High Pressure versus Low Pressure Aeroponics

High Pressure versus Low Pressure Aeroponics

First off, let's take a quick peek at the definitions of these two difference styles:

High Pressure Aeroponics (HPA) is defined as a form of Hydroponics in which the roots are suspended in a chamber with nozzles that delivers nutrients through a mist to the roots between 5-80 micrometers. Most argue that the range is smaller (20-50 micrometers). This mist is usually derived from some form of pump (typically a diaphragm pump such as a reverse osmosis pump). This type of system usually has a PSI of 80-150PSI to attain the droplet size. Also, it uses specialized misting heads to attain the correct mist droplet size. Research from NASA shows that at the 20-50 micron size, the roots can grab the water/nutrient solution right out of the air and instantly absorb them without any wasted energy.

Low Pressure Aeroponics (LPA), aka soakponics is defined as a form of Hydroponics in which the root zone is suspended in a chamber with nozzles which delivers nutrients through a spray. The droplet size is not exact. These systems typically use a plastic spray nozzle, and a typical fountain pump to get their spray out of the nozzles.

High Pressure Advantages:

• Superior crop
• Of all current methods, this grows plants upwards of 20% faster
• Uses the least amount of water, of any system
• Uses least amount of nutrients of any system

High Pressure Disadvantages: 

• If issues arise in the system (power outage) you lose your plants in minutes
• Most finicky form of Hydroponics
• Super expensive
• Clogged sprayers

High Pressure Hydroponics is great for high dollar cash crops, or those seeking the highest quality crop in smaller scale environments / hobbyist

Low Pressure Aeroponics Advantages:

• Simple, easy to DIY
• Grows plants faster than other forms of Hydroponics.
• Cheap to build

Low Pressure Aeroponics Disadvantage:

• If issues arise in the system (power outage) you lose your plants in hours
• Clogged sprayers

There are not very many disadvantages to LPA as you can see above. These systems are not the best for larger plants, but can be used for such. The sprayers can get clogged from the plants roots. These are mainly used for cloning. They do a fantastic job at cloning plants. 

Aeroponics

Aeroponics - Hydroponics

Aeroponics is a specific style in which the nutrients/water is applied to your garden. There is not one cut and dry way to grow your hydroponic garden. You have many different options for growing your indoor garden. One of these options is Aeroponics.

Aeroponics is essentially where the roots will typically be suspended, and you have a device that spritzes the roots with a fine liquid solution that consists of a pH balanced water, nutrient combination. A benefit of Aeroponics that typically goes unspoken is that it is one of the few that allows the roots to grow openly and freely into the air. This is a natural purifier for plants, as they no longer have as much susceptibility to disease when grown in this fashion. You can also introduce CO2 to the roots of the plants to assist in photosynthesis. You can do this over top of the plants in many other forms of Hydroponics, however, this is one of the few that you can add CO2 to the roots, and not just the top of the plant.

Aeroponics also limits disease to occur since the plants should be far enough apart that their roots never touch. Also, the pH balanced water/nutrient combination is not touching several plants prior to going back to the reservoir. This makes a world of difference with disease.

Aeroponics advantages are as follows:

• The plants grown typically grow faster. This is because more O2, and CO2 to the roots assist in the plants growing faster. Also, the nutrients are easier for the plants to absorb.
•  You use less nutrients and water in an Aeroponics setup, since you are misting the plants, and not diluting them in the solution. 
• Not very much space is needed, if the Aeroponics setup is completed correctly. 
• Great learning experience. This method has a lot of things that help you learn more about Hydroponics in general. 
• This is semi-mobile. Depending on how it is built, it could be very mobile, if you move you growing space around. (Maybe your wife likes to change the look of you basement a lot.) 

Aeroponics Disadvantages are as follows: 

• Dependency on all of the parts working 100% of the time. If anything fails such as a pump, sprinkler, timer, or gets clogged, your plants will suffer, and fast. 
• Regular cleaning and sanitation is required. You have a dark, moist, air prevalent environment, what do you think will happen? Bacterial growth! You must also note, that you have to make sure that your sprinklers are going to need regular cleaning so they do not build up with mineral deposits, and stop  working properly. 
• High introductory cost. You can cut down on costs by building it completely yourself, but it still costs a nice chunk of change to get started. This can lead to another downfall, time consumption if you build it yourself.  

