Starting the day without orange juice sounds unthinkable to many. In the not-so-distant future, orange juice could become unaffordable due to problems with citrus farming. In Florida, one of the larges citrus producing areas in the world, farmers are experimenting with hydroponics growing systems to help reduce problems with “Greening,” an increasingly prevalent disease of citrus trees.
Around the World
Hydroponics in Community Gardens
Community gardens are places for people to grow fresh flowers and produce somewhere other than where they live. Perfect for apartment dwellers, community gardens allow plant-lovers to sink their hands into the dirt. In inner-city, urban areas, community gardens provide beauty in often run-down neighborhoods. Turning vacant lots into gardens is proven to lower crime in the area. Community gardens provide residents with gathering places to meet and get to know each other. The gardens do foster a sense of community.
Community Gardens in Cold Places
Most people probably think of community gardens as gardens located in vacant lots, or in public parks or pieces of land. For gardeners living in cold areas where winter is longer than summer, community plots are increasingly found in greenhouses. Greenhouses are places for traditional growing of plants in soil; however, to make better use of space, hydroponics and simple hydroponics systems allow growers to produce much more food per square foot than traditional growing methods. In Canada, local community foundations have contributed money toward community space in greenhouses.
Rooftop Community Gardens
Urban areas often lack space on the ground for gardening. Where there is free space suitable for gardening, development and building is not far behind. Residents of Montreal, Canada, have taken matters into their own hands and started rooftop community gardens. These gardens in the sky have made use of “simple hydroponics” systems that involve growing plants without soil in light media such as vermiculite, or in simple nutrient solutions. Hydroponics and rooftop gardens go hand-in-hand, as extra weight from soil would crush the roof.
Institute of Simplified Hydroponics
Around the world, the Institute of Simplified Hydroponics develops and supports hydroponics community gardens and farming ventures to help fight hunger in impoverished areas. Large-scale hydroponics systems can be expensive and out of reach for many hungry people. Through teachers, video and DVD classes and CDRom resources, the ISH spreads knowledge of hydroponics around the world. The charitable arm of the ISH is called “Hydro for Hunger.” This affiliated organization raises money to support hydroponics projects that need extra funding.
Hydroponics for Healthy Communities
Hydroponics systems are ways for people without land, or living in areas inhospitable to traditional farming to produce their own food in a cost-effective manner. In populations that are chronically undernourished, the fresh produce from hydroponics systems provides essential vitamins and minerals that might otherwise be out of reach.
Hydroponics: U-Pick Farms
Parents pack shrieking children into the car for an afternoon at the local U-Pick farm. Looking forward to hours swatting mosquitoes, baking in the heat, and sneaking sun-ripened strawberries into their mouths, the promise of strawberry ice cream and strawberry shortcake keeps them motivated. This family may be in for a surprise! U-Pick operations have started moving, in large numbers, to vertical hydroponics farming systems.
Hydroponics Fights Hunger
Food shortages and food inaccessibility due to economic reasons are problems common to countries around the world. Land unsuitable for traditional farming contributes to food shortages, as do urban conditions preventing self sufficiency. Hydroponics gardening and farming techniques are being used around the world to help fight hunger.
Hydroponics in Inhospitable Locations
In areas of Pakistan, traditional farming methods are expensive and impractical. Water, a precious commodity in the arid landscape, is lost at an alarmingly high rate with traditional methods. Water evaporates into the air, drains through the soil and is taken up by weeds, making farming in the soil unaffordable for farmers. Inability to farm, and no money with which to purchase fresh food leaves many in Pakistan hungry.
The government of Pakistan is beginning to see the value of hydroponics farming to help fight hunger. A test project overseen by a Dutch expert in hydroponics recently began in Islamabad. Five acres of land are producing tens of thousands of kilograms of tomatoes a week. With such huge results on very little space, the possibility of hydroponics making an impact on the economic situation in Pakistan is real. Because hydroponics farms require infrastructure in the form of water and electricity, before the farms can become a reality, infrastructure around the country will need improvement.
Hydroponics Beats Disease
In North Korea, potatoes are a staple crop. Producing tubers, or potatoes from which new potatoes are started is a lengthy process fraught with failure. Potatoes are susceptible to a wide variety of diseases and producing disease-free starter stock presents a challenge. To counter effects of potato diseases, a philanthropic organization “World Vision” has partnered with the North Korean government to start hydroponics potato seedling farms.
