This conversation seems to be a crossword with cryptic clues in part and some treasure hunting for the rest! 
@hydrogyan,
Welcome to FarmNest and hope you are able to provide some practical advice on some of the hydroponics questions around here (yes, without all members needing to learn cryptography!)
Thanks!
Chandra
Chandra, my friend 
I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do.
Intention here is just sharing experiences, mistakes ( followed by prompt corrections), is all what I am up to here.
Ok lets start lesson 1 hydroponics:
a. Think like a plant before you can even grow one
b. Make a list of what a plant needs
c. Find a small place where most of this is readily available
Once youāve found this, I can progress to lesson two
:-), I like things simple, lets make hydroponics simple for all. I have read a good book off late hereās sharing the link ( the author is a good friend and a good mind). Nothing to with hydroponics specifically. Just a good read.
Great Discussion thread, Experts are comming to one table and discussing the realy facts, practical challenges and potential future (on assumptions). Iām glad to get to meet you all through this forum.
Atul, I specially apreciate your contributions and your support and time spent for sharing such a great project information is so much detailed way. I wish you all the great success in the projet.
HydroGyan, I vow to your expertise and handson on the topic. Your directions and the key questions are well appreciated till now.
Iām an enthusiast who are looking forward to start a venture with more advanced and scintifically proven technologies. Iām from a family with farming background. But want to go for innovative approaches and break the barriers and challenges involved in traditional farming techniques. I should say that this forum has given good food for thought for me.
Keep going on discussingā¦ the topic
By The way Atul, I understand from the discussion that this is the first year your farm is comming up and yet to see the actual yield/outcome. You have set a nice target and i wish you get to it. Anyways one quick question for you. What kind of polyhouse is that you have in your project and how much area your project is in and what is the investment to setup the polyhouse and all the required equipment for Hydroponic farming. What is the avg requirement for daily workers/labour in the farm. Is it seasonal or can run with a permanant set of minimum workers employed through out the year. Will be a of great help if you can share some thoughts and info on these.
Srini.
Hi Srini,
Good to hear from you and I sure hope many take inspiration from our discussions.
Before you (or anyone) gets carried away with āAdvanced and provenā technologies, please do the following.
Once you have done all the above, then you decide what technology you should consider. In fact the entire investment and marketing should solely be driven by the plants and itās needs and not what X technology needs.
There is ample know how is available online so do make use of it to get the detail picture. Though at the end of the day, at the time of execution of the project get a good, qualified and honest consultant who can guide you through the whole growing season. (India / Abroad).
Thus all your questions will have a different answers for different crops. For example my current color pepper project requires 40-45 lakh per acre in capital investment while Strawberry would cost upward of 1.6 crore per acre.
One simple idea that you should keep in mind is that this is a business and plan it accordingly. Do not cut on investments as that sure will lead to more problems later on. Be innovative and use locally available stuff as much as you can.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Atul
Appreciate your guidence Atul, will definetly consider your suggestions and will do more detailed analysis of the subject to enter and prepare a detailed project plan. Iām looking at the options of vegetables like peppers & letuce. Will keep following your posts if you can share some marketing tips as well on your peppers and strawberries would be highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Srini
Shrini,
Good to see the enthusiasm. Well said Atul greenhouses related business need a lot of capital infusion in Infrastructure. Did the math for a LOT of Asia based start ups and corporate houses, 2 in India so some indicators of Math are as follows:
Define the type of Protected structure: Self ventilating ( automated), Naturally ventilated, 1/2 poly on top side insect nets, full inset net (insect house), Full shade house. Choice of support: Causurina poles, Stone, MS pipes/Columns, GI Pipes/Columns, Brick columns (seen them all). Costs I will try and put them in an XLS sheet some time soon for all.
Define type of production system: Raised beds ( soil), Medium based ( coco peat, biochar, rice husk, saw dust, peanut shells, sand, gravel, vermiculite, perlite) or combinations ( rock wool is a good idea too but expensive for Asia).
Grow medium holding: Nursery bags, throughs, POTS, containers, Bottles
Positioning: Raised beds, elevated beds, on floor stands
Choice of fertigation: Drip, jet, hand dosing: Sprinklers ( micro) and nano), spaghetti, arrow drippers/ stake drippersā¦1mm onwards to 5 mm micro tubes. Automated mixers, proportionate dosers, water pressure dosers, bulk tank systems, venturi based systems. The choice is LARGE.
