There are many ways to grow vegetables in soilless culture. Before that, let’s learn about soilless culture technology.
Soilless cultivation is a modern technique for the greenhouse production of vegetables and ornamental plants. Soilless culture uses the inherent feature of separating plant cultivation from the soil for more complex plant cultivation systems, such as vertical farming, in which plants are grown in multiple layers in closed structures using artificial lighting and complete control of all climatic parameters, allowing crop production in places not normally suitable for horticulture, such as inner cities or deserts.
Soilless culture technology has developed rapidly and is widely used. Many crops, such as cabbage, lettuce, tomato, pepper, cucumber, green beans, winter melon and green leafy vegetables, have obtained good quality and higher yield under the application of soilless cultivation technology, which is also the reason why soilless cultivation technology is popular.
So how do you grow vegetables using soilless culture techniques? There are three growing techniques we can use: hydroponics, aquaponics and aeroponics.
In hydroponics, plants are grown on a neutral, solid and inert substrate. This can include materials such as clay balls, sand or even rockwool. The nutrient-rich water solution provides the plants with the water, oxygen and minerals they need to grow.
Aeroponics differs from hydroponics because it does not use a substrate and the nutrient solution can be sprayed directly onto the roots of the plants.
Aquaponics combines the hydroponic production of vegetables or ornamental plants with fish production by using fish excrement to provide nutrients for the crop, resulting in good results.