Hydroponic greenhouse gardening
Guide to hydroponic planting, growing and harvesting in a greenhouse and in the garden.
In MOTHER NO. 28 I described a homemade
ecosystem . . . an underground hydroponic greenhouse and
aquaculture tank which I recently built on my small New
Mexico homestead. In that article I discussed the
construction procedure and philosophical rationale of the
project. Now I'd like to expand on some of the details: in
this installment, specifically, the subject of hydroponic
gardening.
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The American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language defines "hydroponics" as follows:
hy-dro-pon-ics (hi' dre-pon'iks) n. Plural in form,
usedwith a singular verb. The cultivation of
plants in water containing dissolved inorganic nutrients,
rather than in soil ....
Most plants grown hydroponically are raised in greenhouses
under carefully controlled conditions. Gravel is usually
used as a medium for root support, and a balanced mixture
of all the necessary nutrients is periodically fed to the
crops in a liquid form. This method is called
"sub-irrigation culture". In large commercial greenhouses
it's been refined to such a degree that—once the
seedlings have been planted—almost all the work is
done by automation. Delicate sensors in the gravel "decide"
when the plants need more solution and turn on pumps which
meter out the correct dosage.
The biggest advantage of the hydroponic method is that crop
yields are increased many times over those of conventional
agriculture. For example, the yield per acre of tomatoes
grown in soil is from five to ten tons. With hydroponics,
the harvest is from 60 to 300 tons! For cucumbers, the
equivalent figures are 7,000 pounds compared with 28,000
pounds . . . for lettuce, 9,000 pounds and 21,000 pounds.
For years I'd heard about hydroponic gardening, but had
never given the subject more room in my thoughts than a
quickly contemptuous dismissal. After all, hydroponics is
the quintessential form of chemical agriculture . . . and,
to a dyed-in-the-wool organic gardener like me, the thought
of feeding my vegetables with a pure chemical solution was
blasphemy. Then one day about two years ago, I was browsing
in a bookstore and came upon a thin newsprint pamphlet with
the title Hydroponics!. My first reaction was an
almost irrational disgust: "What kind of propaganda are the
big chemical companies putting out now?" But the
work had the aura of a counterculture publication: large
format, cheap paper and on the cover a reproduction of
Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion map of the world. I picked up
the booklet, gingerly leafed through it and then bought it
on the spot.
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