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Watch Here: How to Germinate the Plants

NFT Channel Urban Farm

The Whys and the Hows

Why Lano?

With access to specialised equipment like PAR meters, oscilloscopes, Spectrum measuring globes that are the size of a small room. Our focus has primarily been R&D into decreasing Operational Costs.

How are we the most efficient?

Because of our vast experience and reach we have been able to work very closely with clients. This has enabled to us make customised lighting solutions from soil-based terrace kitchen gardens to supplemental lighting in polyhouses.

How are our products so economical?

We believe that every product needs to have a certain value addition and that value addition needs to make up for the cost of the product over time. We have meticulously worked with our raw material suppliers and used production strategies that allow us to keep the prices low and the warranty high.

Quality Assurance

Every product of ours is covered under warranty. For the GrowKit it being a conditional warranty of 1 year. Our 9AM-9PM 365 days helpline is there to assisst you for everything and anything hydroponics. We will handhold you through the growing process making sure that you grow and so do we with you. Lettuce know your concerns at +919876519966 Call or WhatsApp.

BASICS OF HYDROPONICS

FAQ

Q1. Plants that grow in hydroponics are healthier ?

Healthier food can be obtained through closed loop water recirculation system of hydroponics as these systems can be monitored to provide effective nutrition to the plants directly. It has been proven that plants grown hydroponically have up to 50% higher vitamin content than conventional farm produce.

Q2. Does Hydroponics system conserve water ?

Saving water through agriculture is an important method to conserve water and replenish the water
table- hydroponics can save 20 times more water than organic farming methods.

Q3. Do we use pesticides in hydroponic system ?

No pesticides are used in Hydroponics. We use Hydrogen Peroxide to get rid offungus and keep the setup clean to avoid pests.

Q4. Is hydroponics a form of organic farming ?

No, if we go by the traditional definition of organic farming, it entails the use of healthy soil and biological fertilizers and pesticides. Hydroponics on the other hand is a soil- less technique that relies on nutrient
solutions to provide all of the plant nutrition and these nutrients may come from organic sources but they are usually refined mineral fertilizers (which is not a bad thing!). Even though hydroponics is a more efficient option for growing food (vertical hydroponic systems can
produce up to 240 times more food in a given area than traditional farming methods!)
The process of organic farming and hydroponics mainly differs on the basis of medium of growth and type of nutrients used. Hydroponics is described as the process of growing plants in water without the use of soil, while organic farming involves eliminating the use of inorganic/ chemical fertilizers in a conventional farming set- up.
The yield from a hydroponic setup can be 240 times greater than organic farming with vertical integration and can be attained 30- 50% faster than open field farming methods where weather and soil conditions play a major role in crop growth cycles.

Questions for nutrients

FAQ

Q1. Are these nutrients made from chemicals ?

Yes, all high quality plant nutrition has been synthetic since the green revolution, the harmful
chemicals that one generally associates with agriculture are pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and other hundreds of hostile chemicals that may be harmful to some form of organic life. High quality fertilizers are safe to grow with and eat through the plant, they also don’t pollute the agricultural land as other hostile chemicals do. Because, we are practicing fully controlled Hydroponic farming there will be no need for hostile chemicals as mentioned.

Q2. Wouldn’t mixing the Nutrients together be dangerous ?

No, mixing the nutrients together in their diluted form as instructed will not cause any unwanted reactions. Although, mixing them in a concentrated form might cause chelation which may destroy
the bio availability of the nutrient.

Q3. What if I give the plants more nutrients will it grow faster ?

Giving your plant more than the desired amount of nutrients will literally cause it to burn. This
phenomenon is known as Nutrient Burn and generally can be noticed by the drying leaf tips at the
edges of your plant.

Q4. What all applications can the nutrients be used for ?

These nutrients work best with all soil-less growing techniques, you can also use them in conventional
soil based agriculture as a soil booster.

Q6. Do these nutrients require pH calibration ?

It is always recommended to calibrate your reservoir’s pH accordingly, but the nutrients themselves have been designed to maintain pH around 6.5 most times.

Q7. What all hydroponic systems can you use them for ?

These nutrients work with all hydroponic and other soil-less systems due to their 100 percent water solubility rate.

Q8. Why are the nutrients provided in such small quantities ?

The nutrients provided to you have been researched on by experienced growers and are our houseblend
of the most potent and bio available form of plant nutrients due to such high levels of bio availability your
plants will make more with less.

Q9. After how many days are you supposed to add more nutrient ?

