NFT uses much less water than other methods. Since they’re so light and easy to modify, they are often assembled into modular units that can be disassembled easily for cleaning or to relocate them to a new growroom! NFT structures are lightweight, highly customizable, and can be built with easy-to-find materials like PVC or ABS pipe. ![]() Next to consider is the Nutrient Film Technique or NFT, a favorite method for many commercial growers as well as home growers! Dutch buckets are cheap and easy to set up and are preferable for larger format plants over the ‘trough style’ DWC technique. ![]() Water is oxygenated either at the source water tank or at each individual bucket that is supplied with an air stone. On the other hand, when operating effectively, DWC systems require very little maintenance if properly set up, and they are known to produce some of the fastest growth rates with minimal labor requirements of all the hydroponic techniques.ĭutch buckets or ‘Bato Buckets’ are a form of DWC that uses 5-gallon buckets plumbed together in a recirculating fashion with each plant growing in its own bucket. That is the biggest downfall of DWC, because a drop in dissolved oxygen (DO) in the water can kill the plants in hours. This need for oxygen can lead to catastrophic issues if the power supply (and therefore oxygen supply) is interrupted. Growing plants need large amounts of dissolved oxygen to stay alive, since their roots are always submerged in water. The water in the raft flows in at one end, and out the other, with air pumps keeping oxygen levels saturated all the way along the trough. Polystyrene ‘rafts’ floating on the water in the trough hold plants at a predetermined spacing, with their roots fully submerged in the water. Trough depth will depend on how stable your environment is, as well as how much weight your support structure can handle.Ī Deep Water Culture system in a greenhouse Because water is heavy, a deeper trough is far heavier than a shallow trough. With a deeper trough, temperature and pH are more stable since there is a greater volume of water, which needs a more dramatic fluctuations in nutrients, pH level or temperature to change overall levels. These containers range in depth from a few inches up to twelve inches deep. DWC structures are long, narrow rafts made of wood with pond liner, or extruded plastic troughs. The most common types of hydroponic systems are Deep Water Culture (DWC), Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), Aeroponics, and Ebb and Flow systems.įirst, let’s dive into Deep Water Culture (DWC), one of the more frequently used methods in commercial hydroponics. The structures that hold the plants themselves can vary greatly, separating hydroponics into multiple variations. In an era when natural freshwater sources are being rapidly depleted, worldwide, this is an important reduction. ![]() Capturing and recirculating effluent can generate up to a 95% reduction in water consumption during cultivation. Most hydroponic systems do this without human intervention. The ‘source’ water is then pumped from the tank into hydroponic structures where the plants here held, then it drains and returns to the source tank to complete the cycle. Traditionally, hydroponics utilizes a fully recirculating system, in which nutrient-laden water is kept in a ‘source’ water tank, that is either hand mixed or mixed by automated, computerized systems that also keep pH at a targeted ideal level. Hydroponics is the practice of growing edible and non-edible plants without the use of soil as a growing medium. It discussed some of the benefits of these grow systems, and advantages of growing indoors. ![]() Our first article presented an overview of hydroponics.
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