this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
187 points (98.4% liked)

Technology

59148 readers
2428 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

I don’t know anything about this subject with the exception of a video I watched a while ago mentioning that most hydroponic startups end up failing because the cost is too high as you always need a specialist and you can only grow smaller plants/veggies there. This compared with traditional farms.

Does this change that at all? I’m hoping it does as I’d love that hydroponics got much more financially viable as I honestly believe they’ll be our future considering global warming and pests as well.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

The difference here is in the efficiency of the system.
And that this is an aquaponics system, which includes growing both fish and vegetables.

After more than two years of testing, Prof. Gross's system demonstrated 1.6 times higher plant areal productivity, 2.1 times lower water usage and 16% less energy consumption per kilogram of feed than conventional systems. His calculations suggest that upscaling to about one ton of fish will allow operation of the system with no need for external energy, less than 1% water exchange, negligible waste production as well as significant carbon sequestration.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

You can grow larger plants in hydroponics, but the current setups really only make sense where land costs are at a high premium, thus you end up stacking plants on top of each other with artificial lighting, and as a result there is not much space for larger plants.