Seeds: Indian, imported, locally tested imported seeds, Open pollinated, partenocarpic, Determinate, semi determinate in determinate ( tomatoes only)
6.Fertilisers: Indian, imported , water soluble, side dressing, slow release, complex Macro + Micro nutrients
Environment: Light, water quality, air quality, weather ( RH, wind patterns)
Pollination
Integrated pest management
Ah1 the biz ops planningā¦one sentence" most can grow, not all can sell"
PHEWā¦ I am tired Now
Thanks you very much Hydrogyan, This is great information you have provided. Appreciate your time to reply for some of queries. Excel work out option you have given is great, will wait for it to have a deeper look. My vision/goal in the farming project is to break through some of the foreseen barriers in traditional farming and use appropriate techncologies as necessary (as suggested by Atul as well) and not to over engineer. Right now iām more keen on gathering lots of information on various technologies and methods and to work out viabilities. As you have rightly pointed Selling is the big barrier and needs a break through for it. I have my partner working on the marketing side of it and getting to various ways on it. To point one break the middleman path between farmer and retailer if it can be really possible. Have been talking to various food chains in the market and also with the exporters.
In one line with must required technology/methods increase the productivity and markatability.
Once again thanks for keeping the thread alive with lots of your valuable views and suggestions.
Hi Every oneā¦
Just wanted to update on current 2.25 acre Color Capsicum Project.
We started 14,500 Seedlings two weeks back and we will start another 14,500 seedlings in a week.
Total plants expected are 29,000.
Seedlings did well with over 96% germination rate. We expect to transplant them by week ending Nov. 26th.
Will post pictures periodically.
Ola Atul,
Some math, tell me your on the same page?
a. walking spaces, air vents (across rows and columns), Aisles = 20 % of available in column space.
b. You have approx 1 Ha ( i.e. 16192 S Meters?) Approx
c. Less (3238.4 Sq Meters) B - A = 12953.6 Sq meters
d. Now 12953.6 Sq meters is your cultivable area ( right ?)
e. Your Plant density is 29,000
f. Your Plant to Plant spacing = 40 Cms
G. Row to row I assume is a meter (100 cms) Plus?
Just Mapping your production area.
You still use the tiny Plastic Black pots? 
Hi hydrogyan,
1 ha = 16192 sq. m? Is it some kind of multistorey cropping on the 10000 sq. m?
Thanks.
Love the concept thoughā¦
Darnedā¦My tax numbers mixed with Atulās Mathā¦
Iād love it too Atul, but I am growing oldā¦Thank you Chandra for the timely correction, appreciate your observation
Just mapping Atulās spacing, plant to plant row to row. Could you fill me on your current spacing.
I stand corrected at 9105.4 Sq meters.
Rest Math will follow on the next thread.( if Atul fills me on the question), hope that is not a trade secret
Good Night Folksā¦
Hi Hydroā¦
I would love to spill the beans but as you quoted whatās in the name and I guess you love being āomnipresentā spectator so I am sure you will find out sooner or later. Trust me itās no trade secret.
In fact 29k plants in 9400 sq. mt tells you the story anyway.
What sure will be a trade secret is the new toy that we will be using for irrigation and climate control. Itās first of itās kind in India so I will wait for our goals to fulfill and then reveal it.
30 kg per sq. mt over a period of next 11 months is our goal. That is almost 282 ton. I will bet 200 tons as sure shot possibility. Question is how can I take it to 282 tons? That is almost 2.5 kg per plant excess production. Considering average 175 gms per fruit it means 15 more fruits per plant.
What are the key factors that I must look after? You can go ahead and predict the numbers for me if you likeā¦
Regards
Atul
That was a serious question - I thought you could do multistorey cropping with artificial light?
Good Morning Atul,
Sure Iād be happy, give me a day or two, and I will write back.
Ola Chandra,
Vertical farming hasnāt been a run-away success globally, but I will NOT included Lettuce ( all short height crops) away from my comment
Hi Chandra,
Vertical farming is a good concept but artificial lighting is a killer due to high energy cost. (Unreliable supply in our part of world as well) Further small and mostly green leafy (read lettuce and stuff) plants will do very well but other large fruiting crops as well as light hungry crops such as strawberry etc wonāt do well under artificial light alone and thus AL is always used as supplementary systems to natural light.
Advances in LED has opened the new frontier but their current status can be compared to Ford T model while what we need is Ferrari or better. So future is promising but present is still dependent on natural light and there in lies the reason for success or lack of it for vertical farming.
During my Strawberry cultivation proof of concept we tested both the versions and then opted out of vertical based on the results.
Regards
Atul.
Dear Atul,
Are you using vermiculite for preparing the mixture for soil less cultivation? Did you use that earlier? whits your experience with that?
Regards,
Banyanbrain
How much planting material required per pot or plant? I am assuming it is coco-peat, correct me if I am wrong.
I feel fertilizer, pest control etc. will remain same, only planting material is going to cost. Also, plastic flooring, is it required?
Thanks
Nikhil
Hi BanyanBrain and Nikhil,
I found the coco peat most effective and also reliable in terms of quality. As of today I suggest you do consider coco peat. I have no experience in vermiculite.
Hi nikhil,
I used 20 liter bags and 12 liter pots for production. Average coco peat bail when expanded is 60 liters.
Covering the floor is good practice.
Cost of fertilizer is much higher than soil based system while cost of pesticides is way lower.