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What is Hydroponics, Learn History and Future of Hydroponics

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Earth without water will not exist, there will be no Hydroponics without water or no culture practice of it. Water plays an important role in living cells.

In plants, water helps in the transportation of nutrition and energy stored in the form of dissolved salts and sugars.

Hydro stands for Water and phonics stand for labor. Hydroponics is a new technique of growing plants with water. No Soil, No Fertilizer only with water.

Soilless farming is the future of agriculture because of the population increasing day by day.

As the population increases day by day the need for food and due to the increase.

Soilless farming is the new way of growing food and this is one of them. First, I will tell you about how plants get food

As we are talking about Hydroponics we must understand how plants get the food there.

3 Elements are necessary for the plant to get food from the soil

  1. Fire 
  2. Air 
  3. Water

These 3 elements help the soil to recharge with its nutrients which are required by the plants.

  • First, when forest burns, the wood turns into ash, Wood ash is rich in Potassium.
  • Rain comes lifeless leaves and dead branches fallen down then start decay and help in preparing food for plants, Animal and insect decay it and converts it into organic waste 
  • Organics waste is Biologically decomposed into the Basic nutrients that plants need. 
  • Rain again dissolves these nutrients in the soil that the plant absorbs through its roots.
  • After the plants get there balance diet everything goes well and get health plant

Nowadays we have a better understanding of the plants and about their growing process,  we can use this technique to get better and nutrition-rich food.

Index:

  1. Brief History of Hydroponics
  2. Current Research on Hydroponics
  3. Learning from NASA Project
  4. Future of Hydroponics
  5. Conclusion
  6. FAQ

Brief History of Hydroponics

This technique is not a new technology in the field of cultivation of Plants. Nowadays hydroponics food is rich in nutrition and vitamins, but not in the early days. In the early period of time, the quality of the food is not so good. 

In early times, man became aware of growing plants in the required environment and applied different methods on it to grow different types of food.

Egyptian hieroglyphics records of several hundred years BC describe growing plants in water.

The ophrastus during 372-287 BC experimented with plant nutrition. That time a form of Hydroponics was established with the hanging garden of Babylon, the floating garden of Aztecs of Mexico and the Chinese. 

In the ’90s some Hobby Hydroponics culture came on the market. They use the gravel and water culture system. These were mainly “Do it yourself” projects. The “City Green” hydroponics is the first unit of that time.

These were the indoor units that were used at that time. This unity contains the Air Pump, Air pump tube, Perforated plastic tube, solution reservoir, and Aluminum Support bar. 

The “City Green” hydroponic was one of the first such units constructed of molded plastic with an upper growing tray and a nutrient reservoir below.

The substrate was volcanic cinder rock or expanded clay irrigated by a small perforated plastic tube on the top of the medium.

A tube from a fish aquarium pump outside was connected to the irrigation tube in the nutrient tank. The air pump tube was connected to the larger diameter irrigation tube.

The space between the walls of the tubes at their connection permitted water to move up by the force of the air entering the irrigation tube.

Current Research on Hydroponics

As we compare to the early days, there is so much advancement in hydroponics. In the early time, they only use limited resources, but nowadays there are so many resources available in the market.

Nowadays it is not used only for the growing food, but it is used as the commercial hydroponics for the tourist resort and spas as they are emphasizing wellness programs.

Industries having waste heat and geothermal sites using this technique for growing vegetables in a more economical way by using cheaper sources of energy for heating. 

Sunlight is replaced with the led lights. The greenhouse industry in the northerly latitudes where light is limited during winters, so they use led light as the new source of energy for their Greenhouse.

In many countries, the hydroponics greenhouse is installed on the rooftop. Which provides them freshly grown vegetables, free of toxic pesticide and fully vine-ripened fruits such as tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.

These greenhouses are also installed in the parking area near the supermarket. These will help in the saving of fossil fuel in long transportation for distant markets. The vegetables are grown onsite and directly sent to the retail outlet. 

Going one step further, Vertical hydroponics is also using the vertical Building in the cities. Where some floors or a wing of the building would be modified to grow plants.

Solar panels on the rooftop or parking area provide electricity to the hydroponics system. 

Hydroponics opens the number of channels for the growing crops in all environmental conditions including in your home or backyard.

Learning from NASA Project

NASA is currently working on the Hydroponics solution for the space traveler with a self-sufficient food source.

NASA sponsored a research program titled Controlled Ecological Life support system (CELSS) in order to develop the hydroponics system in space.

Hydroponics in international Space Station

NASA is testing this system in space in ISS (international space station). There they made a small hydroponics garden for growing food and other research. NASA is using high-pressure sodium or HPS, which is the most commercial growers due to its strong “lumen per watt” efficiency.

High-intensity Discharge (H.I.D) lighting, which includes HPS and metal halide (MH) type of lamps. it is the best lighting system to use inside gardens and provides natural lighting due to their efficiency and the close color match with the sun.

This project helps the space travelers in the self-sufficient food source and they can live in the space for more time. As we know that every country is doing research on life on another planet. This will help us to grow food on that planet also.

Future of Hydroponics

The population is increasing day by day and we do not have more land to grow more food for our peoples.

Hydroponics is the only solution for growing food. In recent times, there is so much advancement in the hydroponics system.

However, such a population increase comes hand in hand with the need to produce more food to feed them. Some estimates suggest 70% more food will be needed.

But with 80% of cultivated land already in use and the rapid urbanization of countries set to continue, the challenge of producing more food in a sustainable way will become ever more pressing.

With the help of hydroponics, we can grow more food than with the traditional method which we are using right now.

People can grow their own food in their rooftop and inside their house or backyard. 

The quality of the food is not good due to the use of fertilizer, which may cause a number of health diseases.

But with the new source of growing the food, we can get nutrition-rich food without adding fertilizer in it. 

it has the potential to sustain a large number of the population of the world to feed them. The countries where the quality of the soil is not good and water is not available, their hydroponics is the only way to grow food.

Conclusion

Hydroponics is a very old technique of growing food, as time passes a lot of advancement is seen in it. These days hydroponics system is the future of farming and a new source of food growing technique for space travelers.

The future of hydroponics is bright and helps so many countries to grow food for the peoples without having a good quality of soil and limited water.

Hydroponics can also help in controlling carbon emission and give a positive effect on the environment and open new ways of farming.

If you want to know about the Growing Medium use in Hydroponics?

FAQ

How Hydroponics is becoming a boom in farming?

Hydroponics is the modern technology in the field of farming.  In which plants are grown in the water and add nutrition in the water. It required less water than traditional farming methods. The growth and the quality of the food is better than the normal methods. As I discussed above the population is increasing day by day and the food requirement of the food is not sufficient. These are the only methods which help us to produce more food and these are the reasons it is becoming a boom in farming.

Why is hydroponics beneficial for humans?

These days the use of fertilizer has increased so much that it has started affecting human health and making them ill. In hydroponics, there is no use of fertilizer and soil. Fertilizer is not good for health and if the soil quality is not good then it also affects the food quality. Due to not the use of fertilizer and soil in the hydroponics system the quality of the food is g it good and the food is rich in all the vitamins and minerals. So it is beneficial for humans and gives them better and more nutrition-rich food.

Will Hydroponics change the agriculture world?

There are a number of countries in the world, which do not have enough water and the quality of the soil is not of that level which can provide nutrition-rich food. Hydroponics is the only solution to this problem. The number of countries doing research and working on hydroponics which can change the way of doing agriculture in the world.

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