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Go Hydroponic: Go Biodegradable

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by: Charlene Rennick

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Starting a hydroponic garden is a choice many people make based on a love of gardening, a concern for healthier food, a commitment to pesticide-free plants or as an effort to interact with the environment in a way that does not produce harm. 

Biodegradable means that the material will break down into elements that are natural and do not harm the Earth, without any additional chemical or toxic intervention.  Natural ingredients are inherently biodegradable.  Plant, animal and natural mineral-based products have a co-existing, organic microorganism that biodegrades the material without any help at all. Sometimes, these organic materials break down into the soil and become mixed in with the earth.  This process is called composting.  Other times they biodegrade into the water or the atmosphere, with or without the presence of oxygen, or the help of other living organisms such as earthworms.

An important idea to bear in mind is the end result of materials breaking down into the environment.  What does the product break down into and what kinds of substances are formed along the way?  An authentically biodegradable substance will break down into carbon dioxide (an element necessary for plant survival), water and minerals that are safe for the ecosystem.

The word, biodegradable, is often misused.  Manufacturers apply it to products that are not truly biodegradable.  Detergents and plastics rarely biodegrade into a natural element or even into the crude oil from which they were made.

Here are a few examples of the length of time it takes some material to biodegrade:

Cotton rags 1-5 months
Paper 2-5 months
Rope 3-14 months
Orange peels 6 months
Wool socks 1-5 years
Cigarette butts 1-12 years
Plastic coated paper milk cartons 5 years
Leather shoes 25-40 years
Nylon fabric 30-40 years
Tin cans 50-100 years
Aluminum cans 80-100 years
Plastic 6-pack holder rings 450 years
Glass bottles 1 million years
Plastic bottles forever

When the process of biodegrading is complete, the elements can be singularly re-used or combined to make a new product. 

Recently, mankind has made many successful advances that imitate nature’s own self-sufficient and reproductive system of sustaining life.  Hydroponically grown plants use biodegradable materials (coir, peat moss, water, natural elements) and produce green waste.  Green waste is a combination of re-usable growing media, plants that failed to thrive, cuttings, matured blossoms and over-ripened fruit or vegetables.

When food waste or green waste breaks down, it produces a gas called methane (CH4) which is made up of four hydrogen molecules and one carbon molecule.  Methane is an alternative fuel source, but because it is a gas, can be difficult to capture and transport.  If methane is not contained, it contributes to global warming.  It also produces heat.  For these reasons, composting is ideal if it is buried and turned over often to contain the methane.

Green Earth science has made many discoveries in the past few decades.  Hydroponic gardens are a great innovation that contributes to the conservation of water, environmentally-friendly growing methods and biodegradable practises. 

How Can Water be Recycled?

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by: Charlene Rennick

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Reverse Osmosis is a method of removing pathogens, or disease-carrying organisms from water, especially in geographical areas where safe drinking water is scarce.  It is used in hydroponic gardening systems when rain water is collected and then filtered using reverse osmosis to make it clean and safe for agricultural use.  Hydroponic systems collect the water used by the plants, filter it through reverse osmosis and then add nutrients to make it a nutritious plant food again; thus, the only water lost is what the plant absorbs and the small amount that evaporates.

What is osmosis and how can it be reversed?  Osmosis is the name given to the process by which molecules, naturally and without any scientific intervention, move from a weaker solution to a stronger solution through any porous (permeable) membrane. 

Reverse osmosis is contrived.  That means it is not a naturally occurring phenomena.  Pressure is used to reverse the flow of water back through a permeable membrane from a stronger, more concentrated area of mineral content to a weaker one.  This forcibly removes salt and other minerals from sea water or very hard water that has a high calcium or magnesium content. 

The process of reverse osmosis uses a fine membrane as a filter to remove salt and minerals from water in addition to larger pieces of dirt and pollens.  It works because the molecules in salt, minerals and some pathogens are larger than water molecules.  It doesn’t remove all harmful substances, though.  Some contaminants and pollutants have particles that are so tiny that they slip through the membrane, so reverse osmosis is usually combined with a carbon filter to purify it and make it safe for drinking.

Because reverse osmosis strips most of the minerals from water, it becomes void of nutrients.  In order to make it healthy for use in hydroponic gardens, nutrients have to be added for the plants. Neglecting to add nutrients to water that has been filtered through reverse osmosis, would strip the plant of its own nutrients because osmosis would occur!!

