Hydroponic Production Systems in Greenhouses

Bozidar Benko, Sanja Fabek Uher, Sanja Radman and Nevena Opacic

A chapter in Climate Smart Greenhouses - Innovations and Impacts from IntechOpen

Abstract: Hydroponic production means the growing of vegetables, herbs and ornamental plants and fruits in a nutrient solution (a solution of water and macro- and micronutrients) with or without the use of a substrate that gives the mechanical support to plant. The most important advantages of hydroponics are as follows: continuous cultivation of one crop, better control and supply of plants with water and plant nutrients, reduced occurrence of plant pests and minimized environmental impact and increased water use efficiency. The main hydroponic cultivation technique of fruit vegetables is cultivation on substrates, often called soilless system. Growing substrate (organic, inorganic or synthetic) provides an aseptic environment, good oxygenation and an adequate nutrient solution flow, so the most important substrate properties are biological and chemical inert, porosity and capillarity. Its choice depends on climatic conditions, the type of equipment in the greenhouse and the plant requirements. Hydroponics is also suitable for growing crops with a shorter growing period such as leafy vegetables and herbs. Plants are grown by different growing techniques in a nutrient solution without a substrate (nutrient film technique, floating hydroponics, ebb and flow and aeroponics). These are closed hydroponic systems, which means that drainage nutrient solution is collected, sterilized and reused.

Keywords: soilless culture; nutrient solution; inert substrates; water culture; open and closed systems; aeroponics; floating hydroponics fruit vegetables; leafy vegetables (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/88713 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ito:pchaps:313440

DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.113056

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from IntechOpen
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Slobodan Momcilovic ().