Hydroponics is the concept of soil less farming.It uses water as a growing medium and it uses less space make it easier for anyone to adopt . In this you know about, what is hydroponics ? it's types etc...

1. HYDROPONICS
THE FUTURE OF FARMING
PRESENTED BY
KALIMUTHU A
THIRD YEAR AGRI

2. SYNOPSIS:
 INTRODUCTION
 COMPONENTS
 TYPES
 MERITS
 DEMERITS
 CONCLUSION

3. INTRODUCTION:
 The word hydroponics comes from two Greek words, hydro
meaning water and ponics meaning labour.
 The concept of soil less gardening or hydroponics is around for
thousands of years. Example: The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
and The Floating Gardens of China.
 Hydroponics is a system of growing plants without soil ,instead of
that water or nutrient medium is used for the growth of the
plants.
 It is a subset of HYDROCULTURE.
 Commonly used nutrient media such as fish excreta, duck manure
etc..

4. COMPONENTS:

5. TYPES:
There are six types of hydroponics systems. They are
 Wick system
 Water culture
 Ebb and Flow
 Drip system
 Nutrient Film Technique
 Aeroponics.

6. WICK SYSTEM:
 Simplest type of hydroponics system and it is a passive
system.
 Nutrient solution is supplied to the growing medium from
the reservoir with a wick.
 It uses variety of growing medium such as perlite,
vermiculture, cocopeat etc..
 The main draw back of this system is that large plants or
large amounts of water may use up the nutrient solution
faster than the wick(s) can supply it.

7. WATER CULTURE:
 The system contains a platform made of Styrofoam and it floats
directly on the nutrient solution.
 An air pump supplies air to the air stone that bubbles the nutrient
solution and supplies oxygen to the roots of the plants.
 This system is a great choice for growing leaf lettuce and fast
growing water loving plants.
 The main draw back of this system is that it doesn’t work with
large plants or with long- term plants.

8. EBB AND FLOW:
 It works by temporarily flooding the grow tray with nutrient
solution and then draining the solution back into the
reservoir. Pumping is done by submersible pump with a timer.
 This system is used with a variety of growing mediums.
 The entire grow tray can be filled with grow rocks, gravel or
granular rockwool.
 The main disadvantage of this system is that with some
growing mediums there is a vulnerability of power outages as
well as pump timer failures.
 The roots can dry quickly when the watering cycles are
interrupted.

9. DRIP SYSTEM:
 It is the most widely used hydroponic system in the world.it has
recovery and non-recovery type systems.
 In this system a timer controls a submersible pump which pumps
nutrient solution to the base of the each plant by a small drip
line.
 In recovery drip system excess nutrient solution that runs off is
collected back to the reservoir while in the non-recovery drip
system excess runoff is not collected.
 The main disadvantage is that the nutrient strength and pH
needs to be periodically checked and adjusted.

10. NUTRIENT FILM TECHNIQUE:
 N.F.T. systems have a constant flow of nutrient solution. So,
no timer required for submersible pump.
 The nutrient solution is pumped into the growing tray
(usually a tube) and flows over the roots of the plants and
then drains into the reservoir.
 No growing medium is used other than air, which saves the
expense of replacing the growing medium after every crop.
 These systems are susceptible to power outages and pump
failures.
 The roots dry out rapidly due to interrupted flow of nutrient
solution.

11. AEROPONICS:
 This system is the most high-tech of hydroponics.
 Like N.F.T. the growing medium is primarily air.
 The roots hang in the air and are misted with nutrient
solution. Misting is done at every few minutes.
 The aeroponic system needs a short cycle timer that runs
the pump for a few seconds every couple of minutes.

12. MERITS:
 Uses 95% less water
 Less space is required
 Yield increases 3 to 10 times in the same space
 No need of pesticides and other chemicals
 Reduces crop failure due to climate change.

13. DEMERITS:
 Initial investment is high
 Requires skilled persons
 Not suitable for all the crops
 It cannot be used for root crops like carrot, beetroot etc…

14. CONCLUSION:
 It is expected that global population will be 9.2 billion in
2050 and the global agriculture production has to be
increased by about 60 – 70 % from the current levels to
meet the increased food demand in 2050.
 As we also know that the land for farming has been
decreasing day by day due to population density.
 To overcome these challenges we have to adopt these kind
of farming technologies.
 As an engineer we have to design the system in a cost
effective way and make it affordable to everyone.

15. THANK YOU