How much does soilless cultivation generally cost?
Soilless cultivation is a growing technique that does not use natural soil but instead uses a nutrient solution containing the elements essential for plant growth and development to provide nutrition, enabling plants to complete their entire life cycle normally. It greatly expands the space for agricultural production, allowing crops to be grown on barren land, and its development prospects are very broad. Let us take a look below at how much soilless cultivation generally costs!
How much does soilless cultivation generally cost?
Soilless cultivation has the characteristics of small investment and quick results, and the investment is mainly in building greenhouses. The cost of a greenhouse depends on the actual situation; different materials mean different costs. Generally, a bamboo greenhouse costs about 0.5-0.6 yuan per sq m, a steel-pipe greenhouse costs about 0.8-0.9 yuan per sq m, a cement greenhouse costs about 1-1.5 yuan per sq m, and a standard solar greenhouse costs 4-5 yuan per sq m. If vegetables are grown, they can be marketed in one month, with a short cycle and quick results, and a one-time investment brings long-term benefits.
What vegetables can be grown by soilless cultivation?
1. Tomato: Soilless cultivation of tomato is generally carried out in a greenhouse, and this cultivation method can be carried out all year round. Soilless cultivation of tomato in a solar greenhouse can determine the crop rotation schedule according to the specific performance of the greenhouse, generally focusing on winter-spring and early-spring production.
2. Bitter gourd: Bitter gourd is an annual climbing herbaceous plant of the Cucurbitaceae family, with soft hairs on the stems, branches, petioles and pedicels, and axillary tendrils; the conditions required for cultivation are not strict, the growth vigor is strong, the fruit-setting ability is strong, and the harvesting period is long, making it very suitable for soilless cultivation.
3. Eggplant: In recent years, the area of eggplant cultivated using solar greenhouses and plastic greenhouses has been continuously expanding, but due to continuous cropping and repeated planting, diseases, especially soil-borne diseases, occur seriously. The use of soilless cultivation can overcome this problem, and it has gradually become popular in recent years.
4. Ginger: With the traditional planting model of continuous cropping, ginger cannot eliminate the nematodes and ginger blast pathogens remaining in the soil, making it very easy to be infected with ginger blast disease. Once infected with ginger blast disease, a large area of plants will wither and die. The use of soilless cultivation can solve this problem.
5. Cucumber: Cucumber is often harmed by pests and diseases in production, while soilless cultivation can avoid soil-borne pests and diseases and continuous cropping obstacles, and also has the characteristics of reducing pesticide use, increasing crop yield and quality, saving fertilizer and labor, and not being limited by soil fertility conditions.
Advantages of soilless cultivation of vegetables
1. Can increase yield: In soilless cultivation, the various nutrient elements required by crops are artificially prepared into a nutrient solution and applied, and nutrients can be supplied scientifically according to the crop type and the different growth stages of the same crop, so the crops grow robustly and have strong growth vigor.
2. Clean and hygienic environment: Soilless cultivation applies inorganic fertilizers, while soil cultivation applies organic fertilizers; the decomposition and fermentation of fertilizers produce odors that pollute the environment and can also breed the eggs of many pests, harming crops. Therefore, soilless cultivation does not have these problems.
3. Saves water, fertilizer and labor: Soilless cultivation does not require operations such as intertillage, plowing and hoeing, saving effort and labor. Watering and topdressing are solved at the same time, and the liquid supply system provides them regularly and quantitatively, so there is no waste, and management is very convenient, greatly reducing labor intensity.
4. Avoids continuous cropping obstacles: In field planting management of vegetables, reasonable crop rotation and avoiding repeated cropping year after year are one of the important measures to prevent the severe occurrence and spread of diseases. Soilless cultivation, especially the use of hydroponics, fundamentally solves this problem.
5. Not limited by soil: Soilless cultivation completely frees crops from the soil environment and is not limited by soil quality or water conservancy conditions. Many deserts, wastelands or areas difficult to cultivate on Earth can all be utilized by soilless cultivation methods.
6. Fully utilizes space: Soilless cultivation breaks free from the constraints of land, so it can be free from spatial limitations; it can use the flat roofs of urban buildings to grow vegetables and flowers, invisibly expanding the cultivation area, and production can also be carried out according to human will.