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What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is a method of gardening that grows plants in nutrient-infused water instead of soil. This technique allows plants to grow faster, use less water, and produce higher yields than traditionally grown plants.

Hydrogrow Project Overview

Traditional soil-based gardening uses too much water and does not optimize plant growth speeds or yields. Hydroponic solutions address these problems, however they require considerable supervision and maintenance.

Our solution is Hydrogrow, an automated hydroponics system that uses an ebb and flow setup. In this setup, the nutrients and pH solution are pumped into a reservoir and the water is circulated to and from the grow trays. In the Hydrogrow system, sensors detect when there is a nutrient depletion or pH imbalance and the system automatically adds the appropriate solutions to the reservoir. Then, it circulates the water from the reservoir to the trays and back on user-defined intervals. The pH and nutrient levels and watering frequencies are defined by the user on a web interface. The web interface also displays system data.

Hydrogrow Project Purpose

Our team is continuing the work of Paul Suess and Jose Torres: two OSU students who began creating a hydroponic system for ECE Senior Design in 2018/19. Paul Suess is our client and has tasked us with updating their existing ebb and flow design. He hopes that the system will be automated, modular, and easy to use.

Our team wants the hydroponic system to successfully grow house plants with minimal supervision, minimal maintenance, and minimal water. These goals are important because the system may be placed in a local greenhouse, so it needs to be as reliable and user-friendly as possible.

This project also serves as a major learning opportunity. It will allow us to learn about a range of disciplines, such as analog design, embedded design, wireless networking, mechanical design, and horticulture. Additionally, it will give us experience with working in teams on a long-term engineering project. Therefore, working on this project will improve our communication, research, critical thinking and problem solving abilities.