Although hydroculture has already existed for several
centuries, recycling of the nutritive solution has only been foreseen in some
cultures for approximately 20 years. I have been working in the hydrocultural
field since 1977 and mainly in the culture of endives as an independent international
technician since 1985.
The great characteristic of endives is that a cycle lasts 21 days and that each installation counts several individual irrigating circuits. Therefore, in one farm only, there are up to 16 rotations of culture/year and up to more than 200 full independent cycles of production over one year.
The fact of simultaneously dealing with farms having extremely different histories
and duties in various areas (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sardinia,
Israel, Argentina, California, ...) enables me to adapt cultural conditions
to a great variety of encountered cases. This multiplicity of varied individual
cases and complicated problems make me have exceptional experience in the
management of hydroponic culture and recycling of water. This experience can
also be extrapolated to all hydroponic cultures.
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The recommended technique leads to the following
advantages:
- an important reduction of the health contamination (by making water a decontaminating
element);
- the setting of different sectors to adapt the control conditions at the
stage of the established culture;
- the management of the fertilization to avoid undesired mineral accumulations;
- an important reduction of the water and fertilizer consumption, and consequently,
avoiding of a sizeable rejection which is the source of environmental pollution.
That is commonly knowledge that culture under glass strongly disturbs the ground water and the subsoil. It is particularly the case in Southern Spain and Morocco. To ensure perenniality of the activities, it would be imperative to set up the water recycling from the cultures. From this angle, my experience of nearly 25 years in the field of hydroponic culture of endives is appropriate for a close cooperation with any company or organization willing to meet the objective of parsimonious use of water in agriculture.
Therefore, Hydro-Chic will be happy to take part in any public or private project aiming to study, set up and follow any initiative linked to water recycling in the entire farm-produce sector in all affected world areas.