Fogponics

Fogponics - Hydoponics

Fogponics is a form of Aeroponics. It is basically the same concept, except you are using vaporized nutrient solution in the 5-30µm particle size range. This form of Hydroponics is not as popular as Aeroponics, but that is only because this is a relatively newer form of Hydroponics. These systems are typically made up of an ultrasonic fogger, a pump, water, and the system to hold the roots above the fog. One thing to note is your plants do not actually have to have their roots touching the fog you see since it is actually sucking it up. There are a lot of people who have messed up perfectly good systems by adding a fan because the roots were not touching the fog.

Fogponics Advantages:

• The plants grown typically grow faster. This is because more O2, and CO2 to the roots assist in the plants growing faster. Also, the nutrients are easier for the plants to absorb.
• You use less nutrients and water in an Fogponics setup, since you are misting the plants, and not diluting them in the solution. 
• Not very much space is needed, if the Fogponics setup is completed correctly. 
• Great learning experience. This method has a lot of things that help you learn more about Hydroponics in general. 
• This is semi-mobile. Depending on how it is built, it could be very mobile, if you move you growing space around. (Maybe your wife likes to change the look of you basement a lot.) 
• Fairly cheap to build.
• Depending on setup, disease is cut down from other forms of Hydroponics. 
• Saves a significant amount of resources such as water/nutrients. 

Fogponics Disadvantages:

• Dependency on all of the parts working 100% of the time. If anything fails such as a pump, sprinkler, timer, or gets clogged, your plants will suffer, and fast. 
• Regular cleaning and sanitation is required. You have a dark, moist, air prevalent environment, what do you think will happen? Bacterial growth! You must also note, that you have to make sure that your sprinklers are going to need regular cleaning so they do not build up with mineral deposits, and stop  working properly. 
• High maintenance. These systems need almost constant attention. If a fogger fails, well you have mere, few hours to get something in place to resolve the issue.  Plants die very quickly when something wrong happens in a Fogponics system. 
• This system needs to be cleaned often. Since the foggers are creating such sized nutrient solution vapors, you have to make sure that the foggers are clean. Salt buildup is common, and it can stop a system from functioning properly. 
• Roots develop over time smaller, thinner, and weaker than Aeroponics. 

Suggestions for best use: Cloning. Fogponics is very cheap to build, plants grow very fast, they are getting vapors at almost the size of what they need to absorb them. This means that the plant has to work less. You can build a quick easy setup from a rubbermaid storage box, pump, and vaporizer from Ebay as a beginning DIY on the super cheap. 

Keep posted, we will be posting some of our DIY stuff soon. We will outline an entire Fogponics build. 

Different Styles of Hydroponics

There are many different styles of Hydroponics growing. Here are some of the most basic:

• Aquaponics - Aquaponics / Fishpoonics Overview
• DWC (Deep Water Culture) - Deep Water Culture Overview
• TFDWC(Top-fed Deep Water Culture) / Bubbleponics
• Static Solution Culture 
• Continuous-flow Solution Culture
• Aeroponics - Aeroponics Overview
• Passive Sub-Irrigation
• Ebb and Flow / Flood and Drain - Ebb and Flow Overview
• Run to Waste
• Fogponics - Fogponics Overview
• Rotary

As you can see from above, these are the foundation of how the water/nutrient solution is getting to the plants roots systems. There are many different ways to grow plants Hydroponically. There is not necessarily a cut and dry answer for what you should use for your scenario. You will more than likely want to choose a combination that fits what you are growing. 

For example Lettuce works well with almost all of the above styles, but there are some that are better than others. One solution may take up more space than another, or waste a lot of water in comparison to another. 

You will want to weigh the Pros, and Cons of each one prior to making your decision. There are some of these methods more for specific plants than others. For example, bubbleponics is really good for larger plants such as tomatoes, or lemon trees, where as Fogponics is really well suited for cloning purposes. 

Each one of these could have a book written on them separately. 

We will be reviewing each method in more depth here shortly.

Keep an eye out for our later posts explaining each one in more detail.