Reddit reviews Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower, Seventh Edition
We found 9 Reddit comments about Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower, Seventh Edition. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
CRC Press
Hydroponic Food Production, 7th Ed. Howard M. Resh, CRC Press
ISBN: 978-1-4398-7867-5
Pretty useful book, lots of actual examples in there. The PDF is floating around if you know where to look...
Look's like an almost direct copy out of a book "Hydroponic Food Production" by Howard Resh. The author does a good job of helping diagnose this and provides way more detail then you can put in a reddit post. http://www.amazon.com/Hydroponic-Food-Production-Definitive-Commercial/dp/1439878676
Study up on Howard Resh's work such as Hydroponic Food Production. This book discusses the chemicals needed.
It makes sense for commercial growers to mix their own fertilizers up by buying chemicals in bulk but not really for smaller growers.
For sure! A little disclaimer at first... by no means do I think this is perfect or will you get the absolute best results this way but I've saved lots of money and I have had good results. I'm not a plant scientist but I have a background in chemistry/biology that has helped a lot with making this transition. It sounds like we are in a similar position grow-wise. I'm a two-person team on a tier 2 grow all indoors.
It depends a bit on if you're in soil, soilless, hydroponics, etc. Personally I am in a soilless peat/coco/perlite mix. The first thing I did was buy Howard Resh's textbook on Hydroponic Food Production.
https://www.amazon.com/Hydroponic-Food-Production-Definitive-Commercial/dp/1439878676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524242784&sr=8-1&keywords=hydroponic+food+production
this has all of the information you need about inorganic salts, calculations, injector mixing, etc. It's not cannabis specific but it doesn't need to be. He does a great job of showing you all of the calculations in a very logical way.
As for what I have used:
Using different amounts of these different salts you can make any mixture you like. Depending on where you are located however, sourcing these fertilizers may be difficult. My local fertilizer distributor dropped my business accounts after their corporate policy changed to refuse business from cannabis clients.
How I figured out the correct feeding amount was a bit tricky... I'm happy to go into as much detail as you like/share excel spreadsheets/etc. Basically I figured out the ratios of nutrients (NPK) I wanted, for example 2-1-3 or 1-2-3, and then picked a max EC or ppm, say 1200ppm. Based on the 1200 ppm you know how much of each NPK you need because of your ratio. Next it's essentially toying with the different ingredients you have to get the right numbers.
There is software out there that helps immensely with this part, however I suggest trying it yourself for a while so that you understand fundamentally how it works.
I'm happy to talk more about this if you want to know more!
>Well the thing is I'm not jumping to conclusions because I'm not saying this is what's going to happen, I'm questioning whether this is a potential thing to happen. I still consider it quite unlikely either way. As there will likely be wars that will remove any chance of such things taking place.
Fair enough.
>I don't get why you don't think it's plausible, but I do get why you think it's unlikely.
I'm study the history of science--so I'm bringing the POV of a scientist and a historian. The simplest way for me to answer this issue is to say that--as a scientist--I see a project requiring 50 - 100 years of labor at the level comparable to the Manhattan Project, while the historian in me sees at least 50 years of political labor in just getting the work started. In other words, I see 150 years of labor that we would have to have done within 50 years. Even if all politicians turned around and signed off on the scientific funding, I'm not convinced it would be done in time.
>Do you have a source for this? I thought that hydroponics required energy and water, obviously with soil but not requiring new soil on a regular basis.
It depends. If it is true hydroponics, you don't need soil. In fact, that's sort of the point of hydroponics. In reality, most hydroponics of any large scale end up being a hybrid of hydroponic and traditional farming methods. Specifically, most commercial hydroponic setups grow the plant from seed to juvenile before planting into normal soil. For more on this, google "hydroponic to soil transfer." I can answer specific questions if you have any, or recommend a good source on transfer if you have trouble finding one. The main issue though is that growing plants to vegetative reproduction in a hydro setup is cost prohibitive. It's simply too taxing on resources. It can be done, but not at large scale. You need soil transfer to produce true agriculture.
>ut you know people have, in theory, very good ideas of how to grow food on mars. Like if we have theories on how we can grow food on mars, it doesn't seem to much of a stretch that those theories could be applied here in some way. I mean maybe they'll fail, but I don't think it's fair to say there isn't a chance.
Emphasis on "in theory." In reality, we haven't. The core of Mars is dead and so the radiation at surface is too high for anything to grow. Until we restart the core of Mars, nothing will ever grow there outside of a radioactively shielded dome. Also, Martian soil is so toxic that it's almost certain that microbes cannot live in it, much less plants. In fact, the toxicity of Martian soil is so great that between the soil and the radiation, it's unlikely we'll ever be able to live on the surface. Basically, the only safe environment on Mars is one below the surface, shielded from radiation and the soil.
https://www.space.com/37402-mars-life-soil-toxic-perchlorates-radiation.html
>Now I understand that. I understand that the earth will be a barren place void of almost all life. I'm talking about our ability to move, our ability to bring plants to places, and our ability to provide the right resources to keep the plants growing.
I think we're on the same page now. We were talking about different ranges of probability. But I get where you are now and I've moved into talking in your terms.
>If there isn't enough oxygen for us to breathe I will concede my point entirely, as even though we have theories on how to live on Mars, I don't think that any such thing would survive long term.
Well--this is talking super hypothetically. We're not sure it even happened in the past. And if it did, there is no reason to believe it would necessarily do it again. I merely pointed to the possibility b/c most people don't know about it.
