Is hydroponics better for the environment? I think it is.

Sativied

Sativied

Well-Known Member
"Large areas of organic wetland (peat) soils are currently drained for agriculture, forestry, and peat extraction. This process is taking place all over the world. This not only destroys the habitat of many species, but also heavily fuels climate change. As a result of peat drainage, the organic carbon—which was built up over thousands of years and is normally under water—is suddenly exposed to the air. It decomposes and turns into carbon dioxide (CO2), which is released into the atmosphere." -wikipedia

"At a global scale, CO2 emission from peatland drainage in Southeast Asia is contributing the equivalent of 1.3% to 3.1% of current global CO2 emissions from the combustion of fossil fuel." And that's just in Southeast Asia. ( http://www.biogeosciences.net/7/1505/2010/bg-7-1505-2010.pdf

Amazing how cannabis plants in supposed organic grows comes out tastier than hydro... I heard it also doesn't need leaves...
 
Rrog

Rrog

Well-Known Member
I'm building quite a few raised beds this spring, and will be building the soil from local Michigan amendments. I agree you don't have to go all over the world buying materials. That is largely the result of marketing, and a human male's natural inclination to unnecessarily tinker.
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Rrog said:
And the OP's use of the words "facts" would be much more correctly stated as "my own personal opinion based on whatever data I've read to date"
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It's just data that I've collected from university studies and such, but they are much more than personal opinions, they do hold true.

stak said:
Ahh, I get it. So then you use hydro nutrients that are produced locally to you? Or are they manufactured somewhere else and shipped in bottles that are more than 90% water?
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I use powdered nutrients, no water added except when I add it. I'm not sure where the salts are acquired, but the company is based in the state I live in

Sativied said:
"

Amazing how cannabis plants in supposed organic grows comes out tastier than hydro... I heard it also doesn't need leaves...
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Nice articles about the peat lands. And we all know plants need their leaves 8-) At least most of them :mrgreen: I still don't understand the "different" tastes of the plants, but to each their own I suppose, I could never tell the difference really

@Milovan That's pretty good! I really which I could incorporate the sun with my hydro system, maybe someday if I ever have a green house. Minus electricity (indoor grow) it costs me about $75 to produce 2 lbs, but with electricity it's about $350 or so. Electric really adds up, that's the one thing I hate about indoor growing. If I could use the sun or solar to run my hydro system, the cost would be about $300-400 to produce 8 pounds or so, but that's just a dream :p I love growing outdoor by the way, I grew solely outdoor and organic for many years:peace:
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Oh, I'd like to mention, my waste water is about 5 gallons per month. I do a res change about 1x every month and at the end of the month I let the plants drink as much as they can (until there is too little water in the res for the pump to work). The 5 gallons left goes into the bath tub :oops: I could probably use it to water other potted plants around the house but haven't thought about it until now
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
I look at it like this, everything living leaves a carbon footprint, so in that context, organic farming leaves a bigger footprint. All the land needed for farming and live stock to produce the manure and other fertilizers is much greater than needed for hydroponic farming. About 40% of the earth is farm/ live stock land. Now, if you think about it, hydroponics produces much more yield per sq/f of space being used, meaning less land is needed to grow the same amount of food. So reducing farm land needed to provide the same amount of food is a huge factor. Deforestation and clearing out land to farm leaves MASSIVE carbon footprints, when hydroponically you could produce the same amount in 1/2 (roughly) the space that organic would need. Hydroponic greenhouses are the future. Aquaponic greenhouses, even better.
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the part I mentioned about hydroponics greenhouses being the future was just my opinion, the other things I mentioned were from studies I've read. Clearing land to make farm land is a double edged sword because trees and plants reduce the carbon footprint. Clearing less land and using hydroponic greenhouses would allow for much more undeveloped land for trees and plants to reduce the footprint while still yielding the same amount of produce.
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
Not, that's not true, I hope I'm not coming off as being that type of person. I like growing organic, I've grown every which way there is. But, with the drought here in cali, I'm just trying to compile a "x vs. x" summary so in the future I can make a decision. There's many reasons why I feel hydroponics is great, but we haven't touched base on organics strong points, only why hydroponics is or isn't better. There hasn't been any organic info posted except "I don't like the taste of hydroponics, I like organics". I'm just throwing info out there about hydroponics hoping some organic growers can shine some insight about how organic is better for the environment. In the future, I'd like to have a green house and I'd like to have solid info about both growing methods
 
C

churchhaze

Well-Known Member
While I think carbon footprint is important (consumption footprint in general), I think a more important goal for hydroponics would be to curb starvation.

