Tundra

 Aeroponics is one of the high-tech methods of Hydroponics.

In this method, the roots of the plants are kept hanging in the air and are misted with nutrient solution after every few minutes. Along with the pump, the Aeroponic system also requires a short cycle timer, this short cycle timer runs the pump for a few seconds every couple of minutes.

A bucket which holds the water is kept, in which the water pump is installed, the pump is designed “T” shaped on the top and has few holes in it from which the water is ejected and the solution is sprayed, every root gets misted. In the Aeroponic method, no plastic net cups are required, thus the roots of the plants are kept dangling in the air.

The aeroponic technique is useful for propagation, seed germination, seed potato production, leaf crops, microgreens, tomato production.

The limitation of hydroponic methods is the fact that the 2kg of water can only hold up to 24 mg of air, no matter whether aerators are used or not.

In the Aeroponic technique, plants receive oxygen and carbon dioxide to the roots, stem, leaves to the maximum possible extent. Research has shown that the aeroponically grown plants have an 80% increase in essential minerals compared to the plants that are grown using hydroponic methods.

Since the roots of plants are misted for a few seconds every few minutes, the amount of water this method consumes is very low compared to the other methods of Hydroponics. It is observed that this method uses 65% less water than hydroponic methods.

The amount of nutrients that must be dissolved in water is less in Aeroponics. 

Since the roots are exposed to the air, care must be taken that the roots are misted with the nutrient solution or the roots may dry out rapidly if the water cycles are interrupted.

Using Aeroponics 2,00,000 plants can be grown per acre. While the NFT technique grows 65,000 plants per acre. Using DFT 75,000 plants can be grown per acre.