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ryan_moseby

Hydroponics as a career?

ryan.moseby
9 years ago

Hey guys!

I'm considering studying horticulture with the idea of going into hydroponics either working at a hydroponic farm or starting my own.

Do you guys know of any good horticulture/hydroponic courses? Or if you work in hydroponics would you recommend any other courses? I've studied computer programming.. Not sure if there would be any demand for software developers at hydro farms.

Have a good one
Cheers

Comments (8)

  • Rio_Grande
    9 years ago

    Purdue university has a very reputable program for horticulture.

  • PupillaCharites
    9 years ago

    You need to be good with math, but other than that, computer programming is not going to be first on the list. My view of a person who is becomes established in hydro as a profession - take a few courses on plant physiology at a good place, get a job at one of the companies selling the equipment and installations, and then work for 10 years in someone else's big operation to be exposed to 1001 different types of problems and solutions, but go home each night and sleep soundly knowing the worst that could happen is your boss could lose his farm.

    Then after putting in the 10 years either try to consult to wealthy folk looking for public relations, but who've never farmed a day in their life and want to tell the local community that they will lead it into the next century of food production.

    If no deep pockets are around and you still dream of being a professional farmer with cool toys, then take out a second mortgage, get a plot of land and start a hydroponic farm.

    If you think I'm a little sarcastic, it is only because you haven't been burned. I have 20 years into chemistry including research and marketing of seeds, and was eyeing doing just that with strawberries. There is one cool model hydroponic farm not too far from me which got built with help to start out from the company of the guy who basically commercialized the fertilizers we are all using. They did strawberries ... and look at their most recent post on their website :-(. I bet that hurt me almost as much as them.

    Brock has a great idea, bro! Have a beer with my favorite hydro youtuber some time. I'm convinced this is the attitude of someone who could actually make some money at this if he wanted.

    Hydroponics can be so, so rewarding as an activity, but as a farmer, a lot of very hard work and risk, frequently worse that dirt farming.

    This post was edited by PupillaCharites on Thu, Apr 24, 14 at 16:04

  • ryan.moseby
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    @PupillaCharites. Thanks for your reply.

    I do agree that hydro farming can be a lot of hard work and even more risk. And I can see how people can easily view such a business venture with the idea that it will be the same as their backyard hydroponic hobby. Not so rewarding when things start to go bad. I'm not going to be blind to that.

    I do however think that if you're going to take 10 years to get a hang of all the problems and solutions in hydroponics it's probably not for you. I do understand from speaking to other growers that it can be a steep learning curve if you want to do it commercially.

    Here in South Africa we have plenty of sun. The last time I saw snow here was about 15 years ago which lasted for a day. But hydroponics is not really popular here and people don't seem know much about it.

    Really appreciate the advice

    Cheers

  • robert_1943
    9 years ago

    Hi Ryan, when I lived in South Africa some years ago , very close to the Johannasburg airport they were growing tomatos in bags of gravel with a drip system, to waste,which was a commercial venture and from reports very successful.

    I know that Johannasburg can get very dry and a drip system would work well in your climate.

  • ryan.moseby
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    @Robert.1943. Awesome! I'd like to try something similar but with coco peat. I'm 35mins from OR tambo airport.

    I'm also really interested in the Auto pot hydroponic system. But if you're looking at more than a thousand modules it gets pricey. I see you're from Aussie. Those guys know their stuff when it comes to Hydroponics. All you see on youtube.

    Do you farm there?

  • robert_1943
    9 years ago

    Ryan Moseby thanks for your kind words, I am an amatuer hydroponic grower that has been playing around for 40 years , both in our southern city of Melbourne which can get pretty cold in winter , to now living in Brisbane which is sub tropical , which is now Autumn or Fall as our USA friends call it. The daytime temperatures are about 27 to 28C and night time to about 15 to 17C, which makes for year around growing.I know that Johannasburg can get fairly cold and very dry which is very similar to our southern climate of Melbourne..There are so many methods of hydroponics and yet each day I see new ways of growing , so we are still in a developing stage of hydroponics. I started out using the old way of buying bags of all the nutrients and mixing, then on to the pre packaged liquid nutrients, and now in the last few months have gone back to the A and B dry nutrients which is fun. I see the USA method is so different to what we use in Brisbane , with Deep Water Culture, air stones , bubblers , heaters , special lights etc, , living in a sub tropical climate means that we do not have to use any of these forms of growing. I spend time talking to my supplier of hydroponic supplier when I mention all of these USA ideas and he laughs , and explains that in our climate it is not the way to go. However in your cool and dry climate some points may be gleaned from our American friends. I remember my first day of arrival in Jo Burg and it was -5 c which is pretty cold, so I think some thoughts from other parts of southern Australia or northern USA may be applicable.
    Good luck and keep up your postings and progress so that we can all share and learn from, as I mentioned earlier just when we think we know it all , some new idea comes along for us to think about or adopt.

  • robert_1943
    9 years ago

    Ryan Moseby , as an add on to my previous comments, many hydroponic suppliers have added a large space dedicated of their business around to Aquaponics , I called into my supplier yesterday and they had crowds of people young and old who were enquiring about this popular form of gardening, so much so they have designer gardens with all types of plants including vegetables , but very nice as an adjunct to the regular garden that is not just a very austere form of garden but a pleasant , attractive garden any one would be proud to have , with the fish, and attractive foliage I can see why this form of gardening is gaining immense popularity.Some of these gardens are based on a large moulded fish pond with plants covering all the external moulded areas giving a very natural garden, producing both plants and fish.

  • ryan.moseby
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi Robert.

    You've touched on something that is really one of the things that fascinates me about gardening. Even if you get the right system for your type of climate there are so many different variables to take into account. That makes it interesting for me cause if I look at the work I'm doing now there's not really any external force affecting it. I can always expect a consistent result. The instructions that I program today will most probably (with some small exceptions) execute the same way tomorrow.

    The first time I heard about Aquaponics was when I saw a video by a guy called Murry Hallam. That really made a lot of sense and I enjoyed learning about it cause I've always viewed Hydroponics with more of a "lab" style of growing where Aquaponics touches more on permaculture and symbiotic relations. That seems more natural to me. So I hope to get there eventually but would rather focus on getting the hang of hydroponics before I get into that.

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