Indoor Growing Guide - Aeroponics

AEROPONICS – Innovative indoor cultivation method.

THE Aeroponics GUIDE HAS THE FOLLOWING OBJECTIVES:

• Provide essential information and common practice in a simple and detailed way, accompanying each section with pictures and clear explanations.
• Help in understanding the basic elements to avoid making common mistakes.
• Help the grower to identify and purchase the right products needed to optimize costs and benefits according to a simple and intuitive scheme

What is aeroponics?

Aeroponics is an indoor growing system, either in a greenhouse or in a grow box, where plants are grown without the use of soil, thanks to special systems characterized by a supporting structure, mesh pots in which the plants are placed, nutrient solutions based on water and mineral fertilizers and air pumps. These pumps are used to nebulize the liquid solution, which - thanks to the action of the air - can reach the roots of the plants and nourish them deeply. Thanks to the aeroponic technique, it is possible to obtain ideal development conditions for plants. On one hand, the closed and isolated environment compared to the outside will make the cultivated plants much less subject to the aggressions of fungi and diseases, on the other hand, the roots will have a high level of oxygenation and will therefore be able to grow quickly with a minimum amount of water and mineral salts. Unlike in hydroponic cultivation, the plant is not irrigated - in the traditional sense of the word - with nutrients, but suspended in a mesh pot from which the roots will emerge, and will be periodically sprayed with nutrients. This system allows you to consume even less water than is generally used in a hydroponic growing system, because it is recovered and put back into the circuit thanks to a recovery system. Aeroponics is particularly indicated for all those crops which can develop vertically - thus avoiding the exploitation of soil - and less for crops which need wide spaces, such as wheat and corn.

Why choose an aeroponic growing method?

In an aeroponic system the plants grow out of the soil, are continuously irrigated with the system of misting, thanks to an immersion pump, in a completely controlled environment in which it is very difficult the presence and spread of pests and diseases, typical of the cultivation in the ground. Thanks to the constant and precise monitoring (with special instruments) of the fundamental environmental parameters (illumination, nutrition, temperature, humidity, pH and conductivity) it is possible to obtain much better results than with normal cultivation in the ground. All this without having to use - as happens in traditional crops - insecticides and pesticides potentially harmful to human and plant health (and with its consequences on the environment).

We would also like to remind you that the technique of indoor cultivation using the aeroponic method allows to obtain extraordinary results in terms of speed and quantity, but also in quality.

But let's take a closer look, before referring you to the next chapters of this guide, at how aeroponic growing works - specifically.

In this type of cultivation, the plants are placed in a system of PVC conduits - suitable for this type of cultivation - and installed on top, supported by special panels, so that they remain suspended. At the base of these plastic pipes are placed nebulizers, which will have the task of spraying the nutrient solution to the plants. Do-it-yourself aeroponic cultivation - which identifies a method but also a completely different way of growing, so much so that it is also called "aeroponic culture" - allows you to irrigate and feed plants, making them grow healthy, without using chemicals and with a great saving of water. With all that this means for the health of our environment. It's no coincidence that the number of aeroponic greenhouses in the world is constantly growing.

In the water - which is nebulized with a special pump provided by the aeroponic system - are dissolved all the essential nutrients to feed the cultivated plants. The growth time of the plants is generally shorter than the growth and development time of plants grown in soil with traditional systems.