Work in the Hydroponic Industry
Develop a sound understanding of the theory and practice of hydroponics.
This is a course for growers, farm workers, hydroponic shop staff, horticulturists or anyone else seeking to lay a sound foundation in hydroponic growing.
This course introduces you to a wide range of systems, simple and complex, and how to grow many different types of horticulturally valuable crops, such as cut flowers and vegetables.
WHAT IS HYDROPONICS
Hydroponics is the art of growing plants without soil. It is the perfect way to avoid heavy, back breaking work, such as digging. Pests, diseases and weeds are generally much easier to control. Over the past few decades hydroponics has proven an ideal method for both keen amateur gardeners and commercial growers looking for an alternative way of producing plants.
Online Course -or alternatively, study by Distance education using paper based notes or a CD
Lesson Structure
There are 10 lessons in this course:
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Introduction
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hydroponic systems
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global industry
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comparision to growing in soil
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resources and contacts.
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How a Plant Grows
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plant structure
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biochemistry
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biochemical cell processess
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mechanisms of nutrient uptake
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photosynthesis; minerals and nutrients
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the role of pH in plant growth
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hydroponic nutrient solutions
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preparing nutrient solutions.
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Hydroponic Systems
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location
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equipment
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systems
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soilless mixes
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rockwool
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rockwool manufacture
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rockwool properties
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development of propagating blocks
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propagation applications
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recommended practices for propogation
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nutrient film techniques
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alternative layouts for NFT
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methods of solution dispention, closed and open systems; techniques.
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Nutrition & Nutrition management
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understanding nutrient formulae
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atoms, elements & compounds
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chemical names
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what does a plant need
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calculating formulae
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mixing nutrients
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symptoms of nutrient deficiency
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recommendations
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adjusting the pH
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using electrical conductivity measures
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conductivity
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conductivity and hydroponics.
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Plant Culture
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flow charting the crop
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controllers
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salinity controllers
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pH controllers
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post harvest storage
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cooling
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drying
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canning/bottling
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controlled atmosphere storage
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relative humidity
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vacuum storage
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freeze drying
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freezing
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pest and diseases in controlled environments
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fungi, common funal problems
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cultural controls
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current legislation
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biological and integrated pest management
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beneficial agents
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economic thresholds
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methods of introduction
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major pests, diseases and disorders of crops identified
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problem solving and identification of illness
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difficult to diagnose problems
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leaf hoppers; thrip; virus; bacteria; caterpillars; harlequin bugs and more.
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Hydroponic Vegetable Production
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commerical cultivation of vegetables
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propagation
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temperatures required for seed germination
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optimum monthly temperatures for vegetable growth
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harvesting vegetables
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growing vegetables hydroponically
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vegetable families
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fresh-cut herbs in hydroponic culture
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nutrient solution
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materials and handling
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notes on selected crops.
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Hydroponic Cut Flower Production
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growing flowers in hydroponics
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carbon dioxide
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automation
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flower varieties
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indoor plants.
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Solid Media vs Nutrient Film
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growing media
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NFT system choices
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header tank or direct pumping
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construction materials
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solution delivery
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capillary matting
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channel width and length
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slope
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temperature
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types of media
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vermiculite; sand; perlite; expanded plastics; scoria; expanded clay
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organic media; sawdust; peat moss; coir fibre; composted bark
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indoor plants
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plant directory
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transplanting a pot grown plant into a hydroponic 'culture pot'.
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Greenhouse Operation & Management
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growing crops in greenhouses
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solar energy
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greenhouses
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nature of active solar heating systems
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examples of solar greenhouse facilities
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greenhouse management
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what you can grow
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greenhouse and other growing structures
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environmental factors that influence plant growth
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plant needs
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temperature control
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heat loss
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heaters
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light factors
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artificial light
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horticultural management in a greenhouse
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greenhouse benches
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greenhouse cooling
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fog.
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Special Assignment
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plan a hydroponic enterprise.
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Explain different hydroponic systems.
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Select appropriate media for specified hydroponic crops.
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Describe the equipment used in hydroponic systems.
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Determine the management of nutrition in hydroponic systems.
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Explain the management of a greenhouse in the production of a hydroponic crop.
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Plan the establishment of hydroponic facility to satisfy specified criteria, both commercial and cultural.
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Develop a management plan for a hydroponic facility.
What are the Possibilities?
There are a bewildering number of choices to be made when deciding what type of system to use. This chapter is designed to help you choose the system that is right for you.
WATER, AGGREGATE OR ROCKWOOL CULTURE
The first choice is whether to use water culture, aggregate culture or rockwool. All three are viable and used successfully with a large variety of crops in many different parts of the world.
Your choice should take into consideration the following:
• What is the cost of each and how readily available are materials in your area?
• Is rockwool made/sold locally? If not, what freight charges are involved in having it delivered?
• Is there a local source of sand or gravel which can be used, or do you need to pay high cartage costs?
