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Operations | Structure: Soil vs Hydroponics

There are so many approaches to raising crops which include traditional farming, hydroponics and aqua-ponics.

Traditional farming is planting crops into the soil and involves using irrigation systems to provide the field containing the crops with water. This offers very little automation and is exposed to weather of the region of that farm.

Hydroponics is a method of providing nutrients to crops without the use of soil. Some hydroponics systems recycle the water used to grow the crops and much effort is placed into the irrigation system to ensure optimal levels of water and nutrients are provided to the crops. This is a controlled system that may be setup in open air or in a green house.


Aqua-ponics is a method of growing crops and fish in a symbiotic environment, where the crops receive nutrient rich water filled with the faeces of the fish and the plant filters the faecal water so that it returns clean into the fish pond. This system of farming is usually set up in an enclosed environment with little to no exposure to the weather.

When choosing between the three approaches, the farmer must determine the needs of the plant and cost for maintaining the use of such approach in growing that plant. Let's for sake of this dissertation, call any controlled system of farming without the use of soil a plant nursery. Let's also assume that a nursery requires the sheltering of a greenhouse. I do not think it is practical to grow trees in a nursery since they can be enlarged into a large and unwieldy structure (but who knows what's possible). Nonetheless, vine (garden) plants are being grown using nurseries in very effective ways by a number of commercial entities. Some of the crops that can be grown in a nurseries are peppers of all kinds, tomatoes, lettuce and celery. Most vegetables can be grown in a nursery.

Space is the main consideration for using a nursery to grow certain crops. Once water and the necessary nutrients are provided to the plant via hydroponic or aqua-ponic system, the plant will produce quality results. Nurseries, however, cannot contain coconut and mango trees and, as such, only the traditional approach will work for that kind of crop.

References

  1. What Plants Can You Grow Hydroponically? by Christina D'Anna


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