Be it tomatoes or celery, pretty much anything can be grown anywhere, just as long as you have the right stuff for it. While that’s the point of hydroponics, that is still easier said than done. There is more to hydroponics than just a plant suspended in water, so with that in mind, here are some important considerations to keep in mind.
Consider Your Local Climate And Surroundings
Before telling yourself that you’ll start growing food indoors, consider this. Depending on where you are, you might be better off growing a farm on a nearby land than on the water. No matter how you look at it, growing crops in the soil will always have the least upkeep.
You won’t need the electricity to run light bulbs when you can get solar energy for free from the sun, after all. This is why you should start by choosing which crops don’t grow in your area. Pick out high-value crops and grow them indoors, when they would have died from the local climate when grown outside.
Better yet, you could also try growing staple foods that become more expensive during off-seasons. If you live in a place with intensely-hot summers, you might find it more profitable to grow lettuce. You could sell these locally for a far cheaper price than imports.
That’s just one example, of course. Knowing what grows and what doesn’t grow around you will do wonders for your success, especially when you’re trying to get started in establishing your own agribusiness company.
It Takes More Expertise To Grow From The Water Than Soil
Needless to say, it’s hard to grow food on water. You’ll need oxygen pumps, light bulbs, and temperature checkers to be active all or most of the time. And it takes some electrical knowledge to set them up, too.
But other than those, hydroponics introduces different kinds of agricultural problems. From nutrients to moisture and pH levels, you’ll need to know what your crops need. And if you think about how little your water solution has at the start, all those needs start to add up.
Soon, you’ll be controlling for every single variable. If you get your hydroponic farm large enough, you’ll need to make sure that diseases don’t spread as fast. And be aware that they do, in fact, travel quite quickly throughout water.
Hydroponic Marketing
Once you’ve got a system in place, you’ll need to sell your delicious produce somewhere. But here’s a completely different problem: No matter how healthy they are, hydroponic produce doesn’t count as “organic” products.
Organics are usually considered better than conventional produce, as farmers don’t use specific types of potentially dangerous pesticides on them. While hydroponic systems do the same, they can’t be considered organic because they were never grown through traditional methods.
That’s why you’ll have to brand your business right. Do research on your target demographics, pick a proper marketing plan template, and make sure you’re going in with your eyes open. You may not be able to label these as organic, but you can still say they’re safe and nutritious.
Power Interruptions Can Kill Your Crops
While powerless methods do exist, all the ways that let you easily scale up also require electricity — and it’s easy to see why. To plant more crops per area, you need extra nutrients and oxygen. The Kratky method can only get you so far, until you realize that it doesn’t work on most high-value plants.
This is why you need air pumps. And of course, air pumps need electricity. The moment you start losing electricity, you need to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. While losing power for a day should be fine once in a while, regular power interruptions would be devastating.
It would be best to invest in a generator or battery if you are in a place with constant power interruptions. Or, if you prefer, you could go off-grid. Solar panels work wonders in places where there is a lot of sunshine, but remember that off-grid solutions require more funding. Furthermore, doing it by yourself requires more research on your part.
Hydroponic gardening and turning it into a business is surely an admirable feat. It takes research and expertise to make it run, let alone turn it into something profitable. What makes it even better, though, is that it helps your local economy get more of specific hard-to-grow foods much cheaper.
Even better, this novel system of gardening can also help reduce the carbon footprint of bringing food on people’s plates, especially if you go off-grid. However, the challenge is still there. Whether you want to take it on or shy away from it is up to you, but no matter what you decide, you’ll be sure to learn a lot and enjoy the experience along the way!