How to Save Water in Hydro

We talk a lot about the quality of hydroponic water, but we don’t often talk about saving it. We assume that growers have some kind of inexhaustible source, the way all of us do for municipal and household use. But sometimes water is at a premium, especially in desert states or other places where it's getting harder to source for commercial operations – here are a number of ways put forward by experts looking at how to capture, reuse and generally save water during the process of feeding hydro plants.

Capturing water vapor

Some of the water that goes into a hydroponic system ends up being breathed out by plants in the ethereal form of water vapor. By setting up some kind of condenser or other tool in the hydroponic grow area, you could reduce water waste in a significant way.

Reusing reservoir water

This is a tricky one, because the water in the reservoir is already full of nutrients and other materials when it's time to be recycled or reused. However, there are instances where you can reuse this water in other ways. For instance, you may need water for outdoor work, or for non-ingestible purposes. While it's not easy to reuse nutrient-rich reservoir water, you can think of it more as a resource that goes back into the system to be treated and reused again.

Using wastewater in the garden

Another way to think about this is the reverse -- you would be using already used household water for hydro operations. That might be a little more feasible for most growers. In other words, you would use wash-water, bath water or any other kind of previously tapped gray water in a hydroponic garden system. Now again, this really isn’t ideal because anything that might be in the water, such as soap or detergent, could compromise the quality of the water for hydro plants. But in some cases, where water hasn't really been contaminated with chemicals or anything else significant, it could be possible to use this type of water for a hydroponic garden.

Harvesting rainwater

Here's another idea -- use rainwater or melted snow.

Lots of homeowners and others are installing rain barrels and other kinds of neat gear that will trap rain water as it comes down. These capture the natural flow of water in precipitation and can be a great way to save water rather than running the tap for it.

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