Aeroponics: A New Growing Method

Have you heard the news? We are exploring a new growing method called aeroponics, using a system that my husband John built. This system will allow us to grow vegetables indoor, year round.

I can’t wait to show you everything you need to build your own aeroponic system at home. But before I get into the guts of it, I wanted to take a brief moment to go over the basics of aeroponics.

If you’ve been gardening for a while, you’ve probably heard of hydroponics, where plants grow in water rather than soil. In hydroponics, plants depend on the water for the source of nutrients.

The difference in aeroponics, however, is that in aeroponics, the roots of the plant are exposed. The roots “hang” down and are misted or sprayed with nutrient-rich water at regular intervals.

Aeroponics is farming of the future. As the population grows and resources such as water and land become scarcer, our farmers have to come up with new and innovative ways to grow crops. And aeroponic growing offers a solution for that.

What are the benefits of aeroponics?

Grow Anywhere, Year Round

Aeroponics takes The Farmer’s Almanac out of growing. Now, you can grow vegetables in a compact space, indoors. Aeroponic gardening is even used in space! Like a population dense big city, aeroponic gardening spreads up rather than out to deal with lack of space. You’ll see commercial aeroponic farmers doing vertical farming to grow in a compact space.

Less Chance of Disease

Because the plants aren’t growing within soil, there are no soil-borne diseases. Additionally, you will experience less chances of water-borne diseases than a hydroponic system. In an aeroponic system, an infected plant can be easily removed and separated from the others.

Less Chance of Pests

Because the plants are growing in the air rather than in soil, you eliminate any pests transmitted via soil. This dramatically cuts pesticide costs.

Water and Nutrient Usage

Aeroponic plants spend over 99% of their time in air and less than 1% in direct contact with the nutrient solution. This means that the roots capture oxygen more efficiently and use up less nutrients.

Accelerated Growth

Without resistance from soil, the hanging roots in an aeroponics system can more efficiently absorb nutrients, resulting in a 40% faster growth rate than traditional soil plants. This results in faster, higher yields.

Cost Effective

Because the plants spend less time in direct contact with the nutrient solution, you use less nutrients and thus spend less money on them.

Predictability

Growing almost becomes automated in the aeroponics system. Because your remove a lot of the external conditions from Mother Nature, you can grow in a controlled environment. This gives you a great degree of predictability. You know exactly how much light the plants are getting, how much nutrients, how much water, etc. and this allows you to make fine tuned adjustments as needed and the system pretty much runs itself. The consistency allows you to get the best grow every time.

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Currently, we are only growing lettuce in our system. You can grow a variety of vegetables, with the exception of root crops (carrots, beets, radishes, etc.). We chose lettuce because it is great for beginners, does not require much physical support, and did not seem very intimidating. If all goes well with the lettuce, we would like to try other plants. Stick around for our next post, where I’ll go into detail on how we set up our at-home aeroponic system.