Hydroponic farming is a method of growing crops without soil, with the main benefits of environmental and nutrient control, water conservation, and reduction of labor. This technique relies on a number of technologies that the principles of automation can be applied in order to improve yield and consistency. In this article and accompanying video, I’ll show you how to built a hydroponic system with basic components and automate it using the open source software Mycodo running on a Raspberry Pi single board computer.
Many of the aspects that make hydroponic farming so efficient can also make it challenging to implement. Water and nutrients must be provided in a balanced ratio while being constantly monitored and adjusted as plants develop. Temperature regulation can also become a problem since the circulating water system acts as a heat pump. Additionally, the microbial communities that can benefit or harm your crops are now competing in an aqueous rather than a terrestrial environment, sending us even further into unknown and potentially dangerous territory. And to make matters worse, if you have a prolonged power outage, you may need to manually water or have a generator to keep the water pump going, else you may injure your crops.