I am talking about the article that was published last Saturday in Times of India Newspaper. Page 9. I didn’t read it at first but my friends told me about it. I spent sometime reading and decided to give out my opinion about a promotion advertisement in disguise of an article.
Now, grow your food outside the good earth
Hydroponics Is A Green Method Of Cultivation Without Soil
With a title like this, they ( Institute of Simplified Hydroponics ISH) were able to get every eye on their article. Most of the claims made by the article is questionable. In this post, I am going to dissect the article verbatim and bring out what is so wrong about it.
Hydroponics is a cultivation system isolated from the soil. It is an amazing green technique of growing plants in virtually anything
(a coconut shell, an unwanted suitcase, a bottle, to anything) without soil, chemicals and pesticides.
Agreed. Hydroponics is a system of cultivation without using soil. What I dont understand is “Green technique”. What is so green about hydroponics? Also, Hydroponics doesn’t guarantee a pest free crop. Without chemicals? All the nutrients that ISH sell/sold are chemicals. Pests love healthy plants and it doesn’t matter we grow in soil or water or even air.
Cultivation requires no land, and very little water is lost to evaporation, therefore plants require only 25% of the water compared to the conventional soil. The yield is higher by 30%. Also, the crop is not affected by pests, weeds and diseases, as soil is the origin for most of the microbial attacks.
The above statement is not completely true. “Very little evaporation” depends on how your farm/garden is setup. If you are ready to setup a greenhouse/polyhouse/shadehouse then you can control water loss through evaporation but that setting up doesn’t come cheap.
30% more yield..? again subjective. Hydroponics is a art of growing plants in water/aggregate with a controlled environment where precision is everything.Without precision, you cannot get 30% more yield. WIthout proper supervision, it will become a flopshow.
Like I said before, the pests don’t know that we are growing in hydroponics, they will affect any plant. Soil is just one reason for pests.Its not the only cause.
Cdr (retd) C V Prakash, founder & CEO of the Institute of Simplified Hydroponics (ISH) in India, says it is a purely green technology, and no chemicals are used at any phase of growing vegetables. “We are talking about producing hygienic, safe food, not compromising its natural nutrients and vitamin properties, and without infusing contaminated elements, chemicals, toxins or lead. Today, in most cases, eating vegetables and leafy greens means stuffing a human body with explosives.’’
This is so not true. Also, I don’t understand the term purely green technology.It says, No chemicals are used at any phase of growing vegetables. This is absolutely false information. Hydroponics is all about using chemicals to provide what the plants need.Plants need Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Iron, Copper, Boron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Zinc etc. Atleast, the “Hydroponics” that ISH train people on use chemicals like Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Potassium Nitrate, Mono-potassium Phosphate, Potassium Sulfate and much more. Having bought nutrients from ISH I don’t agree with the fact that they don’t add chemicals.
Practicing hydroponics is expensive. If you want more yield than what you get from Land, then definitely you need spend a lot more. If you are practicing “Simplified Hydroponics”, your yield will also be simplified. It is definitely not an ideal weapon to fight poverty in countries like India.
gg
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Very Good Sir!
You have boldly published your comments on ISH about hydroponics. Your comment is to be really appreciated. Unless there is somebody to give such bold comments, the people who read about the hydroponics technolocy will mis understand that it is a great way for growing plants and getting good yield. Nice work. Please try sending e-mails about this wrong publishment of ISH to all your contacts.
Regards,
Uma
Hello Uma,
Thanks. Hydroponics is indeed a a good technique to grow veggies. I dont deny that fact. What I was against was how the article was totally misleading.
gg
Hi GG,
great site and lots of information. I got interested in Hydroponics after reading that article in TOI and started looking for information on the net and that led me to your site. Your review on ISH training has saved me a lot of trouble and money. I am currently setting up a simple hydroponics system. still trying to figure out how to make the nutrient solution. Is it a good idea to get all the chemicals and mix them up or use something available off the shelf like these..
> 1. Mangala BIO liquid nutrient (Contains NPK and micro nutrients for growth)
> 2. Mangala 3X liquid nutrient (Contains NPK and micro nutrients for blooming and fruiting)
> 3. Mangala Calmex (Calcium boost supplement with micro nutrients)
> 4. Mangala Sulphomax (Sulphur without micro nutients.
