Hydroponics for Vertical Farming
Hydroponics is transforming agriculture by enabling soil-free, high-efficiency crop production. Paired with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and vertical farming, it maximizes yields, conserves resources, and allows year-round growing in any location. As food demand rises, hydroponics offers a sustainable, space-efficient, and innovative solution for the future of farming.
All About Hydroponics
Without an adequate supply of water and nutrients plants will simply not grow. The choice of hydroponic or irrigation system will depend on the type of growing environment you aim to create, and the type of crop you aim to cultivate.
Hydroponic systems are varied, and each have their own benefits, but at the heart of the concept is the need to get a nutrient-rich aqueous solution direct to your plants. A key factor in this process is the set-up of the fertigation system. This will provide an accurate mix of water, nutrients, and control solutions into the system in the correct proportion. This can be extremely time consuming if done manually, and plant-demand may come outside of a 9-5 work day. Setting up a system to respond automatically will enhance your potential plant growth and yields, and minimise grower stress and labour.
We offer a range of fertigation and dosing equipment, from water-powered to peristaltic pumps, alongside a range of hydroponic and irrigation options, to ensure your plants always have access to the right water and nutrient mix, anytime day or night.
Effective fertigation is a key component of any successful production system. Irrigating and feeding your plants is an essential action, but accurately measuring out nutrient quantities and control solution proportions is an action which can be time consuming and labour intensive – and potentially an activity where mistakes are made.
Using dosing pumps, either standalone or as part of a nutrient delivery system, can help to automate this process. These can allow a grower to stipulate the quantity and proportion of a nutrient to add to an irrigation solution, and this can happen automatically and continuously.
Recirculating deep water culture (RDWC) is a common hydroponic system, where plants grow directly into nutrient rich, oxygenated water.
The nutrient and water solution is constantly circulated to avoid stagnancy and to allow it to be monitored for changing nutrient (through EC/conductivity) and pH levels. It is also aerated to ensure plant roots have sufficient access to oxygen.
Using this system to introduce plant roots directly into a nutrient rich solution, with constant monitoring of the conditions of that solution, can allow growers to deliver specific plant resource requirements, and to achieve high yields.
Perhaps the most common approach to controlled irrigation, drip irrigation systems deliver water and nutrients direct to the plant, reducing the potential for losses associated with non-targeted irrigation techniques.
Drip irrigation systems can be set up relatively simply and cheaply, and require limited energy and labour to run. It is also possible to add a degree of automation to drip systems by integrating monitoring and sensor-based technology to inform irrigation management systems, and to target plant water demand more accurately.
Spray irrigation is a widely used method of controlled irrigation that distributes water over crops in a manner similar to natural rainfall. By delivering water through a system of pipes and sprinkler heads, spray irrigation ensures even coverage across a cultivated area, reducing the risk of under- or over-watering.
These systems can be set up with relative ease and at a reasonable cost, requiring moderate energy and labour inputs for operation. Spray irrigation can also be automated by integrating sensors and monitoring technology, enabling more precise irrigation scheduling and improved water-use efficiency.
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DELIVERY INFORMATION
The vast majority of our products are dispatched within 24hrs via national courier EVRI, right to your door. This often takes 2-3 business days from date of dispatch. If you need something quicker, please do get in touch.
Some items are made to order or are so large they require some extra planning, we will contact you to arrange delivery in these cases.
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