a home farmer very likely won't have the knowledge and lab equipment to do it optimally by hand.
There are a whole bunch of other constraints, but the above is enough said. Doing experiments is fun, but apartment-scale production of edibles is definitely no more than a pipe dream.
- exDM69 12y ago> A 1000 Watt metal halide or high-pressure Na lamp is barely adequate to cover a square meter (if the only light source). 1000 Watts of metal halide or HPNa? Per square meter? That's huge! You don't need anywhere near that kind of figures for growing salad in your kitchen. If you're working in a commercial gardening operation, then it's a different deal. But then you're either growing weed and/or have a huge area so the W/m^2 figure goes down. A single fluorescent tube in addition to natural light and your usual kitchen lighting goes a long way. Most plants are not very sensitive to pH figures nor do they suck up nutrients like crazy. Automated pH and EC measurement would be nice, though. Even better if this garden could automatically add in nutrients and acid if necessary. Lessons from growing weed are not necessarily valid for food production.
- lennel 12y agowe have been running an indoor aquaponic system as an expriment for a year now and you are right, it is a pipe dream mostly. Lots of fun to be had, but its not a cheap hobby.