27/04/2021
As we celebrate the world 🌎 day... Let us talk about the ideas to restore earth through Hydroponics.
Hydroponics, the soil-less art of growing plants is no doubt the most efficient way of farming in today’s world. It saves water, land, reduces the dependency on weather, cuts down the use of harmful chemical pesticides and the list goes on...
But as we proudly introduce this method to be “Soil-less” let us not forget the importance of soil and its role in the ecosystem.
Every hydroponic - farmer 👨🌾 knows how much good quality nutrients are invested in growing their green babies. These nutrients are utilized by the plants to produce lush green leaves, strong stems and bright, tasty fruits and flowers.
But along with this, a significant amount of nutrients is also diverted to the process of root formation. If you pull a mature plant out of any system, you will see long ( I mean really long) roots hanging below the netcup. So big and long that you might also want to trim those occasionally. And, if you pile up those roots, it definitely turns out to be a huge biomass.
A biomass is always loaded with nutrients but in this case is technically treated as a “ waste product “ and is usually dumped into trash. Some growers might pop them into the compost can.. which is amazing 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. But not everyone has got that setup ready in their garden or household. So, let me share a few more green ideas to put these robust roots into action once again, till the nature recycles them again.
1. You can wash and sundry these roots and use it as a mulching in your garden plants.
2. You can wash these roots, press and shape it into a basket and allow it to dry. These baskets/ cups can be used to hold a sapling, which can be later transferred to the soil while the sapling still in that basket.
This make the root- basket slowly decompose releasing the locked nutrients and will create a good nutrient rich zone around the live roots of the sapling. It will also increase the water holding capacity of the soil.
This was my idea of reusing these roots. After all, every anabolism follows catabolism and vice versa. If you can think of some of the other ways to make hydroponics more sustainable, please comment below 👇🏻