You can add nutrients by correlating the reading on your TDS meter to the desired nutrient required by
the plant during the particular growth stage. This information is available on our blogs and in the growing section of this manual. Generally the dosing time for a hydroponic system will be between 5-10 days.

Q10. How long will these nutrients last?

The nutrients have been formulated to have a dose 1ml/l so 100ml of concentrate solution will make a
very potent 100 litre nutrient solution.

Q11. How long will these nutrients last in their concentrate form?

These nutrients will last over two years in their concentrate form. So please don’t procrastinate and leave
these in your cupboard for more than two years.

Q12. Will these nutrients produce organic food?

There are a lot of other parameters one needs to take care of to grow organic foods, firstly all yourproduce should be seasonal and local so that they are more resistant to the environment. You willalso need to grow in soil totally free from pesticides which is not possible because of ground waterleeching. The produce you grow will be more dependent on your growing method than the nutrientsused. Ironically, as plants DO NOT uptake organic nutrients directly, in hydroponics we provide themthe most bioavailable form of the nutrients which are provided in their purest elemental form. As thereare no good or bad Calcium Nitrate molecules you do not need to worry if the nutrients will harm you other plants.

Q13. What type of nutrients are used in hydroponics?

Only the Essential Nutrients required by the plant are used in hydroponics and given directly via a closed loop water recirculation system, these are categorised into 2 main types :
Primary Macro :
Nitrogen(N), Phosporus(P), Potassium(K).
Secondary Macro :
Calcium(Ca), Magnesium(Mg), Sulphur(S)
Micro :
Carbon(C), Hydrogen(H), Oxygen(O), Iron(Fe), Manganese(Mn), Zinc(Zn), Boron(B), Molybdenum(Mo),
Chlorine(Cl), Copper(Cu) and Nickel(Ni)

Questions for growlights

FAQ

Q1. Do we use the same colour of light for both vegetative and flowering growth?

As both the processes are part of separate growth events in a plant’s life cycle, it is best to use lights with
specific wavelength and colours- as suited to that particular phase, to get the best results at harvest.
Blue light stimulates vegetative growth of the plant whereas Red light stimulates flowering and fruiting.

Q2. Can we use Incandescent Bulbs in hydroponics?

Regular incandescent bulbs are no longer used for indoor growing setups as they don’t produce an ideal light spectrum required for plant growth and instead give off too much heat that can burn tender foliage.

Q3. Which type of light is most economical for hydroponics?

Given that the duration of keeping the lights on in a hydroponic setup can be anywhere between 18 to 24
hours, LED bulbs are the most economical option. Power efficient bulbs like LEDs play a very important role in cutting down the running cost of a hydroponic system. They use half the electricity and last 5 times
longer even though they cost a bit more up front than fluorescent bulbs.
Fluorescent lights are relatively affordable and may be a good choice if you grow fewer plants. These comprise of a very low pressure mercury gas discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light- creating a risk of mercury poisoning and difficult to dispose. These are better suited to grow seedlings
and cuttings or plants with low light requirements, but do not help with flowering stages as they do not emit much red light.

Q4. Why do we prefer GrowLights to normal sunlight ?

GrowLights are preferred over sunlight in a few scenarios such as: places with lack of extended periods of
sunlight, people who do not have outdoor spaces such as gardens, lawns, etc. and for proper commercial
hydroponic/ aeroponic set-ups, to name a few.
GrowLights, as the name suggests, help with the efficient growth of a plant under a controlled environment.
Seedlings require lots of bright light devoid of which, they become weak and leggy, in most cases even the
sunniest windows won't provide the intensity or duration of light they need- especially in winters.

Q5. What is the difference in growth rate between high output LED and sunlight?

If done properly, there should be no difference in the growth rate of a plant. It has been seen that in case of LEDs, the optimal wavelength should be changed according to the type of plant- a combination of blue
and red light works better for increase in plant height and leaf area.

Q6 What should be the duration of keeping the lights switched on?

Commercial farmers prefer to keep the lights on for a full 24 hours for maximum output. In case this is
not feasible, the most popular duration used is 18 hours on and 6 hours off- this mimics a natural day
light cycle with an induced dark period which can actually trigger certain plants to flower. Turning the
lights off can also help with lowering the electricity cost.

Q7. Which type of light is most environment friendly?

LED lights are most environment friendly as they offer a long service life and high energy efficiency as
compared to other lighting options currently available. These are also mercury- free and the tubes don't
shatter like the fluorescent glass tubes, creating lesser toxic landfill waste.