ANNAPHANTS
Anna Ling; Lucy Jun; Nicholas O; Kota Abe
A technique for growing plants without soil or being submerged in
water.
Aero-what?
How is Aeroponics different from Hydroponics?
How Aeroponics Works
Advantages and Disadvantages of Aeroponics
Environment Impact
Challenges faced in Aeroponics
Aeroponics in space
Aeroponics on Earth
Summary
Did you know the word aeroponic is Latin? “Aero” means “air”, and “ponic” means “culture”. So “aeroponic” means “air culture”!
Aeroponics is the process of growing crops suspended in the air or in a mist without using soil. The roots of the crops are sprayed with nutrients at regular intervals. It is a type of high-technology farming.
NASA Inflatable Aeroponics system
First ever available aeroponic apparatus – The Genesis Machine
Although the words may sound alike, hydroponics is grown in water, and uses water as a growing medium to convey essential minerals to sustain plant growth.
Aeroponics is conducted without a growing medium.
A medium is an agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred.
Aeroponic grown crops are suspended while a nutrient solution is delivered by sprayer nozzles, thus surrounding the roots with a fine mist of nutrients for the roots to absorb to grow.
Did you know this aeroponic apparatus was powered by only tap water and a microchip?
Advantages DisadvantagesCrops are grown close together, so more crops can be grown.
A lot of money is needed to set-up an aeroponics farm.
Plants are not exposed to soil disease or bacteria, so no pesticide is needed, which means healthier crops.
Many consumers believe that aeroponically grown plants are not as nutritious as other grown plants.
The crops mature faster, which means there will be more harvests.
Maintenance of an aeroponics farm is very expensive.
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Advantages DisadvantagesUse of technology speeds up works and can solve labour shortage problems
Even though technology has replaced most of the work, workers are still needed to produce, prepare and package the crops.Aeroponics allows more
control of the crop roots whereas other plant growth systems do not, as the plant roots are not constantly surrounded or in by some medium. (For example, in hydroponics, the roots are always in water)
The machinery used to mass produce the crops are very elaborate. The machinery also tends to malfunction. Aeroponics requires precise regulation and control of water and nutrients, and if the machinery has a slight malfunction, the plants may be very damaged in a short time.
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Advantages Disadvantages
If a plant is affected with bacteria, removing it will not affect nearby crops.
The aeroponic system is more user-friendly as the plants are all seperated, they are all suspended in the air and the roots of the plants are not in anything like soil or water. Also, the harvesting of crops is simple.
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Aeroponic growing is safe and ecologically friendly and also produces natural, organic and healthy crops.
Aeroponics is ecologically friendly because of the conservation of water and energy.
When compared to hydroponics, aeroponics requires less water and uses less energy inputs per sq meter of growing area.
The profit made by farms all depend on how much crop is produced, so if a machinery malfunctions, and a large crop is destroyed, there is a chance the farm will face a loss.
Machinery must be carefully inspected everyday to make sure the machinery works properly.
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In 1999,R. Stoner (developer of aeroponics), funded by NASA, developed an inflatable low-mass aeroponic system (AIS) for space and earth for high performance food production.
The inflatable nature of the innovation makes it lightweight, and can be deflated to take up less space for easy transportation and storage.
There was also another aeroponic system for use in space, but it was hard to transport and store it, thus making it very problematic.
Aeroponics is mainly used in countries where water and land are scarce. The countries are also usually rich.
Examples of such countries are Japan and Singapore.
Aeroponic growing allows plants and crops to grow without the use of pesticide and thus it will be disease free. The crops will grow in a natural healthy manner as the aeroponic system is very similar to nature environmental conditions.
As aeroponics is conducted in air combined with micro-droplets of water, almost any plant can grow to maturity in air with a plentiful supply of carbon dioxide, water and nutrients.
Furthermore, aeroponics helps conserve water, land and nutrients, so the aeroponics system is the way of the future, making cutivation of crops easier.
Any questions?
1. How is Aeroponics different from Hydroponics?
2. What is one advantage of Aeroponics?
3. What is one disadvantage of Aeroponics?
4. What is a challenge faced in Aeroponics?
1. Aeroponics is conducted without a growing Medium, while hydroponics is grown in water as a growing medium.
2. ♥3.4. ♥
1. Aeroponics : Definition and Much More from Answers.com. [http://www.answers.com/topic.aeroponics], Accessed on 17 October 2007.
Information found at the site was the definition of aeroponics, the animation of how aeroponic works, how aeroponics is different from hydroponics, environment impact, challenges faced in aeroponics, aeroponics in space and aeroponics in earth.
2. What is Aeroponics? hydroponics, hydro, hydrogardening, aeroponics, aero-hydroponics, grow ligh. [http://www.gthydro.com/whatisaeroponics.htm], Accessed on 15 October 2007.
The site provided our presentation with the information on how aeroponic works.
3. Hydroponics :: View topic = Issue 5: Aeroponics. [http://hydroponics.com.au/php/viewtopic.php?t=8], Accessed on 18 October 2007.
Information which was found at this site was majority of the advantages and disadvantages of Aeroponics.
4. The Blue Marble 2
The book provided a few of the advantages and disadvantages of Aeroponics.
