Page 18 - Cosmos Edition 3

hydroponics

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil by using mineral
nutrient solutions in a water solvent. It is the fastest growing sector of ag-
riculture and in future it could very well dominate the food production
sector. There are several types of hydroponic growing techniques,

 Nutrient film technique (NFT)

 Wick system

 Ebb and flow (flood and drain)
 Water culture

 Drip system

 Aeroponic system

I would like to explain about NFT, which is a hydroponic technique,
where a very shallow stream of water, containing all the nutrients re-
quired for plant growth, is re-circulated to the roots of the plants and it is
drained back to the reservoir through watertight channels. There are sev-
eral variations of N.F.T used around the world and it is a very popular
method of growing plants ,hydroponically.

The first step in setting up your hydroponic garden, is selecting a system
that best fits your needs depending on the factors such as, how much
space you have, what you want to grow, the cost involved and how much
time you have available to maintain the system.

In our School, as a part of the eco-club’s activities we have introduced
N.F.T Hydroponics system. The model in our school is a simple miniature
hydroponic system coupled with modern horticultural lighting where we
can grow plant at any time of the year.

One important feature of our hydroponics unit is that we can dismantle it
easily. There is a movable stand hence we can place the system where ev-
er we would want it located. The height of the light can be adjusted and
we used T5 LED light. The white tank is the reservoir of dissolved
plant nutrients and the water is re-circulated to the roots of plants
which is kept in a net basket and drained back to the reservoir through
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