• What types of plants will you grow?
• Some plants require better aeration than others. Some systems provide better aeration than others, for example NFT systems.
HYDROPONIC MEDIA
There are three main groups of hydroponic media, based on their origins:
1. Media derived from rock or stone
2. Media derived from synthetics
3. Organic media
General Characteristics
Media is the term given to the solid material(s) used to replace soil in aggregate culture and rockwool culture.
Hydroponic media must fulfil the following criteria:
• They must be chemically inert.
• They must be chemically stable.
• They must be clean.
• They must drain sufficiently freely not to create waterlogging problems.
• They must have adequate water-holding capacity.
• They must have adequate air-holding capacity.
Also:
• Buffer capacity should be good – this is the ability of the media to resist changes in pH.
• It is preferable that cation exchange capacity is at least moderate to good.
PLANT SUPPORT
Plants grown in hydroponics tend to be more prone to falling over than plants grown in soil; and thus frequently need some type of trellis support. Water culture methods such as NFT and light weight materials such as perlite, vermiculite and rock wool do not provide firm anchorage of roots in the way that soil does.
• Tall growing plants in particular need support.
• Stronger supports are needed if plants are exposed to wind.
• A greater bulk of plant will need a stronger trellis.
There are two types of trellis systems:
1. Horizontal trellis
Here a mesh of wire, nylon or some other material is supported above the plants in one or two layers (depending on the height of the plants and the amount of support needed).
Carnations, capsicums, and other small bushy plants require this type of trellis.
2. Vertical trellis
This may consist of a similar mesh material stretched along a row, or alternatively, single wires stretched along a row with support posts at each end. Vertical trellis can also be hung from the ceiling in a greenhouse.
• Tomatoes can be grown on wires tensioned and spaced at 50 cm intervals. The stems are tied to the wires as they grow.
• Cucumbers require greater support and are either grown on a vertical mesh, or on wires at 15 to 20 cm spacing. The wires should be tied together every 20 to 30 cm to form a mesh and give additional support.
• In large systems wires need to be connected to turnbuckles so they can be tensioned if they loosen.
NUTRIENT LEVELS
Hydroponic systems are reliant on the composition and formulation of the nutrient solution to supply all the essential elements required for optimal plant growth and yields. However, nutrient solutions are complex and the composition of these changes as they flow through the root system and irons are extracted. Many problems in hydroponic systems are either nutrient or environmentally based, making these the main areas where troubleshooting skills need to be developed.
The most common nutrient problem is the development of deficiencies of one or more elements, either due to rapid uptake or unsuitable nutrient formulations and management, which are common mistakes made by many hydroponic growers.
Deficiencies in hydroponic production are more common than toxicities as plant uptake of many elements has the potential to strip out nutrients at a rapid rate, particularly from recirculating solutions. The most common deficiency problems in hydroponic crops are potassium in fruiting plants such as tomatoes, iron under certain environmental conditions, nitrogen in some highly vegetative crops, and calcium in many species such as lettuce, tomatoes and capsicum.
To complicate hydroponic plant nutrition further, deficiencies as they occur in different crops may or may not be a result of an actual deficiency in the nutrient solution. Potassium can certainly be stripped from a nutrient solution rapidly as fruit develop and expand, and also because luxury uptake occurs in many crops. However iron, calcium and magnesium deficiencies on leaves and fruit occur even when there is more than sufficient of these elements in solution. These induced deficiencies often fool growers into thinking there is a problem with the formulation of their nutrient, when the cause is often more complex.
Iron
Iron deficiency is common under cool growing conditions, where the root system might have become saturated, damaged or where the pH is running high.
Magnesium
Magnesium deficiency on crops such as tomatoes can be induced by high levels of potassium uptake.
Calcium
Calcium deficiency which shows as tip burn on lettuce and blossom end rot of tomatoes and peppers is a calcium transport problem within the plant, rather than a lack of calcium in the solution. It is induced by environmental conditions such as high humidity which restricts transpiration and calcium distribution.
Solutions
Working out if deficiency symptoms on a crop are actual or induced by other factors becomes the vital first step to solving such problems. The simplest way for a grower to determine this is to have a full solution or leachate analysis carried out to rule out any deficiency in the plant’s feed regime. Low levels of an element in solution (below the optimum being aimed for) certainly indicate that the nutrient is the problem and boosting levels of the deficient element will rapidly help correct the situation. Some deficiencies, particularly of the trace elements such as iron, benefit from foliar application of these nutrients to help correct the problem in the short term. These however are only a quick fix and the missing nutrient needs to be supplied in the root zone at the correct levels over the long term. Iron foliar sprays are particularly effective where cool conditions or root zone damage have limited iron uptake and caused the distinctive iron chlorosis symptoms on the new leaves.