Rooftop Hydroponic Gardening

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by: Charlene Rennick
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Did you know that if the city of New York uses only the space from the rooftops of their sky-scraping, high-rise buildings, that they could hydroponically cultivate enough fresh produce to feed the entire city?

Acre by acre, our most nutrient-rich farmland is lost through purchase from industrial and commercial developers.  In Ontario, the province that contains over half of the best agricultural land for the entire country of Canada, the acreage of fertile farmland has been reduced by half since the 1950s (University of Guelph). The remaining farmland is dependent on irrigation systems to sustain it which puts more strain on our diminishing supply of fresh water and contributes to the depletion of nutrients in the earth through run-off.  The global supply of fresh water supply is endangered.  Bans on watering are in effect by June in some countries like Canada, where a focus on the conservation of natural resources is evident. 

More and more of our produce is imported and domestic crops will soon be a term as archaic as a dial-up internet connection (what is a busy signal?) or a record album (look at the giant CD!).

Hydroponic gardens are the growing medium of the future.  They do not require farmland, irrigation systems dependent on fresh water or natural light.  Greenhouse-style hydroponic systems have the potential to produce all the fresh produce that we need under the limited geographical conditions that we will soon face.

Hydroponically grown food takes seven times less land and four times less water to produce than field grown food. The lifespan of the typical, garden variety tomato uses .7 square feet of soil, 8 gallons of water, ½ an ounce of bio-diesel fuel, 300 milligrams of pesticide and emits ¾ of a pound of carbon monoxide to produce.  A hydroponically grown tomato uses only .1 square feet of reusable growing medium, 2 gallons of recyclable water, and is pesticide and carbon monoxide-free to produce.

The Science barge is a floating greenhouse completely operated by energy created in solar panels and by wind generators.  The barge is located on the mouth of the Hudson River in the state of New York.  The hydroponic system uses only rain water or recycled river water to sustain plant growth.  The river water is renewed by a process called, reverse osmosis which generates 300 gallons of usable water per day.  These renewable energy systems are an example of the kind of agriculture and energy alternatives that we will have to utilize in the future. 

It is this category of proactive thinking that will save our natural resources from extinction and preserve our opportunity to eat fresh, home-grown produce.

How Can We Stop the Waste of Water?

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by: Charlene Rennick

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Clean water is a resource that is quickly becoming scarce.  Water is a necessity for all forms of organic, animal and human life.  Historically, the bounty of water we have been blessed with has been taken for granted, used as a dumping ground for any type of garbage we don’t want to see, and filled in with soil to increase the available building surface of the Earth.

According to The Council of Canadians, currently in Canada, there are over 80 First Nations communities that do not have fresh tap water that is safe to drink.  All water must be boiled before consuming in order to kill the harmful bacteria.  There are 21 other Canadian communities on the short list for water that is too polluted to drink.

In other parts of the world, 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water.  Over 2.5 billion people lack basic hygienic services, water-related sanitation, and indoor plumbing.

The United States is pressuring Canada to export water in bulk. A Washington think tank, called the Global Water and Energy Strategy Team, announced that bulk water exports from Canada will take place, because of our economic need to trade with the U.S., within the next couple of years.

Several American oil extraction industries are steering the Canadian government toward building a freshwater pipeline between Manitoba and Texas, for the purpose of extracting oil from the ground.  This commercial use of freshwater will drain our existing supply of drinking water.

Canada is currently short of water.  Presently, we have a ban on waste water use that forbids our own residents to turn a sprinkler on at night to water our lawns and gardens. 

How can we save water?  Turn the tap off!  Fill up the sink and rinse vegetables or dishes in it with the stopper intact.  Do you leave the water running while your toothbrush is busy inside your mouth?  Turn off the water when you are not using it to rinse your toothbrush.  Less water can be used to flush the toilet by taking a clean, empty plastic container, (such as the two litre sort used for ice cream) and filling it with sand.  Place this inside the toilet tank.  It will displace two litres of water.  Every time you flush the toilet, it will use two less litres of water.

Consider using less grass in your landscaping plans.  Excavate with trees, shrubs and rocks that do not require any extra water to flourish.  Shift your indoor gardening from soil-based plants to hydroponic systems.  Considering a small patch outside for tomatoes and a few herbs?  Bring it inside.  You can enjoy the food all year long.  Hydroponic systems use less water, require less care, reduce pests and bacteria and produce a healthier crop.  Hydroponic crops produce a better yield and taste better.

Help save our diminishing water supply. For more information, contact www.blueplanetproject.net or www.canadians.org.