How to grow potatoes hydroponically at home

Growing potatoes is hard work. You have to carry heavy bags and buckets, dig and dig, loosen and huddle, weed and spray, and you also need to collect beetles.

But where are we without potatoes? Without it, lunch is not dinner and a holiday is not a holiday. Therefore, we take this hard, almost hard labor, for granted, as payment for the pleasure of taste. 

In stores, it is not often possible to buy a decent product. And it will cost a lot. 

A few years ago it was hard to believe that potatoes could be harvested not in the ground, but literally in the open air.

Is it possible to grow potatoes hydroponically

Today, you can often hear more and more about growing potatoes hydroponically, and using different methods. It is cultivated on pallets on an industrial scale and grown in indoor indoor grow boxes, probably more for sporting purposes.

Both early maturing and late varieties are suitable for planting. For example, “Nikita”, “Lazurit”, “Fresco” – early, “Atlant”, “Lugovskoy”, “Belorussky” – later.

Common tubers are used as planting material. You can grow potatoes from shoots. For this, the potatoes are taken out, washed, laid out in a well-lit place. They are waiting for the tubers to sprout and the sprouts to take root.

Young seedlings are carefully separated from the tubers and planted one at a time in the substrate. This method will require more meticulousness, but it is more economical, since 4-8 full-fledged potato bushes can be obtained from one tuber.

How to grow potatoes hydroponically at home

It is not difficult to grow potatoes hydroponically from seed. Packages with seeds of various varieties are sold in the Semena stores. The seeds are planted in foam rubber sheets. It is convenient to cut it to the size of the existing installation.

By growing potatoes from seeds, you will get new full-fledged pure varieties for planting at home or on your personal plot.

Stepwise breeding:

  1. Step one.

    We plant potatoes, germinated seeds or sprouts obtained from the eyes in individual pots filled with 0,8 – 1 kg of substrate.

  2. Step Two.

    20 days, vigorous growth of foliage, intense illumination for 16 hours.

  3. Step three.

    Day 20-55 – flowering, tuber formation.

  4. Step four.

    On the hundredth day of the harvest. Up to 10 full-fledged tubers are formed on each bush.

The need for nutrients in potatoes, oddly enough, is not so high in comparison with other plants. The solution should contain slightly less nitrogen and slightly more phosphorus than usual. 

You need to carefully monitor the sufficient amount of potassium, which is vital for potatoes. Its percentage is the same as nitrogen.

Magnesium, calcium, manganese and boron are essential for the plant, but in relatively small quantities. So calcium will be required four times less than potassium, magnesium – 50 mg per liter of solution. During the period of active growth, additional iron will be needed. The acidity of the solution should be lowered – pH 5,5.

With this ratio, potato tops will grow less, and the plant will direct all its forces to the formation and quality of tubers. 

In the first month, the concentration of the solution should be halved. Then this solution is drained, the substrate is thoroughly washed with clean water. Up to 12 weeks, potatoes are served as usual. Then, up to technical ripeness, they again give twice diluted food, but already twice a day, since a lot of moisture is needed to build up root crops.

180 liters for the preparation of the solution will be required for a standard planting.

The water must circulate as quickly as possible.

The first time the nutrient solution is served at 8 am, the second time at 11 am. Then, in the hot part of the day, the potatoes will feel good. 

In principle, any hydroponic nutrient mixture can be used. The main thing is not to overdo it. With an excessive concentration, the yield and taste will decrease. Root vegetables can acquire a sour taste.

How to grow potatoes hydroponically at home

During normal cultivation, often due to strong thickening, potato bushes do not receive enough light and air. Plants become vulnerable to many diseases. Potatoes, by the way, are very prone to them.

With progressive cultivation, the risk of fungus and rot is minimized.

There is an opinion that hydroponics can create ideal conditions for potatoes. And here are ten reasons:

  • All the necessary substances and trace elements can be added to the nutrient solution with an accuracy of hundredths.
  • The technology allows you to adjust the composition of the solution depending on the stage of growth.
  • The ability to constantly disinfect the solution in order to avoid many dangerous diseases that potatoes are susceptible to.
  • Increased process purity. The tubers themselves are practically clean during harvesting.
  • The possibility of mechanical damage to tubers during harvesting is excluded.
  • The ability to grow from seeds, keep pure varieties, breed new ones to increase the yield.
  • Accelerated ripening and lack of off-season, thanks to which you can get four crops per year.
  • The small cultivation area is achieved due to the multi-tiered plantings.
  • The technology does not imply heavy physical manual labor.
  • Actual economic efficiency of cultivation and high labor productivity.

Hydroponic potato growing methods

There are many classifications of hydroponic systems for growing plants without a soil method. Basic methods:

  • Aquatic culture. Crops take root in a small amount of substrate. On a grid or cassette, plants are immersed in a pan filled with circulating, flowing nutrient solution. This is the oldest way.
  • Substrate culture. Plant roots are in a substrate saturated with a nutrient solution. Water saturation is carried out by periodic flooding, capillary or conventional irrigation. The most common and convenient method for home use.
  • Aerial culture – aeroponics. Plants do not need a substrate. In the container where the roots are located, a nutritious liquid is sprayed to the consistency of a mist.

How to grow potatoes hydroponically at home

The first method is contraindicated for potatoes, since the roots and tubers will simply rot from the constant stay in the solution. The next two have worked well in the process.

On pallets

The technology of growing potatoes on pallets will require the use of containers of at least 30 cm. 

First, the box is filled with vermiculite with a 15 cm layer. Tubers prepared for cultivation are planted into it to a depth of 7,5 cm. The distance between potatoes is 20-23 cm.

As the bushes grow and develop, the substrate is poured, which replaces the usual hilling procedure.

It is vermiculite that suits potatoes better than other fillers. This natural thermal insulation material does not heat up. It maintains the optimum temperature for the tubers.

Generally growing will require warm daytime and cool nighttime temperatures. During the day, the process of photosynthesis will occur more intensively, at night it is better to form starchy tubers.

Aero hydroponics method

It is based on the supply of a nutrient solution by irrigation – spraying a finely dispersed solution onto the plant. The nutrients flow down, are absorbed by the roots in the right amount, the excess is collected in a tray and can be used again.

With this method, no substrate is required for the growing conditions of potatoes. This technology is being actively mastered. Perhaps, it has a great future in agricultural technology. But on an industrial scale, this method has not become widespread due to the high cost of the process.

How to grow potatoes hydroponically at home

Hydroponics dramatically reduces the time and effort required to plant, care and harvest. At the same time, the yield and quality of the resulting product increases several times.

Today, smart crop production methods are being used more and more. They fully justify themselves in small farms, they are applicable in the conditions of an ordinary apartment.

Unbelievable, but it is a fact! If the process technology is observed, a ton of tubers can be grown on an area of ​​only 1/3 square meter per year. At the same time, the family will every day receive 2,5-3 kg of fresh young potatoes to the table, which will not differ in taste, and may even surpass the usual soil.

You can bookmark this page

Anna Evans

Author ✓ Farmer

View all posts by Anna Evans →