ELEGANT YET EFFICIENT
New esthetically pleasing home hydroponic designs
The International Space Station and your 500-square-foot studio have more in common than you might think. Both are a great place to experiment with hydroponics — systems that grow plants not in soil but in efficient, nutrient-enriched water. The process can be done easily in tight quarters.
Gene Giacomelli, a professor of agricultural and biosystems engineering at the University of Arizona and director of the Controlled Environment Agriculture Center, said that for commercial agriculture, incorporating hydroponics into large-scale production seems the way of the future.
But is it possible to create a hydroponic system at home?
“If you understand the fundamentals, what the plants need, and you have some practical use of tools, it can be just a kiddie pool filled with water and a floating piece of Styrofoam board with holes cut in it,” Giacomelli said.
There are six kinds of hydroponic systems, the most basic of which is called a deepwater culture. It’s essentially a container of nutrient-filled water, with plants floating on top of it. You’ll need an air pump to introduce oxygen into the water, but it can be simply made with Ikea storage bins, a foam cooler, a bucket or any other container, as long as it sits in a place that gets a lot of light.
There are benefits to using hydroponics in small spaces, just as on the International Space Station.
“You don’t have to haul around the heavy soil or artificial soil mixes, which are dirty,” Giacomelli said. You can grow your plants year-round, increasing productivity by eight to 20 times as much as if you were subject to seasonal changes. Most important, Giacomelli said, all the water is recycled, so you’ll use a lot less than when watering traditionally.
But who wants a bunch of buckets or foam coolers in their apartment?
Michael Zick Doherty, a permaculture designer from California, said once you’ve got the basics down, it’s easy to transform a hydroponic system into something that adds to your decor.
He designs hydroponic systems by considering the surrounding environment: architecture, cabinet colour, kitchen tiles. “I think hydroponics has got a pretty negative image because they aren’t esthetically pleasing a lot of the time,” he said. “I think it’s easy to take that next step. Even pipes: Something as simple as making a wood enclosure around them would totally change the feel of them. Find ways to obscure the more mechanical parts.”
Beautiful doesn’t have to be expensive. Britta Riley is the founder of a social enterprise called Windowfarms, and its first designs used water bottles to create a similar window system. She started an open-source website, on hiatus for this summer, so designers all over the world could share their designs.
If you’re interested in hydroponics but not ready to build your own system, there are plenty of ready-made ones to buy, Doherty said. Some are aquaponic systems, which put fish in the water to create the nutrients the plants need. You don’t have to grow food plants, though many people in the hydroponics community are part of a growing urban agriculture scene.
“The past 15 years, I’ve seen this tremendous movement to locally grown food and an interest to know where the food comes from,” Giacomelli said. “They say, ‘Hey, I’ll grow it myself, and I feel more comfortable eating it knowing exactly how it’s grown.’ ”
They say, ‘Hey, I’ll grow it myself, and I feel more comfortable eating it knowing exactly how it’s grown.’
Riley emphasized that using hydroponics won’t save you loads of money on food. Doherty said that if it’s your first time, take it easy. Try an herb, such as basil or mint.
“Mint is a weed, and it loves hydroponics,” he said. “Just see how it works, and then once you’ve grown that mint and you’re happy and you understand a little bit about the system, then start branching out, grow some basil, but just don’t grow tomatoes.”
Tomatoes, often a first inclination for new indoor gardeners, are one of the hardest plants to grow.
“Don’t even think about it — just grow mint,” he said. “Everyone loves it.”