Picture 1: Tomatoes in a hydroponic system in a climate controlled greenhouse can
increase the yield significantly.
USDA-accredited certification agencies have
certified hydroponic operations as organic.
Since hydroponics employs a soil-less system,
produce from this system will not be certified
as organic by most certification bodies. Moving from soil to growing mediums in the
1960s is however one of the fundamental
reasons for obtaining higher yields in many
greenhouse crops. In a soil-less system many
soil-borne diseases can be prevented or easily
treated. Soilless systems also allows for the
accurate application of water and nutrients,
optimising the growth and yield of crops. A
Picture 2: Root development in rockwool; a
commonly used growing medium in soilless production systems.
high productivity is essential for justifying the
high cost of implementing and running a
greenhouse hydroponic operation. Should a
growing medium then be used that contains
sufficient organic material to support microorganisms other factors might influence the
productivity of the system. First of all the
physical and chemical stability of the growing medium; in an inert medium such as
rockwool or perlite there is no change in the
composition and structure of the medium
throughout the crops growth period. This
makes it easier to optimise water and fertilizer application as well as managing other pa-
Figure 2. From Shinohara et al (2016). Optimum dose of organic fertilizer. The optimum
concentration of organic fertilizer required to promote nitrification in the presence of 5 g/L
of bark compost inoculum was determined. Fish-based soluble fertilizer at 0.5, 2.5, or
5 g/L was added daily for seven days from the start of the experiment.