Hi Janardan,
Thanks indeed for posting your queries and concerns. In fact ( and donāt get me wrong here) your concerns are perfect example of how inadequate knowledge can lead to death of a great idea. Let me explain some of your questionsā¦
generally also we can grow capsicum throughout the year by a green polyhouse i.e., under shaded net.
Very true. Now you end up with 20-40% plant mortality due to soil borne disease, how can you tolerate that?
You cannot plant capsicum in same land next year, so do you set up a new shade net?
You are wasting water and nutrient since 70% is anyway drained away in soil? Where do you compensate for these costs?
You are further polluting soil and under ground water table, how can we explain that?
Your soil may not be the perfect for growing capsicum, so then you are either wasting your money by planting capsicum or just skipping the idea all together.
Yield is much lower in soil. You get best yield only when soil is virgin.
Bottomline is with hydroponics we try to grow plants in any place that is available to us. Importantly hydroponics is a tool to bring resource efficiency and certainty to agriculture like manufacturing industry.
Hydroponic cultivation is very expensive and another thing is that it is totally inorganic cultivation, it is not organic cultivation
Making cars is expensive too but it is a profitable business. Same logic goes to hydroponics as well. Current mind set in agriculture industry in India is āLeast cost and whatever may be the yieldā but in hydroponics we are changing that to āMaximum yield at highest efficiencyā and if that needs investment then it is worth it.
I donāt even want to enter in inorganic / organic debate because my personal view is organic is a scam. Getting the best quality produce is our right as a consumer. Why should I pay 3-4 times more price for product which is claimed to be good? Hydroponic produce when compared to organic is more nutritious and is better value for money because it is not priced higher. It is sold at market price.
Hydroponics means cultivating any thing that water as a substrate, but ur using pots which consists of sand or cocopeat
Hydroponics means any soil less cultivation. Originally the idea started with water based cultivation but todayās definition of hydroponics includes any soil less medium such as sand, coco peat, pebbles etc.
Just want to clear few doubts here. Every plant has a need for specific things such as water, nutrients, environment, temp and so on. In fact there are 13 different variables that affect the plant yield. In hydroponics we try to control each and every one of them so that plant get what nature intended for it. Of course when you try to control all 13 factors at 100%, your investment will be huge and you will get the superb productivity but it will not be a viable business since your selling price will be way to lower than production price.
When you adjust control bar for adjusting these 13 variable factors, you are able to come up with winning composition of moderate cost at the maximum yield (under those conditions) and there in lies the successful business foundation of hydroponics.
Hope this helps everyone.
Edited by moderator: to keep the discussion on topic.
