The advantages and disadvantages of hydroponics and aeroponics their applications in agriculture
Answers
Advantages of Hydroponics
1. No soils needed
In a sense, you can grow crops in places where the land is limited, doesn't exist, or is heavily contaminated. In the 1940s, Hydroponics was successfully used to supply fresh vegetables for troops in Wake Island, a refueling stop for Pan American airlines. This is a distant arable area in the Pacific Ocean. Also, Hydroponics has been considered as the farming of the future to grow foods for astronauts in the space (where there is no soil) by NASA.
2. Make better use of space and location
Because all that plants need are provided and maintained in a system, you can grow in your small apartment, or the spare bedrooms as long as you have some spaces. Plants' roots usually expand and spread out in search for foods, and oxygen in the soil. This is not the case in Hydroponics, where the roots are sunk in a tank full of oxygenated nutrient solution and directly contact with vital minerals. This means you can grow your plants much closer, and consequently huge space savings.
3. Climate control
Like in greenhouses, hydroponic growers can have total control over the climate - temperature, humidity, light intensification, the composition of the air. In this sense, you can grow foods all year round regardless of the season. Farmers can produce foods at the appropriate time to maximize their business profits.
Disadvantages of Hydroponics
1. A Hydroponic garden requires your time and commitment
Just like any things worthwhile in life, hard-working and responsible attitude gives satisfactory yields. However, In soil-borne counterparts, plants can be left on its own for days and weeks, and they still survive in a short time. Mother nature and soils will help regulate if something is not balancing. That's not the case in Hydroponics. Plants will die out more quickly without proper care and adequate knowledge. Remember that your plants are depending on you for their survival. You must take good care of your plants, and the system upon initial installation. Then you can automate the whole thing later, but you still need to gauge and prevent the unexpected issues of the operations, and do frequent maintenance.
2. Experiences and technical knowledge
You are running a system of many types of equipment, which requires necessary specific expertise for the devices used, what plants you can grow and how they can survive and thrive in a soilless environment. Mistakes in setting up the systems and plants' growth ability in this soilless environment and you end up ruining your whole progress.
3. Organic debates
There have been some heated arguments about whether Hydroponics should be certified as organic or not. People are questioning whether plants grown hydroponically will get microbiomes as they are in the soil. But people around the world have grown hydroponic plants - lettuces, tomatoes, strawberries, etc. for tens of years, especially in Australia, Tokyo, Netherland, and the United States. They have provided food for millions of people. You cannot expect perfection from anything in life. Even for soil growing, there are still more risks of pesticides, pests, etc. compared to Hydroponics. There are some organic growing methods suggested for Hydroponic growers. For example, some growers provide microbiomes for plants by using organic growing media such as coco coir and add worm casting into it. Natural-made nutrients are commonly used such as fishes, bones, alfalfas, cottonseeds, neems, etc.
AEROPONICS
Advantages of aeroponics
1. Fast plant growth
The chief feature of aeroponics. Plants grow fast because their roots have access to a lot of oxygen 24/7.
2. Easy system maintenance
In aeroponics, all you need to maintain is the root chamber (the container housing the roots) which needs regular disinfecting, and periodically, the reservoir and irrigation channels. The constant semi-moist environment of the root chamber which invites bacterial growth is the only main drawback of all aeroponic system maintenance.
Disadvantages of aeroponics
1. Dependence on the system
A typical aeroponics system is made up of high pressure pumps, sprinklers and timers. If any of these break down, your plants can be damaged or killed easily.
2. Technical knowledge required
You need a certain level of competency in running an aeroponic system. Knowledge of nutrients amounts required by your plant is essential, because you don’t have any soil to absorb excess/wrong nutrients supplied.
The following are the advantages and disadvantages of the hydroponics and aeroponics.
Explanation:
The following are the advantages of the hydroponics:
1. The water can be reused in hydroponics which was once used for the purpose of growing the crops.
2. The water utilization in hydroponics cultivation is less as compared to the conventional methods.
3. The hydroponic cultivation can be done in a sterile environment where the crops will remain uneffected to the worms, birds and other living agents.
The following are the disadvantages of the hydroponics:
1. The production of the crop is low.
2. The cultivation is required to be continously monitored.
3. The water is filtered and cycled thus if one plant is affected by the disease then the entire cultivation can be damaged.
The following are the advantages of aeroponics:
1. The whole nursery can be taken and placed from one region to another.
2. This technique utilizes low amount of water and nutrients.
3. The method requires the low space for the growth of the plants.
The following are the disadvantages of the aeroponics:
1. The increase in dependence on the system. This occurs due to the presence of high pressure pumps, timers as well as water sprinklers if one of the item is missing the entire system for plant growth will be restricted.
2. The system development is costly.
The aeroponics is used to prevent the root contamination and hydroponics is used for the creation of indoor garden.
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