Every business person desires to scale their business to higher heights within the shortest time possible. If you’re into horticultural farming, you know the challenges that come with the trade. Changes in weather conditions, soil erosion, and food-borne illnesses affect the yields, and subsequently, how much profit you make. This is where hydroponic farming comes in to save the day. Many benefits come with this type of farming, giving it an advantage over field farming.
By Team Savant
Image: iStock / primeimages
What is Hydroponic Farming?
Hydroponic gardening is a farming method that doesn’t require the use of soil. Through it, you can nurture a wide variety of plants, especially vegetables, herbs, and some fruits. In the place of soil, you use mineral nutrient solutions in an aqueous solvent.
This type of farming derives its name from the Greek word ‘hydro’ which means water and ‘ponos’ that means work. Here, the water does all the work in growing your plants by delivering all the nutrients they require. The most significant advantage is that you can grow your produce all year round regardless of the environmental changes.
How to Gain a Competitive Edge Using Hydroponic Farming
As an agribusiness farmer, you want to reduce production costs as much as possible to realise greater profits. Hydroponic farming is designed to reduce the costs of farming. How is this so?
Takes Up Less Space
To begin with, hydroponic farming doesn’t take up a lot of farming space unless you want it to. The reservoirs used in growing plants range from small to large, and a single one can hold many plants. Roots don't need to spread out in this setting like they do in field farming. Water and nutrients are delivered right where they are.
Faster Growth
Plants grown in hydroponic settings grow faster than those planted in soil. This is because they receive a sufficient amount of nutrients, and their environment is less stressing. Some species, like lettuce, tomatoes, and green leafy vegetables do very well in these conditions.
Bigger Yields
Hydroponic systems can potentially produce more yields in the same amount of space as field systems. Plants are healthier as they don’t compete for nutrients and also take a shorter time to grow.
While at it, plants also don’t compete with weeds as the environment is not habitable for weeds. That way, you can put your time and resources into better use than pulling out weeds or spraying them. Think of reduced costs of farming and chemical-free produce at this point.
Putting up a hydroponic system may be expensive at the initial stages. Buying the reservoirs is a huge investment, but you can save a lot if you acquire Wholesale Hydroponics. Once you get started, you'll soon enjoy remarkable returns on investment all year round.
Final Thoughts
Hydroponic gardening is fast gaining popularity. It’s considered to be much more than just a way of home gardening and seems to be the future of food production.
Hydroponic gardens can fit anywhere, and they yield harvests all year round. As a farmer in business, it's time to embrace this system in large scale and see your business grow.