Articles and Information

"Commercial Hydroponics"

by Rebecca Nelson

With hydroponic technology and a controlled environment greenhouse, you have the ability to grow premium quality produce using a minimum of space, water and fertilizer. Hydroponics is an intensive form of agriculture that can fulfill the consumers demand for premium produce and provide the grower with a profitable business.

There are hydroponic growers throughout the United States and worldwide. Of over 30,000 acres in hydroponic production around the world, about 800 of those acres are in the US. Most of the hydroponic facilities in the US are family or small business operations that cover 1/8 - 1 acre, produce premium hydroponic produce and sell it locally. The smaller operations generally have the advantage of offering vine ripened, locally grown produce with minimal transportation cost and damage. It is in this niche, offering premium produce to a local marketplace, that a hydroponic grower with less than a 1/2 acre in production can earn an excellent profit. Smaller growers can establish themselves near the marketplace, eliminating the problems and costs of long-distance transportation. Most of the hydroponic farmers in the US deliver all the produce they grow within a 1 - 4 hour radius of their greenhouse.

In addition to the smaller growers in the US, there are several large hydroponic facilities that cover as many as 60 or more acres and produce large quantities of hydroponic tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and lettuce. Often this produce is shipped throughout the US to help fill the growing demand for hydroponic produce. Currently there are jumbo jets, trains and trucks that bring hydroponic produce daily into the United States from Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada. Both US and Internationally grown hydroponic produce that suffers the rough handling of long-distance transportation is usually of a lesser quality and sells for a lower price that that of a smaller hydroponic farmer who caters to specialty stores and farmers markets near to their operation.

Quality of Hydroponic Produce
The premium quality of most hydroponic produce is due to:

• the controlled environment
• high grade nutrients and precise control of the nutrient feed ratios
• vine ripening
• the lack of herbicides and pesticides

Advantages of Hydroponic Produce
Additional advantages of hydroponic, controlled environment growing include:

• no soil borne disease
• hydroponics uses up to 1/10 of the water that is used to grow equivalent amounts of field produce
• hydroponics uses less fertilizer than is often used to grow equivalent amounts of field produce
• extended growing season
• intensive production in a small space

The Most Popular Hydroponic Crops
The most popular hydroponic crop in the US is tomatoes, with second fancy lettuce and leaf crops, third cucumbers and fourth herbs, peppers and flowers. Ironically, there is more hydroponic produce flown into the US from Holland, Canada and Mexico than is grown here. As more and more growers are established in the US, this will change. You can grow hydroponic produce at a lower cost and offer fresher, better quality.

Productivity of Commercial Systems
The productivity of commercial systems has risen dramatically in the past few years. Commercial tomato growers who once hoped to annually pick 20 pounds of tomatoes per plant are now picking as much as 35-40 pounds annually. In a 12,000 square foot greenhouse, a tomato grower can grow 4,0000—5,000 pounds of tomatoes every week. Lettuce growers are picking mature heads of lettuce in under 5 weeks and, with 20,000 square feet of growing space, can produce nearly 3,000 heads per week. The cost of establishing a commercial hydroponic greenhouse operation is quite reasonable when considering the potential profit and the intensive volume of high-quality produce that can be grown on a small lot.

The addition of new equipment such as electronic monitoring systems, nutrient dosing systems, row bed heating, CO2 generators and insect screening have greatly increased the overall poundage many growers are harvesting.