What Is Aeroponics?

Aeroponic Growing: Environmentally Friendly

Aeroponics is an advanced and highly efficient form of hydroponic farming where the plant roots are suspended in a self-contained system and fully exposed to environmental air. The roots are sprayed with an enriched mist. Thus, you have precise control over the delivery of water and other nutrients. The abundance of oxygen promotes nutrient uptake, requiring plants to spend zero energy in acquiring resources. Aeroponics provides yield increases of up to 60% when compared to hydroponics and other growing styles.

The setup and operation of a single-unit aeroponic system are generally more straight forward and affordable to manage than with hydroponics because there is no media. Aeroponic growing allows plants to be stacked closely together for an efficient use of space. Therefore, it does not require a growing medium, and it offers easy mobility.

Other substantial benefits of aeroponics over hydroponics and other grow systems include:

  • Reduced Water Demand: The high level of efficiency in aeroponic systems allows for water reductions of up to 90%.
  • Reduced Nutrient Demand: Plants grown in aeroponic systems require up to 75% less nutrients.
  • Reduced Labor Demand: Without the need to manage drip line manifolds or to handle, prepare, and transport pallets of rockwool cubes or 40-pound bags of soil or coco throughout the facility, grow operations can operate with smaller crews.  
  • Ability To Go Vertical Safely: Aeroponics is well suited for vertical racking because grow boxes are not removed between harvests. Also, the risk of injury is greatly reduced because you don’t have to transport grow media.
  • Increased Yield: Oxygen saturation in the root zone allows efficient nutrient uptake. Therefore, plants expel zero energy searching for resources. Energy is redirected to flower production and increases yields by up to 60%.
  • High Level of Grower Control: Issues with individual plants can be identified immediately, allowing growers to address the matter before it spreads through the crop.
  • Higher Quality and Cleaner Product: The lack of media means no nutrient buildup around the root ball. In particular, flushing leaves behind zero residual nutrients. You receive only clean, pure flower.
  • Increased Sustainability: Aeroponics allows growers to reduce their landfill inputs. While used rockwool, soil, and coco may be recycled, options are limited and require processing operations that consume additional resources. As a result, most used growing media ends up as waste in landfills.

Aeroponics systems are highly adaptable and can be used to grow a wide variety of crops, including cannabis, herbs, leafy greens, vegetables, and fruits.

Nova Aeroponics & Cannabis

Cannabis, in particular, thrives in an aeroponic grow environment. For instance, plants do not have to battle one another for a sufficient share of oxygen, and they receive a steady supply of nutrients directly to the roots. Most importantly, healthy cannabis plants grown in a controlled aeroponic system produce impressive flowering production and are less susceptible to pest invasion.