Thanks & regards
Kishore
@Kishore,
Thanks. I looked at the list you mentioned and it will be interesting to try them out to see if they can be used instead of mixing nutes ourselves. One problem I see in using off the shelf nutrient is their composition. They have N P K almost in equal proportion and sometimes in the growth of a plant, you need to have control over these. You don’t want too much nitrogen during the flowering or fruiting phase. Just my 2 cents.
Let me know where in bangalore we have these available. I might want to try them out sometime
gg
hi gg,
The liquid nutrients are available in Lalbagh. As you mentioned it is difficult to keep a track of the individual nutrients, but for freshers this is a simple way to begin experimenting with hydroponics as they are available in 250ml bottles and all of them can be purchased under 500 Rs.
Best wishes
kishore
C.V. Prakash of ISH is obviously misleading the public by making FALSE CLAIMS about Hydroponics – especially by saying that NO CHEMICALS are being used. Or if i have to give him the benefit of doubt – he is COMPLETELY IGNORANT about the subject. Either way he is DOING GREAT HARM to the environment and also MISLEADING THE PUBLIC by his FALSE CLAIMS of solving the problems of scarce water and land resources. THIS IS RUBBISH!
hey guys .
c.v prakash is all over the net .i was searching information on commercial hydroponics and this what i find
http://www.optimusinterweave.com/contact_us_10.html.
guess what i dint stop there .i wanted to find out how true it is ,since im in the night shifts in software firm ,its easier for me to call usa numbers .i called the person alicia asking her info about hydroponics SHE SAID SHE HAS NO CLUE WHY HER NAME IS UP ON THE WEBSITE .!!!!!!what hell!! he is CHEAT!!!!!!!!! he thinks nobody in india will call usa numbers or what ?
and then she mailed me prakash’s mail id .
Agree Agree, but friends lets for a moment forget the subjected individual person and talk about the technology : Hydroponic Farming…….if done is right manner, I mean strictly controlled manner in a very proffesional way with the right professionals with regards to in direction of commercial exploitation of this Hydroponic Farming , do you think it will fail in India? if you think it will fail, kindly give some solid reason.
If USA, UK, JAPAN, KOREA, MANY COUNTRIES OF EUROPE, AUSTRALIA AND EVEN UAE CAN DO IT, WHY CANT WE, IS IT NOT FEASIBLE TO DO IN INDIA ?
Hi Pratap,
Thanks for the comment.
None of us are saying that Hydroponics is not feasible in India. It is just not feasible the way it is mentioned in the article. The article makes Hydroponic look too simple which it is NOT. I myself have a small hydroponic garden and I know people who have reasonably sized hydroponic garden. I am taking few words from your comment, ‘done in right manner’, ‘strictly controlled manner’, ‘professional way with right professionals’. All this doesn’t come cheap. Even with so much planning, precision and strategies, one of the biggest hydroponic Farm in US EuroFresh filed for Bankruptcy.
The point was that the article is describing hydroponics as what it is not. There is nothing about any individual here.
gg
Pratap has mentioned USA, UK, JAPAN, KOREA, MANY COUNTRIES OF EUROPE, AUSTRALIA and UAE who he believes are into Hydroponics farming in a BIG WAY. It is NOT ‘entirely’ TRUE! It is a VERY TINY proportion in comparison to conventional farming. India is essentially an Agricultural economy. We should be very careful about using CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS indiscriminately. Besides being very expensive these salts could damage the soil. Hence we should focus our energies in areas that help us REDUCE the need for fertilizers and pesticides. Hydroponics is not needed in India at this stage. It is meant for countries that have very little arable land or unsuitable climatic conditions – DRY DESERTS and COLD REGIONS.
Dear Friends,
Myself is mech engineer. Pl help me to understand that do this techniue really works; can we able to produce more organics
Hi Gurwant,
Hydroponics works if you follow precision in all that you do. There are plenty of materials in the internet. Check it out.
gg
Sir
I was about to join the course on hydroponics offered by ISH but avoided the pitfall since i read reports that ISH was cheating people. Educated persons too fall by the sweet talk of ISH.
Hi geekgardener ,
I need to speak to you regarding this. Can you maill me your cell # on rohitvaswani2@gmail.com.
Thanks
Just sent you an email.