Hydroponics in the Arctic!

One of the things we’re often looking at with hydroponics is its applications all over the world. Hydroponics has different uses in a place like Africa than it does in a Western country, and much different uses in a tropical climate than it does in – well…

Take a look at how this innovative type of gardening is being applied way up near the Arctic Circle.

In Arctic areas, much like around the rest of the world, people are realizing that there's a lot of benefit to the all-year growing season that hydroponics provides. But it's especially important there because winter times are so fierce and last so long.

News reports are showing us new types of gardens being set up by the Alaska Native Kikiktagruk Inupiat company that are helping locals to produce green foods for the winter.

“A lot of people have their own little gardens to grow things for themselves in the summertime, but in wintertime the cost of produce is high, and not everyone can afford something green from the store,” says president of KIC Will Anderson in a news feature on the subject.

One of the company’s flagship products is Arctic greens made up of kale, spinach and other kinds of greens. Other crops include different kinds of lettuce, cabbage, collard greens, broccoli and cauliflower as well as herbs like basil, mint and parsley.

These reports also go over a purchase model where different stores agree to purchase the overflow of hydroponic greenhouses. This is a vital part of the system to scale hydroponics productions to meet the needs of people while also guaranteeing growers a market for their products.

There's also a lot of information in these reports about how these Arctic growers are producing plants. For example, you see that rows of plants are being grown – “under red, blue and green lights.” This sounds a little esoteric, but it addresses one of the big issues in hydroponics which is how to get your plants the spectrum and luminosity that they need. Beginners should pay attention to these details in order to grow thriving plants in their own small grow boxes or other systems.

Another good note here is that the growers mentioned above often use rockwool pods to house plants. This is one of the most popular types of grow media in use all over the world and something that we routinely recommend to growers of various types of systems. Rockwool has a lot of properties that are good for plants, and it can actually be recycled for multiple plant cycles.

Farmers also talk about the temperature of plants, which is important, and describe how they will handle yield situations.

So really, looking at these kinds of articles is very useful for beginners. They can start to understand what it takes to set up a hydro-garden and how plants will grow. They'll be able to also understand the benefits of doing this -- the fact that it's happening around the world for good reasons. The limitations of soil-based growing are very restrictive, and in an age where more people want to eat healthy and consume more greens, it just makes sense to find cheaper and more effective ways of growing. Hydroponics can also eliminate those long trips where growers of produce have to ship it all over the world in order to get a market. The local model is growing quickly, and hydroponics is a big factor in helping to achieve these kinds of goals.

Are you interested in hydroponics? Keep reading these types of articles and get informed about how this process works, and ask good hydro retailers to help you out with the gear and equipment you need to build your own successful garden.