That being said, if hydroponics allows for faster growth, using it with indoor lighting allows you to get the most value out of the lights. A low yield per W means you have a high carbon footprint, and hydroponics can help to reduce that if it improves yield.

Organic when everything is going smoothly can produce just as fast/healthy growth obviously, it's just a lot harder to get consistently perfect controlled results.
 
Gaberlunzie

Gaberlunzie

Well-Known Member
Hydroponics
From MIT:

Introduction
Humans require food, water, and living space in order to survive. These things do not exist in endless abundance and are derived both from abiotic and biotic sources, making humans inherently dependent upon the optimization of land area and the preservation of biodiversity. The human population is increasing, and is predicted to expand from 7.0 billion to 9.5 billion people within the next 40 years (Sahara Forest Project, 2009). A parallel increase in the demand for food species is implied, and estimates claim that food production will need to be doubled in order to compensate (Sahara Forest Project, 2009). The trouble with this becomes evident upon the consideration of the productivity of current systems of agriculture and fresh water harvesting: despite our efforts, 1.0 billion people suffer from hunger modernly, and 1.2 billion live in areas with water scarcity (Sahara Forest Project, 2009).

To make matters worse, the affluence of the world is increasing, meaning that more of the future's consumers will demand higher—quality resources (Charles and Godfray, 2011). The intensified harvesting of resources from the environment affects biodiversity negatively, as it contributes to climate change (through the burning of fossil fuels) and habitat fragmentation, degradation, and reduction (as natural terrestrial environments are converted into farmlands). Habitat loss is the leading cause of biodiversity loss, and today, about 38 percent of global land is devoted to agriculture (Brudvig et al., 2009; FAO, 2011). Without altering our current systems of development, this percentage will only increase, as open-air soil-reliant crops cannot be stacked into storied facilities.

In what follows, the construction of a series of hydroponic agriculture and algaculture (multi-level) facilities and power plant/greenhouse desalination facilities is proposed in an effort to:

  • limit terrestrial biodiversity loss through the reversion of large tracts of current farmland into sustainable and fundamentally natural environments;
  • limit aquatic biodiversity loss through the development of more cost-effective distillation processes;
  • produce algae for biofuels, limiting abrasive, environmentally damaging fuel harvesting;
  • expand our capacity to supply fresh water, foods, and economic stability to arid communities; AND
  • optimize space in current agricultural settings.
It is true that other technologies exist in order to address these problems independently. More sustainable forms of irrigation, for example, reduce strains on freshwater habitats, but also allow for the development of arid regions with entirely different forms of biodiversity: modern agriculture occupies far more than the 10.6 percent of global land that is arable (FAO, 2011). The above technologies are favored in this report because they seek to mitigate a broad array of anthropogenic environmental problems simultaneously.
 
C

CC Dobbs

Well-Known Member
AlphaPhase said:
Not, that's not true, I hope I'm not coming off as being that type of person. I like growing organic, I've grown every which way there is. But, with the drought here in cali, I'm just trying to compile a "x vs. x" summary so in the future I can make a decision. There's many reasons why I feel hydroponics is great, but we haven't touched base on organics strong points, only why hydroponics is or isn't better. There hasn't been any organic info posted except "I don't like the taste of hydroponics, I like organics". I'm just throwing info out there about hydroponics hoping some organic growers can shine some insight about how organic is better for the environment. In the future, I'd like to have a green house and I'd like to have solid info about both growing methods
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If you really want info on the benefits of organic growing in comparison to hydro then you can look at the thousands of pages of online information. I doubt that anybody who knows the answer will waste their time reexplaining the finer points to you.
 
AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
I've read them all and everything is pointing to hydroponics being far more superior to organic. So, here we are, sharing info I could have missed while reading those of 1000s of articles.
CC Dobbs said:
If you really want info on the benefits of organic growing in comparison to hydro then you can look at the thousands of pages of online information. I doubt that anybody who knows the answer will waste their time reexplaining the finer points to you.
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AlphaPhase

AlphaPhase

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
I use organics when I want to recycle lawn clippings and mulching leaves. I can't understand why people fill large garbage bags with leaves just to throw away. That's potassium you could pot back into the yard!
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I do the same when I can, in NY, during fall season, I would take the leaves and pile them in layers over the ground that I wanted to garden on the next year. It really makes the grounds soil rich and black and great.
 
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