Which hydroponic methods are redundant when used alongside others?

[A&J]

There are lots of hydroponic methods:

• DWC / Floating raft

• Kratky

• Wicking bed

• NFT

• Top drip

• Media bed / Ebb and flow

• Aeroponics (LPA/HPA)

• ...

If you wanted to grow the widest range of crops possible and had access to all methods.
Which would you consider to be redundant?

By redundant I mean that all crops that can be grown using this method, can be grown far more effectively using others.

[imafan26]

I don't really understand the question.
First of all, not all crops or plants are suitable for hydroponic culture. Long crops, root crops, low value crops, are not economically suitable. also because of the space constraints vining crops and crops that need large spaces are less economical to grow.

https://www.commercial-hydroponic-farmi ... droponics/

Some hydro systems are more suitable for different kinds of crops. You can grow carrots, beets, and onions, in a biofilter, but it is is not practical to grow these in a rail system. Rail systems are better for leafy greens with maturity of around 30 days.

Taro can be grown in a biofilter since the plant is semi aquatic anyway, but it is a long crop with an extensive root system that easily clogs the bed.

Kratky is practical for small scale hydroponics especially when there is not easy access to electricity or you are just starting out and want to keep cost down. Kratky systems are relatively easy to build and don't require pumps, aeration is optional. DWC systems differ from Kratky because they do use pumps. In terms of redundancy DWC,Kratky would be suitable for similar crops, so they would be the most redundant.

Aero towers and rails also are similar in terms of what they are capable of growing and how it operates. The main difference is one is horizontal and the other is vertical, so they do have some reduncy as well.

If you want the most diversity of crops in a single system, then a biofilter can grow leafy greens, some root crops (beets, carrots), herbs, and leeks. Dutch buckets you can grow the larger plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers.

All systems can be run by hydroponic or aquaponics. In aquaponics you may have to add additional nutrients that are unavailable. Like additional iron for lettuce. In the biofilters we also used sustain and bone meal to feed plants.

[pepperhead212]

Welcome to the forum! I also don't understand the question - if you are using one method, how, or why would you be using the other methods? Maybe some things done in some of those methods you think might be redundant?

Some things I do in my deepwater systems might be thought of as more than necessary - an airstone, as well as a powerhead, but the powerhead I use as a filter, as used in an aquarium, as well as for water circulation, so if the powerhead ever dies (which could happen), the airstone is still circulating the water. But this is not things I see mentioned in combo for hydroponics - just something I use from my aquariums. But it works great for plants, too.

[A&J]

Thanks for the welcome and replies.

I read a book some time ago which gives an overview of many of the different hydroponic methods (without going too deep into system specifics, costs, etc.)

It also gives examples of which crops are suited to each method. One of the authors views is that while tomatos can be grown by most methods, it is much better to grow them using top-drip.

My thought then was if I wanted to be able to grow the greatest variety of hydroponically suited crops, while limiting the number of methods used. Which methods should they be? (Again without going too deep into system specifics)

Would it make any sense to have DWC, floating-raft and Kratky. Or would aeroponic, ebb-and-flow and NFT be better. Could I stick to top-drip only? Are there methods you wouldn't use at all as there is a lot of overlap from other methods?

[imafan26]

It really depends on what you are growing. Dutch buckets are better for crops that live longer than 30 days and have extensive root systems, Like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers that also need support.
Whether you use a system that uses media or not again depends on what you want to grow. I you are only growing short crops like greens that do not require support, then you can pick any soil less system you want. It depends on the space you have whether you want to grow vertically or horizontally.

If you want to branch out to fruiting and root crops, like beets, carrots, or blueberries, then a system using hydroton, cinder, or rock wool works best. Root crops will not grow well in soil less media and deeper rooted crops need a deep bucket not just 4 inches of media. if you grow carrots, they will be baby carrots, beet roots grow 1/3 in the soil and 2/3 out of the soil. Fruiting crops live longer but may have different nutrient needs at different stages of growth.

We only did cucumber in an intermittent sub irrigated system that had a capacity of about a gallon. The plants in that system were not as productive as using the 15 gallon Dutch buckets, just because of the differences in root volume. Water is piped in on top of the Dutch bucket and then drains into a tray back to the reservoir. Since it is never totally flooded, there is more air space and the larger reservoir grew larger plants that were more productive.

The systems that use a biofilter media like cinders or hydroton can grow a more diversified number of plants, but each plant will have their own requirements so you cannot always mix them in the same bed or tank.

As far as systems go, it is better to plant only one type of plant in any rail or bed. If you plant different plants that grow at different rates and need different nutrients it is hard to manage and the larger plants usually out compete smaller ones. If you harvest a rail or raft, you want to harvest everything at the same time. I makes it more efficient for cleaning and cycling the system again.

In a biofilter bed you can plant different plants as long as they use the same nutrient solution. We had 100 ft biofilters 4 inches deep that were aquaponic and we used granular organic fertilizer as well for the plant in the cinder media.
We could plant green onions and kale together, but usually we still only planted the same thing in one bed, just because it made it easier to harvest and clean the entire bed. In the shade house at one time we planted both tomatoes and cucumbers in Dutch buckets, one plant to a bucket. They got aquaponic water but also organic fertilizer in each bucket.