The answer is………….. It depends on what you are growing. Some plants – like carrots – may grow better in soil. I say “may”, because the results vary greatly based on the nutrients being used, the quantity of nutrients being delivered, soil aeration etc…
There are four (4) generally accepted methods of growing plants:
- Geoponics – growing in soil,
- Hydroponics – growing in a grow medium other than soil and adding nutrients to the water,
- Aquaponics, converting fish waste to nutrients so the plants and fish form a symbiotic relationship; and
- Aeroponics – No grow medium, rather the plant is supported, and the roots hang free and are misted with hydroponic nutrient
So which one of these methods has the greatest grow rate? Yep, it depends. Some plants grow better in one method and suffer in another. The best we can say is that generally, aeroponics has the advantage over hydroponics because it can use the same nutrient additives but benefits the growth rate by also aerating the roots. Aquaponics is a completely natural process as no additive nutrients are needed.
Here at the Bee-Leaf Academy, we have decided that the best thing we can do is conduct trials on the plants we have decided to grow for the Academy. Over the next few years we will embark on several trials and hopefully once complete, we will have found the most efficient method of growing the products our Worbees will sell at markets.
The first trial will be Hydroponics vs Aeroponics, where we mist the same Hydroponics nutrients directly onto the roots of like plants. All other conditions will be as close to the same as possible. This trial will be followed by putting the winner of the first trial against water from an Aquaponics system used as the nutrient source. It is my guess that an aeroponics system using aquaponics water will emerge triumphant, but time will tell.
While these trials are designed to determine the fastest growth rate, the main advantage to them is that our Worbees will learn all about the various methods used to grow plants. Additionally, they will be able to track other advantages to the methods other than Geoponics and tate is water conservation. It is estimated that Hydroponics uses less than 10% of the water that geoponics does. Win-win.
At the same time we are conducting these trials, we will be also running comparisons with methods used to grow Micro-Greens. We will determine what is the best grow medium to use, what is the best light source and again, what is the best nutrient source.