Hydroponic Agricultural Engineering

Hydroponics is a cultivation technique - especially vegetables and fruits - without using planting media in the form of soil. Planting media used in the form of rockwool, fuel husk, hydroton, or sand with emphasis on the fulfillment of nutritional needs for plants. The narrowness of productive land - especially in big cities - makes crop cultivation through hydroponic techniques more interesting and more important. Moreover, human needs for crops such as vegetables and fruits are increasing as the population grows.

Cultivation of plants with hydroponics techniques is very easy. We can do it around the house without the need for extensive land. Things to consider in cultivation with this hydroponics method is light, oxygen, water availability, and nutrition.

The essence of hydroponic technology is the provision of nutrient solutions - as food sources for plants - in the root zone, where they are planted on certain media using water instead of soil. Nutrient solution given in the form of nutrients A (calcium, potassium, nitrogen, iron) and nutrients B (potassium, nitrogen, pospor, magnesium, sulfur, manganese, Zn, Cu, Mo, boron) needed the plant. Nutrition A and B for this hydroponic plant are sold in the market

Among the many currently practiced hydroponics systems, the simplest, cheapest, and easy-to-do system is hydroponics with floating raft and axle systems. Hydroponics with floating raft system is a system that uses a water-filled tub by putting vegetable seeds on top of sterofoam which is pierced according to the spacing. In this system required the aerator to regulate air circulation, due to the absence of distance between the roots of plants with water.