Turbulence
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More Efficient System?

I'm wondering what the more efficient hydroponics system is - in terms of water usage and supplying the plant with the more nutrients to grow

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Hydroponic systems do use water more efficiently than conventional planting in the sense that the water is recycled back to the plant. Once the water on the ground goes past the roots on the ground it gets recycled eventually back to the global environment. Both systems will lose some water to evaporation. In warmer climates it will be more of a problem than cooler ones. Unless you are using solar power to power the pumps and aerators, hydroponics leaves a bigger carbon footprint. While there are organic hydroponic solutions, they aren't very good and synthetic ones do drain other resources. Hydroponic systems are expensive in terms of start up costs, but plants do have the potential to grow faster and to get higher yields in a given space.

Hydroponics have to be protected more because they are rapidly growing plants, you have to keep the bugs out. It is very hard to get a good crop once pests become established. You may end up having to throw everything out and sanitize before you can start over.

While there are many plants that are suitable for hydroponic culture some are not as adaptable. If you live where there are a good number of suppliers it helps. Where I live there are only 2 hydroponic dealers. Not much competition, so cost for supplies are higher than it would be in other places. Shipping anything here costs us twice as much because we end up paying for the transportation here and back again to the mainland.

SQWIB
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Location: Zone 7A - Philadelphia, PA

My take on hydroponics, water efficiency aside, is it has its place, there are situations where using soil isn't an option and some form of hydroponics can be implemented.
As far as a Nutrient standpoint, I think that plants grown in media are more efficient due to the fact you can make your own compost to feed the plants.
And as imafan said some things are suited for hydroponics, for example I grew lettuces and kale using the kratky method.
Add your solution put in your plant and that's it you are done, after the harvest there is no soil to worry about and the solution had been consumed by the plant "0" carbon footprint, well other than the fertz. And there is the mobility factor of this type of hydroponics. This is great for apartment patios, decks, steps anywhere you can stick a coffee can that has some sun is a potential garden.
Vertical gardening is great for hydroponics. I installed a "short lived" NFT system fed by my back pond that did poorly because of lack of nutrients, I could have tweaked it a bit but decided to take it down.

I still use a form of Aquaponics in my Koi pond using some flowers and pepper plants. The plants are used to clean the water.

If it came down to having a choice, the answer for me is to grow in soil, I started in soil, dabbled in hydroponics, then went back to soil, but for others there may be situations where hydroponics may be more beneficial.

Here's a few of my Hydro setups


Kratky
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NFT
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Roots from one plant in the NFT
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RUDWC
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Manpalace
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Perhaps I'm misinterpreting you but I think you mean what's the most efficient system within hydroponics, not whether hydroponics is efficient. I'll assume you mean a system using electricity rather than a passive system such as the kratky or wick system.

If that's the case, I would put an argument for a recirculatory drip system with the dripper stake embedded into the growing media.

As the name suggests, you collect the nutrient solution and feed it back into the system once again, and the cycle continues.
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SQWIB
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Manpalace wrote:Perhaps I'm misinterpreting you but I think you mean what's the most efficient system within hydroponics, not whether hydroponics is efficient.
Good catch, I misread the post and I believe you are correct.



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