How to plant hydroponics is the right choice so that it can be practiced by farmers in large cities in Indonesia because generally the amount of available land stock is running low.
So what exactly is hydroponic planting?
How to grow hydroponically
Hydroponic planting is a modern planting technique without using soil at all, as is usually used in traditional planting methods.
In contrast, hydropronic planting patterns rely on using water-soluble nutrient solutions as a substitute for soil media where the liquid is directed directly to the plant roots.
The impact, plant growth can be fast, the results are abundant.
Quoting from Garsinia Lestari's article entitled hydroponic gardening at home as released on the site https://perpus.alkautsar.web.id, the origin of the hydroponic planting system was first introduced in 1936 by W.F Gericke, an agronomist from the University of California, United States because of its success. in farming trials using nutrient water.
Lonardy, revealed in his research (2006) entitled Response of Tomato Plants to the Supply of Nitrogen Compounds (Tadulako University, Palu) that the use of a hydroponic system knows no seasons, rarely requires large areas of land compared to soil culture to produce the same unit of productivity.
It is acknowledged in various research journal literature that the advantages of the hydroponic growing method are numerous, as stated in Leonardy's opinion. Not only that, monitoring is easy, saves costs, energy and pest control can be done quickly.
6 Benefits of hydroponic growing methods
Below I will review some of the benefits of hydroponic cultivation techniques.
a. Faster Growth and More Results:
Planting hydroponically allows plants to develop and grow up to 20% faster than using soil. This accelerated growth is caused by administering liquid containing nutrients directly to the plant roots.
b. Space Efficiency:
The hydroponic growing system requires much less land space because the plant roots do not spread everywhere to hunt for macro or micro nutrients.
c. Water Conservation:
The hydroponic water system is designed to be very efficient when using water, which is different from gardening using soil. The hydroponic growing system has a repeated cycle of water flow to the plant roots. This means that the nutritional fluid used does not increase in volume, that's all.
d. Eliminates Weeds,
Diseases and Pests: Because hydroponic gardens don't depend on soil, they are virtually weed-free. In addition, the absence of soil reduces the risk of soil-related diseases or pests, making maintenance easy and requiring less labor.
e. Faster harvest time
It was revealed in the Agrovigor journal, in an article entitled The Effect of Planting Media and Nutrition on the Growth and Yield of Pakchoi Plants, that cultivating Pakchoi plants using a hydroponic system has a faster harvest period when compared to conventional methods.
6 Methods for Hydroponic Planting
There are 6 methods of growing hydroponically with their own advantages, as follows
a. Deep Water Culture (DWC),
A WDC-style hydroponic growing method, the plant roots are suspended in a rich nutrient solution, providing them with a continuous supply of water, oxygen and nutrients
b. Ebb and Flow,
The hydroponic planting method is often called the ebb and flow method by using a timer to administer the nutrient solution. This explanation was given by Buli Delya et al in the Lampung agricultural engineering journal entitled design of an automatic tidal hydropronic system for cultivating chili plants.
c. Wicking,
This hydroponic planting method is called a passive system, because it doesn't move. The way to draw the nutrient solution to the plant is with the help of a wick, which can come from used flannel, stove wick or other material The containers used are usually used oil jerry cans, plastic mineral drink bottles. I recommend that you try this because the cost is cheap or even no cost at all.
d. Drip
In this hydroponic planting system, the drip model relies on dripping nutrient solution through a hose. The hose is installed on a timer and then hung directly towards the roots of the plant. The point here is that there must be drip irrigation if you want to use the drip system hydroponic planting method.
e. Aeroponics,
Now, the aeroponic hydroponic method of planting can be said to be somewhat unique. The plant roots are left hanging in the open air when the environmental humidity is maintained. The process of providing nutrition through spray installation of a fogging pipe. Creating a fogging installation like this, based on my personal experience when cultivating white oyster mushrooms, requires a lot of money and is a bit of a hassle.
f. Nutrient Film Technique (NFT).
The following 6th method was developed by Dr. A.J Cooper from Littlehampton, England, late 1960. The container he used was polyethylene plastic coated with stereoform on the inside. So the plant roots will live on the stereoform which is then repeatedly injected by a stream of highly nutritious water.
Conditions for growing hydroponics
There are several main requirements to be successful using the hydroponic growing method:
a. This type of plant must be harvested quickly
Considering that the hydroponic planting method uses a small amount of land, the types of plants you want to plant should be short-lived and harvest quickly, such as pek choy, lettuce or other vegetable plants.
b. Short rooted plants
What this means is that the roots of the plant should not be too long so that they often become submerged in water. This will make the plant wilt
c. The plant size is not large
This condition clearly requires that hydroponic plants are not woody but tend to be vegetables.
Happy planting!
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