Learn how to set up a system that combines modern technology and organic growing techniques first employed by ancient pre-Columbian cultures…
These days, hydroculture systems using refined mineral fertilizers are in such common use that various specialized retail stores exist to supply all the necessary materials for such installations.
However, a number of growers—striving for the quality of the finished product rather than ultimate productivity—have created a more natural cultivation process by coupling modern hydroponic methods with traditional use of organic fertilizers. Some specialists are of the opinion that products grown with the mineral fertilizers used in classic hydroponics cannot rival the taste of crops produced with organic fertilizers. Although productivity with organic fertilizers is 25 to 30 per cent lower, the grower will see a much greater quantity of sugars and active ingredients present in the mature products.
In the beginning, before using organic fertilizers to grow hydroponically could be possible, a number of problems had to be solved. Classic liquid organic fertilizers had a tendency to sour when used in hydroponic systems since they were originally designed to slowly break down in solid soil with the help of bacteria. The absence of these bacteria in hydroponic systems caused nutrient solutions to slowly change into something that was poisonous to plants. Another problem was that the actual size of the molecules used in classic organic fertilizers—large and not quickly soluble in water—caused blocked irrigation channels.
Over time, step by step, some growers began to understand that these problems might be solved by introducing benign bacteria into their hydroculture systems.
Aquaponics
In the middle of the 1990s, researchers involved in aquaristics (fish-keeping) noticed that using the nutrient solution from the bottom of their aquariums to feed their plants achieved exceptional results in the quality of the end product. The bacteria naturally present in the earth broke down the molecules in the aquarium water to ions that could be immediately taken up by the plants. From this, the researchers understood that if they could find a method for developing these benign bacteria strains in their hydroculture systems they could prevent souring of their nutrient solutions. In order to populate an area with a bacterial strain you must create just the right conditions: mainly hiding places (porous clay granules) and high oxygen content, which are basic requirements for all life on Earth.
By simply replacing the tank of the hydro system with an aquarium, and ensuring a sufficient oxygen supply and a porous substrate (clay granules, ect.), benign bacteria will develop by themselves. This process is dependent on what aquarists call “the nitrification cycle.” During this process, ammonia, which comes from the droppings of fish and rotting organic material in the water (and is fatal to fish), is transformed by the aerobic nitrosonomas bacteria into nitrites. These nitrites are then transformed by nitrobacteria into nitrates, which are beneficial to plants. This cycle takes about two weeks—the amount of time it takes bacteria to populate the organic filter—and works as a water purification system. The molecules in the aquarium are held back by the substrate and are converted by the benign bacteria into nitrites and, eventually, nitrates. The plants take up the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates and the leftover water—now purified—can be put back in the tank or aquarium without risk for fish and plants.
By combining aquaristics with hydroculture you can set up a simple and almost independent system using the most advanced technology in combination with archaic organic methods of cultivation that were employed by ancient cultures in places like Lake Titicaca in Peru.
Bioponics
Bioponics cultivation imitates the breakdown of organic material in the soil through the means of a specially developed fertilizer in combination with aerobic bacteria and trichoderma fungi, which are added to an organic filter.
By feeding on the carbon of organic material, these micro-organisms produce minerals that—in contact with water—are transformed into ions that can be directly taken up by plants. Bioponic fertilizer, which is rapidly biodegradable and must be absorbed by plants as quickly as possible, is readily soluble in water and does not contain large particles.
In bioponics, everything in the soil that is good for the plant—humus, micro-organisms, silica and trace elements—is replicated in a nutrient solution and something that is the equivalent of light soil (rich in nutrients and bacteria) is developed. This solution is called “liquid earth.”
Management of bioponic cultivation is slightly different than for hydroponics, mainly in the area of EC and pH. In bioponics the pH level can vary more than in hydroponics—bioponics can tolerate levels between 5 and 7.5 and hydroponics requires levels between 5.5 and 6.5—and the EC stays weaker (0.6 to 0.7). The low EC found in bioponic systems is sufficient because an EC tester does not take into account the various organic molecules that are found in the nutrient solution but don’t have enough electroconductivity to be detected.
