Optimal air speed in a hydroponic crop
Wind speed is a particularly important, yet often overlooked variable in hydroponic crops. While growers in greenhouses will pay close attention to overall gas exchange characteristics (how much air exits…
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Advanced phosphorous fertilizers: Are polyphosphates worth it?
If you look into mineral phosphate fertilizers, most of them are of the orthophosphate variety, where phosphorous is present in the form of PO4-3 anions with varying degrees of hydrogen…
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Keeping plants short: Natural gibberellin inhibitors
In this series of posts, we have discussed the different techniques and synthetic chemical substances that can be used to keep plants short. We discussed why keeping plants short is…
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Five common mistakes people make when formulating hydroponic nutrients
It is not very difficult to create a basic DIY hydroponic formulation; the raw salts are available at a very low cost, and the target concentrations for the different nutrients…
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Using VH400 sensors to build an automated irrigation setup
I have written several posts in the past about the measurement of water content in media, I have covered some very low cost and easy to use sensors that can…
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Practical aspects of carbon dioxide enrichment in hydroponics
Carbon is one of the most important nutrients a plant consumes as it the largest component of a plant’s dry weight. Plants get this carbon mostly from the atmosphere –…
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The cricket IoT board: A great way to create simple low-power remote sensing stations for hydroponics
When you monitor variables in a hydroponic plant where more than a few plants exist, it becomes important to be able to deploy a wide array of sensors quickly and…
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Can you grow large flowering plants like tomatoes using the Kratky method? (passive hydroponics)
I have previously shared some tips on how to grow successfully with the Kratky method in my blog before (1). This growing system, which was developed in the early 2000s,…
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Timing irrigations with moisture sensors in hydroponics
After discussing the different types of off-the-shelf sensors for measuring moisture in hydroponics (1,2,3), we are now going to explore the practical use of these sensors to time irrigations within…
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Tensiometers (irrometers) the best way to time irrigations in hydroponics
I have recently written blog posts about the measurements of water content in media in hydroponics. The first one was about the problems with resistive moisture sensors in hydroponics and…
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