Learn More About How to Grow Plants in Hydroponics, by Home Studies
Study with the ACS Garden School Training Program -a UK College with tutors across the UK, Australia and New Zealand
FREQUENT QUESTIONS
Why Choose This Course
- Course notes and materials are unique (written by our staff) and up to date (most revised annually) –our graduates are more up to date with what they learn than many other institutions.
- We don’t just present you with information; we also work to help you understand and remember it, develop an ability to apply it in the real world, and build networks with others who work in this field.
- Start any time, study at your own pace, study from anywhere
- Don’t waste time and money traveling to and from classes
- More choices in your assignment work –courses are written to allow you more options to focus on parts of the subject that are of more interest to you.
- Tutors more accessible than many colleges – academics are hard at work in both the UK and Australia, 5 days a week, 16 hours a day, and answering individual queries from students are top priority and always attended to within a day –often within an hour.
- Be treated like an individual –don’t get lost in a crowd of other students. Our tutors interact with you one to one.
- Extra help at no extra cost where needed.. If you find a task you can’t do, we will help you through it or give you another option.
- Support after graduation –We will advise on getting work, starting a business, putting a CV together. We will promote students and their businesses through our extensive profile on the internet. Any graduate who asks will be helped.
- Support from a team of a dozen professional horticulturists, living in different parts of the UK, and in both temperate and tropical climate zones of Australia.
About ACS
ACS was started in 1979 by John Mason, who at the time was a gardening author, horticultural consultant and lecturer in horticulture at several colleges across Melbourne (in Australia). Over the summer that year John discovered that there were thousands of applicants going to be turned away from horticulture courses at Burnley Horticultural College (now Melbourne University). There were simply too few courses being offered for the number of people wanting to study horticulture in Australia. This situation prompted a move to establish a correspondence course at Burnley; but after months of unsuccessful lobbying for support from government; John wrote a course, and with help from a colleague at Council of Adult Education, marketed it.
Standards were originally set in line with what were seen to be the standards of Australia's top horticultural college; and over the years, those standards have never been reduced. This makes our courses longer and more demanding than some other colleges; but it has also led to us building a credibility that stands tall in the horticulture industry across the world.
In the early 1990's John started visiting the UK and becoming involved with the horticulture industry there. Around the mid 1990's ACS began offering RHS courses, and in 2003, John was formally recognised for his contribution to British Horticulture by being made a fellow of the Institute of Horticulture. ACS, as a school, established an office and staff in the UK in 2001, and has expanded considerably since then. Today it is formally affiliated with five other colleges in the UK (including Warwickshire College); all of who license and deliver ACS courses.
A team of leading horticulturists work for the school's horticulture department, including 12 faculty members in both the UK and Australia
How You Study
- When you enroll, we send you an email that explains it all.
- You are given a short orientation video to watch, where our principal introduces you to how the course works, and how you can access all sorts of support services
- You are either given access to your course online, or sent a CD or course materials through the mail (or by courier).
- You work through lessons one by one. Each lesson has at least four parts:
- An aim -which tells you what you should be achieving in the lesson
- Reading -notes written and regularly revised by our academic staff
- Set Task(s) -These are practicals, research or other experiential learning tasks that strengthen and add to what you have been reading
- Assignment -By answering questions, submitting them to a tutor, then getting feedback from the tutor, you confirm that you are on the right track, but more than that, you are guided to consider what you have been studying in different ways, broadening your perspective and reinforcing what you are learning about
- Other - Your work in a course rarely stops at just the above four parts. Different courses and different students will need further learning experiences. Your set task or assignment may lead to other things, interacting with tutors or people in industry, reviewing additional reference materials or something else. We treat every student as an individual and supplement their learning needs as the occasion requires.
- You are given access to and encouraged to use a range of supplementary services including an online student room, including online library; student bookshop, newsletters, social media etc.
- You are provided with a "student manual" which you can refer to if and when needed. It provides a quick solution to most problems that might occur (some people never need to use this; but if you are studying late at night & have a problem, the manual provides a first port of call that can often get you moving again).
Recognition
- ACS is known and highly respected internationally: by employers and academics alike:
- Recognised by International Accreditation and Recognition Council
- ACS has been training people around the world since 1979
- Over 100,000 have now studied ACS courses, across more than 150 countries
- Formal affiliations with colleges in five countries
- A faculty of over 40 internationally renowned academics –books written by our staff used by universities and colleges around the world.
Extra Books or Reference Materials
- The course provides you with everything that you need to complete it successfully.
- Assignments may ask you to look for extra information (eg. by contacting nurseries, visiting gardens or searching the internet), but our school's resources and tutors are always available as a back up. If you hit a "roadblock", we can quickly send you additional information or provide expert advice over the phone or email; to keep you moving in your studies.
- Some students choose to buy additional references, to take their learning beyond what is essential for the course. If a student wants to buy books, we operate an online bookshop offering ebooks written by staff at the school. Student discounts are available if you are studying with us. The range of e books available is being expanded rapidly, with at least one new ebook being written and published by our staff every month. See www.acsebook.com
