Strawberry Plant Replacement: One-Year vs Two-Year
Strawberry Plant Replacement: One-Year vs Two-Year Strawberry plant replacement is the decision that quietly sets the shape of a gutter berry business. Run an annual reset and you buy plants every year, accept a gap in production, and start each season with young, uniform, high-grading fruit. Carry plants into a second year and you skip […]
Baby Leaf Production: Cut Height and Regrowth
Baby Leaf Production: Cut Height and Regrowth Baby leaf production is a direct-sown, machine-cut crop, and almost none of the equipment logic carries over from head lettuce. There are no plugs, no holes, no single-plant spacing: seed goes onto a flat media surface at high density, the whole surface is cut 20 to 40 days […]
Cilantro, Parsley and Mint: Herbs Beyond Basil
Cilantro, Parsley and Mint: Herbs Beyond Basil Most commercial herb houses are laid out around basil, then asked to add cilantro, parsley and mint. Those three do not behave like basil, and a hydroponic herbs commercial programme that treats them the way loses money on all three: cilantro bolts, parsley takes two months before the […]
Arugula and Specialty Greens in NFT: Cycle Guide
Arugula and Specialty Greens in NFT: Cycle Guide Arugula hydroponics runs on a shorter cycle and a tighter spacing grid than head lettuce, and that difference drives nearly every equipment decision on the line. Specialty salad greens — wild and cultivated arugula, mustard, mizuna, tatsoi, cress and the frilly non-head lettuces — are grown as […]
Sensor Placement: Where Readings Go Wrong
Sensor Placement: Where Readings Go Wrong Most control problems blamed on a sensor are placement problems. A probe reads whatever is at its tip, and the tip is usually somewhere convenient rather than somewhere representative. Hydroponic sensor placement starts from a simple question: what should this number describe — the solution at the root, the […]
Aisle Widths and Bay Layout for Equipment Access
Aisle Widths and Bay Layout for Equipment Access Greenhouse aisle width is not an aesthetic choice; it is set by the widest thing that has to pass down the aisle and turn at the end of it. Draw the layout around the cart, the crate stack and the machine, then the growing area is whatever […]
Water Meters and Leak Detection on Hydroponic Farms
Water Meters and Leak Detection on Hydroponic Farms An irrigation water meter on the main line tells a farm what it used. The same meter on each branch tells it where the water went, and that is the difference between a utility bill and a leak-detection system. On a recirculating farm the numbers worth logging […]
Rainwater Harvesting for Hydroponic Farms: Sizing
Rainwater Harvesting for Hydroponic Farms: Sizing Rainwater harvesting on a hydroponic farm is a storage and treatment project long before it is a plumbing project. Rain arrives with very low conductivity and almost no alkalinity, so it blends into a nutrient recipe with less acid demand and fewer salt problems than many bore supplies. The […]
Germination Chambers and Propagation Room Setup
Germination Chambers and Propagation Room Setup A germination chamber is a sealed, heated enclosure that carries sown trays from water uptake to radicle emergence, in the dark and at near-saturated humidity. The propagation room is where emerged seedlings grow to transplant size under light and moving air. Running both jobs in one room is the […]
Grow Bags and Slabs: Sizes, Materials, Drainage
Grow Bags and Slabs: What the Container Controls Grow bags hydroponic buyers often compare unit prices first and find later that volume, drainage and packing decide what a cycle really costs. The container sets the root-zone buffer between irrigations, how fast the substrate dries back, and how many units fit in a container. Coco slabs, […]