North Koreans suffer from hunger due to inhospitable growing conditions, lack of free trade, poor weather and poverty. The ability to grow more potatoes will help improve overall health conditions. World Vision is also experimenting with farming methods to grow cucumbers and other produce to help enhance the nutrient-deficient diet of North Koreans.
Hydroponics Helps
Even within nations traditionally considered “developed,” poverty prevents thousands of individuals from consuming fresh produce and gaining necessary nutrients. In Penfield, New York, Freshwise Farms, a hydroponics greenhouse grows tons of produce each year for the local community. The farm is owned by Foodlink, a program devoted to fighting hunger in the region surrounding the farm. Profits from sales go to help fight hunger locally, while produce grown at the farm makes affordable fresh foods available to local residents.
Whether in far-flung desert locations in Asia or temperate climates of North America, hydroponics gardening can contribute to the greater heath of a population. Look for hydroponics to revolutionize agriculture around the world in years to come.
Let us Grow Lettuce!
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Fresh produce in remote and inhospitable places is now economically feasible, thanks to the science of hydroponics. Areas such as the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic, which are devoid of native mammals and native trees, now have access to nutrient rich fresh vegetables thanks to Stanley Growers.
Vertical Farming
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The horse and plow gave way to the tractor. Soon, the tractor will give way to a “farmer” strolling through aisles of produce growing in twenty story buildings! Vertical farming is the way of the future.
Las Vegas Plans to Farm
Or not. Early in 2008, rumors circulated rampantly around the internet that the city of Las Vegas was planning to build a thirty story vertical farm. This farm would have fed 72,000 people for a year, and would have been opened as yet another tourist attraction. Since the viral spread of this news on the internet, the city of Las Vegas has denied any plans to construct such a farm, and Chris Jacobs, the designer of the building pictured in articles and blogs about the project, has written that he was never approached for a design.
Hydroponics In History: The Babylonian Gardens
By: Charlene Rennick
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Many new devices, ideas and civilizations have emerged because, “Necessity is the mother of invention” (Plato, The Republic). The shortage of water and available fertile soil for planting crops is not a new issue. Throughout history, archaeological evidence shows us that thousands of cities have been built on land that was safe from invasion, but not necessarily ideal for agricultural use. People have been using water and rock in place of soil to support plant growth for centuries.
Nebuchadnezzar, ruler of ancient Babylon during the Chilean dynasty in 600 BCE, built the hydroponically-engineered gardens in the palace courtyard located just outside of present day Baghdad, Iraq. The rumour is that he had these constructed to please his wife, Amytis of Media, because she was homesick for her childhood home in the mountain springs.
[Read more…] about Hydroponics In History: The Babylonian Gardens
Hydroponics at Disney World
Many happy horticulturalists sprout from visits to the Land Pavilion at Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park. The Land Pavilion houses a restaurant and several attractions, but the star of the show is the large greenhouse complex through which visitors float via boat. During the boat ride, visitors learn about hydroponic gardening and aquaculture—with many visitors receiving their first look at this unusual form of farming.
Mickey Mouse Shaped Vegetables
A highlight of the tour is a view of “Mickey Mouse” shaped fruits and vegetables growing. Cucumbers, melons, tomatoes and pumpkins all become “The Mouse.” This feat of farming is accomplished by fitting mouse-shaped plastic enclosures around fruits as they begin to form. As they grow, they will fill out the shape, turning into Mickey Mouse himself—only more orange!
All of the vegetables and fruits grown in The Land are served around the Walt Disney World resort. Nine pound lemons, huge eggplants, tomatoes from the “tomato tree,” lettuce of every variety and more are staples of The Land’s regular plantings.
Ground-Breaking Hydroponic Research
In addition to the fun of huge vegetables and oddly shaped fruits, serious research in hydroponic gardening and aquaculture happens in The Land. Hydroponic research for NASA includes experiments about growing plants without soil or water. Such research could help future explorations into space, and make vegetable growing on distant planets a reality! Visitors are treated to plants growing without soil or water. These plants are hanging in the air on a special rotating fixture. The plants are intermittently sprayed with a nutrient solution, providing water and nutrients to the plants.
