How efficient is your hydroponic growing system in terms of water, nutrient element agents, and electrical power use? A question every hydroponic grower needs to ask himself. How often and how many gallons of nutrient solution are discarded on a scheduled basis? How many pounds of reagents are included in the discarded nutrient solution? How many pumps and what is their HP required to move the nutrient solution? How many gallons of water are needed to leach the rooting medium and how often is leaching required? Based on an assessment of these factors, can changes be made to reduce such losses and their associated costs? The future of your hydroponic operation and that of hydroponics in general, lies in the ability to make hydroponic growing systems efficient in the use of these resources. Without such efficiencies, some have suggested that the future of this method of growing plants will be costly and limited in its use as a viable growing technique.
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Dr. J. Benton Jones has written extensively on the topics of soil fertility and plant nutrition over his professional career. After obtaining a B.S. degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Illinois, he served on active duty in the U.S. Navy for two years. After discharge from active duty, he entered graduate school, obtaining M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the Pennsylvania State University in agronomy. For 10 years, Dr. Jones held the position as research professor at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster. During this time, his research activities focused on the relationship between soil fertility and plant nutrition. In 1967, he established the Ohio Plant Analysis Laboratory.
Joining the University of Georgia faculty in 1968, Dr. Jones designed and had built the Soil and Plant Analysis Service Laboratory building for the Georgia Cooperative Extension Service, serving as its Director for 4 years. During the period from 1972 and his retirement in 1989, Dr. Jones held various research and administrative positions at the University of Georgia. Following retirement, he and a colleague established Micro-Macro Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, a laboratory providing analytical services for the assay of soils and plant tissues as well as water, fertilizers, and other similar agricultural substances.
Dr. Jones was the first President of the Soil and Plant Analysis Council and then served as its Secretary-Treasurer for a number of years. He established two international scientific journals, "Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis" and the "Journal of Plant Nutrition", serving as their Executive Editors during the early years of publication.
Dr. Jones is considered an authority on applied plant physiology and the use of analytical methods for assessing the nutrient element status of rooting media and plants as a means for ensuring plant nutrient element sufficiency in both soil and soilless crop production settings.
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I recently purchased your “Vegetable Gardening Hydroponically”.
It is well written and definitive and has all the information that I need for a try at growing this upcoming season. You may want to replace all of the (float) values with “valves”. While I didn’t have a problem with what was meant, others may be confused. This is not intended as a criticism, only as a suggestion for improvement of an already good document.
Best Regards
Dennis Clapp