>Cool. So can you provide me with a source that suggests that with even the worst global warming predictions it would not be possible for pockets of humanity to live by choosing the best locations and using the best tech.
I'll work through my thought process. Sure.
So, first: genetic diversity.
When it comes to extinction, genetic diversity is best thought of as a risk factor similar to smoking and cancer. A person can smoke and not get cancer...but the chances of it go through the roof. The same is true of genetic diversity. A species can drop below a certain threshold and not go extinct...but the likelihood goes through the roof the smaller the diversity gets.
In fact, we have reason to believe we've already brushed up against this in the past:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/early-human-population-size-genetic-diversity/
So, when I talk about extinction, I'm not just talking about day 0 when no humans exist...I'm talking about any situation that puts us into this "endangered" bubble where extinction becomes a real possibility.
The costs of hydroponics are enormous, but they do have a benefit of year-round growth. Here is a good discussion of yields (for comparison to soil):
https://uponics.com/hydroponics-yield/
So--the trick, if you are going to do this, is going to be keeping the process pure hydroponic and avoiding to-soil transfer. Transfer not only introduces the soil problem, but introduces the issue of transfer shock.
https://www.epicgardening.com/transplant-shock/
I would argue that if you want to do this, you need to forgo a generalist approach and at least start with a focused diet. In other words--don't try to grow everything; instead, focus on growing the foods which provide the best yields in terms of food matter / worked foot.
https://homeguides.sfgate.com/average-yield-hydroponic-yearround-tomatoes-100617.html
The average person in the US eats about 400 lbs of veggies per year, so that's what you're going to need to be your target number. I'm not going to take the time to design a diet off my head here, although I suppose we could maybe continue talking in PM and do it as a thought exercise together? This is the book I'd recommend if we do:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1439878676/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=uponics-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=1439878676&linkId=348c14acec121c783956462caf604f0e
So--I haven't done the math. BUT--I have enough experience with the subject material that I am skeptical that the necessary facilities could be constructed. Now--that skepticism is based on the idea of keeping most people alive. If you and I were to supposed an ark scenario (say, 250,000 people?), you and I could run the numbers and see what it might take. What we need to do to know for sure is break this down to first principles:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NV3sBlRgzTI
We would need to take the hydro gardens and make a list of all technologies necessary to make it work. And then we'd need to take those technologies and break them down to how they work.
E.g.,
To hydro, you need plastic. To make plastic, you need a source of plastic. Right now, that is oil, so you need the entire infrastructure of oil drilling and transport, etc. Or you could use a biopolymer. If so, we need to do the same thing to that industry. But the goal would be to make sure that we have a complete accounting of the industrial processes needed to make a hydro garden. Also--temperature control. To do that, you need AC units. Ok--so what does it take to make an AC unit. Get the idea? Ideally, we'd want to design an economy where 250,000 are sufficient to produce everything the society needs.
Anyways. That's a lot to read. I'll wait to hear your thoughts.
Putting specific plant cultivars aside, on a macro level, in controlled environment agriculture, the three biggest costs are a) equipment (whether you depreciate it or not) b) energy and c) labor probably in that order. All of those cost factors are several times higher than conventional agriculture for a given amount of real estate.
If you are not able to grow at very high yields to compensate, then its far more "self sufficient" to use traditional methods, assuming you have have the room to do it.
Finally, with specific plants in mind and further to the above point, you probably don't get to fully customize your menu. You will grow what grows well in the region and system. (or just system if you aren't exposed to sunlight/outdoor temps at all)
check out resh's book it is not a beginners guide but comprehensive.
Howard Resh has a decent book on commercial cultivation. Covers all the bases, some more in depth than others.
https://www.amazon.com/Hydroponic-Food-Production-Definitive-Commercial/dp/1439878676/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504112157&sr=8-1&keywords=howard+resh
Offhand, I can't give you the straight info, I'd need to look it up myself, lol. But I'd do lots o' reading! The nutrients subforum at ICMag has numerous threads relating to the hard science, and is frequented by some PhD chemists and biologists who really know their stuff. It just takes time to wade through it all.
If this book is the one I think it is https://www.amazon.com/Hydroponic-Food-Production-Definitive-Commercial/dp/1439878676 it contains all you need to know about the science of mixing nutrient salts. (Some forms of N play well with some forms of K, for example, but not others.)
Personally, I'd just use whatever cheap cannabis specific nutes I could get. Jack's, Maxi, Dyna Gro, GH 2- or 3-part, etc. Mixing your own salts is cheap, but unless you are running a very large grow, the savings are not significant, especially not if you value your time. For example, I've got about 15 very large plants flowering under about 9kw of HPS light. Including the veg room, I spend about $200 on nutrients every 12 weeks or so. Big picture, it's really not that much. I guess if I made my own, I could save about half that...but how many hours would I have to put into learning the organic chemistry involved? I value my time at x/hour, so in my view, there'd be no savings at all...in fact, it would wind up costing me more, if you also count the failures inherent to trial and error.
Of course, I am a lazy, lazy man, and that totally informs how I grow my herb. Whatever's easiest+costs the least, not just in currency, but also in time and effort. That's my motto!
I built a small system 2 years ago and pretty much never stopped reading since then. What you're seeing here is me trying to slowly condition the water of my new system to make the best possible nutrient solution.
SRAC 454 (from the sidebar) is a great overview of how a standard raft system is designed and operated. Just remember that hydroponics and aquaculture have been around for a long time and knowing aquaponics means knowing those components. Books like Hydroponic Food Production will spell out exactly what it takes to make plants thrive. It even goes into basic stoichiometry and water chemistry to calculate nutrient concentrations.