Hydroponic Forms and Fixtures
Plants in The Land grow in every type of growing media available. They grow in sand, soil, water, nutrient solutions and even in the air! Trays, spiral hanging fixtures, traditional troughs, and other fixtures sprout lettuce, tomatoes, eggplants, microgreens and more.
Hydroponics and Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable agriculture techniques are of great concern for the future. Soil continues to erode with every planting season, and farming as we know it will not last forever. The Land Pavilion researches sustainable agricultural practices such as Integrated Pest Management (IPM), crop rotation, inter-cropping, irrigation techniques and hydroponics.
Hydroponic gardening is key to large-scale sustainable agriculture, as many rotations of crops can be produced with no disturbance of the soil. Nutrient solutions can be recycled and purified, and hydroponics, despite the fact that it is primarily driven by nutrient solutions in water, uses less water than traditional farming methods. Hydroponic gardening also allows production of food crops in areas that traditionally are too dry, cold, or otherwise inhospitable to traditional farming methods.
Living With the Land
The Land Pavilion at Epcot is a wonderful place to introduce visitors young and old, experienced and novice to the idea of hydroponic gardening. Viewing plants growing soil-less for the first time is a mind boggling experience, sure to stay with someone for years. It is possible that the seed of interested planted by the visit to The Land Pavilion will blossom into a life-long interest in horticulture and hydroponics.
You can see some interesting shots inside the greenhouse portion of the tour on this video posted at YouTube.
Horticultural Therapy with Hydroponics
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Horticultural therapy is a growing form (no pun intended!) of therapy for all types of medical patients due to its versatility. Patients with limited mobility, cancer patients, patients recovering from post traumatic stress disorder, as well as incarcerated individuals all benefit from horticultural therapy.
Traditional Horticultural Therapy
Horticultural therapy for patients that do not experience mobility challenges is as simple as regular gardening. Schools, hospitals, prisons, day-homes for adults and other facilities all may have gardens maintained by their constituents. School gardens can have fun themes such as the alphabet or nursery rhymes. Day-centers and prisons may find that their gardeners enjoy tending flowers and vegetables the best—so they can share their products with others.
The Institute of Simplified Hydroponics
By: Charlene Rennick
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The Institute for Simplified Hydroponics is an international, charitable, non-government organization. It was formed in 1995 to begin a project dedicated to solving the problem of world hunger. The program is operated by volunteers who educate in and provide supplies to populations that would greatly benefit from learning hydroponic methods of growing crops. The Institute for Simplified Hydroponics estimates that over 200 million families or 800 million people in the world do not have enough to eat and cannot grow their own food due to poor soil and poverty.
The intent of the Institute for Simplified Hydroponics is two-fold: to end world hunger and to do so in a way that does not have a harmful environmental impact. The project has branches in Cuba, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Peru, Senegal, Venezuela and Mexico. The project in Brazil has restored sustenance farming for many people who were slowly starving due to severe drought and lack of other options. Hydroponic systems have successfully generated agriculture in countries where it has not been sustained before.
The reason hydroponic growing methods can provide a solution is because it does not require a large overlap of shared language to transfer the knowledge, and it is not dependent upon the soil conditions to succeed. The equipment can be modified, recycled and varied while continuing to serve its function. Plants can be watered by hand using small quantities of water. Any discarded items can be used to hold plants from old sleeping pallets to bamboo sleeves. The only tools the country must supply for itself is sunlight, air flow and temperature.
Because the start- up equipment is donated, hydroponic gardens are inexpensive. People are able to maintain the operation using simple care-taking techniques. Water and nutrients are recycled. Hydroponically grown fruit and vegetables produce a greater volume of yield (six times the yield in less than one-third of the space) so there is the potential for some profit and not merely sustenance.
Hydroponic gardens can be set up without using electricity, fuel-based or mechanical equipment. The use of fertilizers can be limited to those derived from plant waste, composted chicken manure or bat guano as long as there is no danger of contamination from chemical or non-organic pesticides. This aspect of hydroponic farming teaches some understanding of waste management principles and carbon-free living. It recycles many materials that would otherwise be considered waste.
If you are interested in volunteering or making a donation, please contact www.carbon.org.