thespook2001
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Help needed: are aeroponics the best choice?

I am currently working on a project that consists in creating a hypothetical space colony. I was assigned to take care of nutrition, including the production of food. I am currently trying to decide if there is any reason not to use aeroponics over hydroponic. Also, it seems that there is a huge variety of hydroponic systems, complicating the matters for me even further. Can you give me any tips? Are there plants that grow better in aeroponics system than in hydroponic systems or vice versa? I read that leafy greens are very well suited for both, but few sources try to explain which is actually the better choice.Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!

JoysHydroponics
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I believe the only difference between the hydroponics vs. aeroponics is the addition of a natural fertilizer (fish poop). Instead of a small water reservoir, you would have a larger fish tank essentially.

The most basic hydroponic system is the deep water culture system. The plants sit in mesh baskets in the fertilized water all the time (good for leafy greens). Another system is the ebb & flow system. Plants sit in mesh baskets in a pipe or table and the fertilized water is pumped to fill the pipe or table, then drained. The pump is on a timer, set to go off a few times a day and is good for plants like tomatoes and peppers. It encourages the plant roots to grow, looking for water/nutrients. There is also a wick system where fertilized water is absorbed through an absorbent wick from a reservoir which transfers to the planting medium. It is a slow but constant source of water.

I have a small deep water culture system and an ebb & flow system. I have not tried my hand at aeroponics, but the set up of the system would be very similar. I would expect taking care of the fish would be a little more difficult, I am not sure how often the water would need to be changed and the amount of water would be greater than that of a hydroponic reservoir. The only thing I'm really not sure about is the difference seen in plants with nutrients vs. natural fertilizer.

I have spoken with individuals who are familiar with aeroponics, and in larger facilities they use tilapia. When the tilapia are of a certain size/age, they are also used as food. Neat concept as well.

Hope that helps a bit!

imafan26
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We found the aeroponic tower grew lettuce large and fast. It is a vertical system which has the advantage of making good use of space. The aeroponic system we used was hydroponic not aquaponic.
An aeroponic system would be ok for smaller short crops but might be more problematic for larger plants like tomatoes, cucumbers and the like since they are larger plants with larger root systems. We only did those in dutch buckets to accommodate the root space they would require. They also require a longer maturity time.

Aguaponic systems need fish that can tolerate crowding and less than ideal conditions. Tilapia and catfish are the most common. They still need to be fed fish food. They also do not provide all the nutrients to the plants. Iron was added to the fish tanks to supply iron to the plants, and fertilizer was still needed to grow the plants on the ebb and flow tables. Water quality had to be maintained with daily testing and pH adjustments. The water also regularly had to be changed or it would become too toxic for the fish.

I think when you plan this system maybe take some lessons from the failed biodome project
https://gizmodo.com/the-controversial-s ... -511412851

If you are in a spacestation, that would be like living in a contained community.
How many people do you have to support
How much oxygen or atmosphere do you need
How do you handle waste
One of the problems I saw with the Arizona project was that the bionauts were scientists, not a farmer among them, or a mechanic
You would have to grow a variety of plants to feed your inhabitants. Lettuce does not offer much in the way of nutrition
In the end the people in the Biodome were living mostly on the bananas which did not take much care.
If you need to provide a 2000 calorie diet for everyone, that would be a lot of lettuce
You need to consider just how much acreage it would take to grow that much food and the mix of what you would need to meet the nutritional requirements of everyone.
Hydroponics requires daily monitoring and you would have to have the chemicals to make the adjustments. That would have to be part of your supplies or you would have to make them.
Instead of lettuce which is popular for hydroponics, consider plants that give high yields and nutritive value for the space and care they require like bananas, Nz hot weather spinach, beans, root crops, sweet potatoes, swamp cabbage, cut and come again vegetables. If you are going to have chickens for meat and eggs, you have to grow food to feed them as well. Goats can live on scraps provided you can grow extras. You would have to have some soil, a compost pile for waste, recycle waste products from the station, have a few large fruit trees over 8 inches in diameter to provide some oxygen recycling but also to provide edible fruits. You don't need a lot of scientists, you need a few natives who have survival skills. You will need a pretty large lake of water, not only for drinking and watering the plants or creating "rain". It needs to be a complete ecosystem with fish to supplement protein in your diet and contain the habitat, algae, predator and prey fish to support life.

Manpalace
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I hadn't given growing my plants aeroponically any consideration until now. Some of this information is great and I'm considering applying some of it

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TexasT
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To me the drawback of the aeroponic is the upfront cost of the system, the upkeep of it and if it looses power the plants die. Up side is in space with little or no gravity the water sprayed out would just float there around the roots so it might not be as critical to have it keep spraying is it is here on earth.

Not sure how hydroponic or aquaponic would work in space with the gravity or lack of it to keep the water down in the container.



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