The Comparative Performance of Soil-Based Systems with Hydroponics

Conventional soil-based agriculture is resource-intensive, utilizing large amounts of land and water, thereby placing a strain on Earth’s natural resources. Soil-based agricultural techniques create environmental issues such as soil degradation, deforestation, groundwater pollution from the mass implementation fertilizers pesticides. Agricultural crop production using hydroponics has shown promise to be less resource intensive provide faster turnaround in production. Soilless cultivation promises relieve some pressure ecosystems resources by lesser water footprint. The APS Laboratory for Sustainable Food at Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) compared growth Lettuce Lactuca sativa “Rex Butterhead” grown soilless methods analyze performance each setting. Crops medium were raised FGCU Forest, used mix potting mix, watered regularly, followed standard Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices. hydroponically thermally insulated grow tent with an artificial lighting source, ventilation, controls, Deep-Water Culture (DWC) method. plugs 15 days controlled environments until two leaves after cotyledons had developed ready transplant. Plugs transplanted into 4 × 6 matrix Forest DWC system. full bloom harvest (60 days) (30 based setups. We collected data, including wet weight (g), dry leaf area (cm2), chlorophyll concentration (μmol/m2). From we derived Specific Leaf Area (SLA, cm2/g) biomass productivity (kg/m2). Descriptive statistics describe data. investigated slopes regression lines curve which differences parameters between lettuce hydroponics. Both growing can crops adequate weight. differ significantly methods. increase statistically than those (p < 0.0001). Therefore, determined that hydroponic method may better output indicators measured growth.