Beginning soilless farming at home is not a hard task, nor is it an easy task to perform if you go through the due process. Home soil farming is less stressful and not time-consuming.
Setting up a soilless farm at home makes the plants grow faster and produce healthy food for consumption and cultivation. Before I walk you through how to start a soilless farm at home, it is essential to understand the subject “soilless farming.”
What is Soilless Farming?
Soilless farming is the method of growing plants without soil. It can also be defined as the process of nourishing the plants while watering the farm.
What is the Best Home Soilless Farming System for Beginners?
As I had earlier emphasised, starting or setting up a soilless farm is not hard. The best soilless farming system for novices is Deep Water Culture, which is categorized under the hydroponic system.
Deep Water Culture helps to maintain the plant’s growth with the roots under nutrient-rich water. The nutrient solution comprises all the necessary substances needed for the healthy growth of plants or crops.
Diverse countries across the globe lack the needed and greatest resources to grow food, like good nutrients, climatic conditions, and environmental conditions.
Soilless home farming is a pathway for countries that have a prolonged period of dryness. This period of dryness causes negative effects and damages crops, thereby resulting in reduced growth and yield.
Don’t mix things up; soilless farming systems at home are in types and categories. Under the categories, we have hydroponic agriculture, hydro farming, water gardening, and many more.
Therefore, it is necessary to choose quality seeds when starting soilless farming at home. Just like humans, we have diverse paths to growth.
For example, we need oxygen to live; leaves need nitrogen for profusion; and flowers need phosphorus for growth.
Before you start your soilless farm at home, you must take note of the following:
Light
Photosynthesis is needed for all kinds of plants to grow, regardless of the type of farming you want to venture into. Once there is an absence of photosynthesis,
the plant will struggle in the direction of the sunlight, hindering the normal growth, process, and development of the plant. Most of the time, it makes the plant stunt.
Plants are different, so some need the full presence of light, some need partial photosynthesis for growth, and some need shade for growth.
Starting a soilless farm at home needs sunlight, and sunlight is needed in two unique ways, which are natural sunlight and artificial (man-made sunlight). You can also prepare the nutrients that soothe your plant through this process.
In most home soilless systems, you will notice the light is used as a link to settle the needs of the plant. This happens because home soilless farmers are cautious about the environment in which their plants grow.
Nutrients
Each type of seed to be planted needs a basic substance that promotes growth, maintains the growth of plants, and provides energy through the means of sunlight for it to produce healthy crops.
In soilless home farms, there is a balance in water solutions deep inside the liquid form. There are two types of nutrients needed in a soilless home farm: micronutrients and macronutrients.
Macronutrients are the basic substances needed by plants in large quantities for growth, while micronutrients are needed in small quantities.
PH
Ph can be defined or described as the potential of hydrogen. It’s of no use when your plants cannot acquire nutrients. Once you add the soilless nutrients to them, the alkalinity and acidity of the nutrient solution in the plants affect how the nutrients are absorbed in the plants.
Remember, nutrients are one core component of the growth of plants. Let me give an example: the PH of a chemical is very neutral and natural, just like water. Any PH less than 7 is considered acidic, and above 7 is alkaline. The range of PH is calculated from 0–14.
In essence, a PH of 14 is considered alkaline and a PH of 0 is acidic. One provoking issue that soilless home farming has been dealing with to date is that it takes a lot of time for a newly prepared PH solution to be stable and easy to use.
It is advisable to maintain a PH of 6–6.5 and also note that different plants have diverse needs that work with the level of PH to be used. This range given above is satisfying for almost all types of soilless farm plants set at home.
All nutritional substances like phosphorus and nitrogen have a distinct range of absorption of nutrients and a distinct PH level. Note that the absorption level of all nutrients is always high in PH.
Be Cautious of Diseases and Pests
In the soilless home farm, when the roots of the desired crops or plants are opened to light, the development of algae begins.
Hundreds of materials can be used as a soilless home farm medium in your soilless home farm. They include perlite, LECA, coco-coir, rock-wool, starter sponge, molder, and vermiculite. Make sure the medium chosen can hold air and water together.
What types of plants can be grown on a soilless farm at home?
Soil-less farming set up at home is proper for culturing plants that possess little deep root systems like lettuce, tomatoes, cabbage, strawberries, and so on.
What are the benefits of soilless farming at home?
Plants are always healthy because they are given the time, commitment, and dedication required.
You don’t need to be afraid of drought, erosion, or floods. Since the system is carried out at home, it is always free from pests and insects. (Tip: Learn more about the advantages of soilless farming here)
Conclusion
Don’t forget to set up your soilless home farm based on the desired crops that you want to grow and be accurate in your control of the
References
- Can soilless farming feed urban East Africa? An assessment of the benefits and challenges of hydroponics in Uganda and Tanzania
- Soilless farming of vegetable crops: An overview
- Soilless Agriculture a New and Advanced Method for Agriculture Development: an Introduction
