Can maincrop potatoes grow in soil-less environment?

[kr3t3n]

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

Hello kr3t3n,
No your not irritating me at all, that's what forums are for, asking questions and sharing what you know. I can't always reply right away as I am quite busy these days. Sometimes I may even forget to get back to it when I have more time, but I enjoy trying to help people.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "using plastic grill (for weight support) under foam for growbed media?" Are you referring to same aeroponic system your planing for potatoes, or another type of system and or plants? Anything that comes in contact with the water/nutrients should be some type of plastic. If it doesn't come in contact with the water/nutrients, then you can use just about any material to support the system with.

Imagine something like that: https://sc01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1ByiNF...Xq6xXFXXXn.jpg

With better spacing and hole dimensions, to fit the spacing required for the foliage growth as well as to accommodate the growbed. The whole thing would be light isolated with foam and foil (non-toxic) and the tubers would grow in the air in a plastic container.

Do you have any predictions for root maximum length? I guess it won't be a good idea to let the roots reach the bottom of the container as there would always be a pool of water and they would rot?

[GpsFrontier]

Hello kr3t3n,
Yes I understood what you meant by a plastic grill, but not sure how you meant you wanted to use it, or purpose it served. If your trying to replace the plastic netting with the plastic grill, your going to wind up with the same problem. The roots will still become intertwined with the plastic grill and be impossible to separate when you wanted to harvest a potato. If you try harvesting a potato and leave the cut roots attached, the dead roots will just feed pathogens and cause disease. To keep that from happening the only option would be harvest the whole plant, clean the system out and start new plants.

You will have roots all the way to the bottom for sure. You would have to build it 2-3 stories tall to keep all the roots from reaching the bottom. Roots don't rot because their wet or submerged. They rot because of suffocation. With the water/nutrients raining down from sprinkler heads and circulating back to the reservoir, as well as fresh air getting into the root zone there will be plenty of dissolved oxygen in the water to keep the roots from suffocating.

[kr3t3n]

Originally Posted by GpsFrontier

Hello kr3t3n,
Yes I understood what you meant by a plastic grill, but not sure how you meant you wanted to use it, or purpose it served. If your trying to replace the plastic netting with the plastic grill, your going to wind up with the same problem. The roots will still become intertwined with the plastic grill and be impossible to separate when you wanted to harvest a potato. If you try harvesting a potato and leave the cut roots attached, the dead roots will just feed pathogens and cause disease. To keep that from happening the only option would be harvest the whole plant, clean the system out and start new plants.

You will have roots all the way to the bottom for sure. You would have to build it 2-3 stories tall to keep all the roots from reaching the bottom. Roots don't rot because their wet or submerged. They rot because of suffocation. With the water/nutrients raining down from sprinkler heads and circulating back to the reservoir, as well as fresh air getting into the root zone there will be plenty of dissolved oxygen in the water to keep the roots from suffocating.

My idea of using the plastic grid is to put the growbeds on it and the plastic strength to support the weight of the plants. It is not for under the roots but above them.

If I don't need to worry about roots reaching the bottom of the container (generally, not only for potatoes), what root area height, width, depth should I plan for each potato plant?

My latest idea is for a vertical box with balconies at certain heights (to allow for the foliage to grow without competition) with the growbeds while the container itself is completely isolated from light, with side opening and the plastic grid acting as surface to place the growbeds on, which will support the weight of the growing potatoes.

[kr3t3n]

I just realized you are the website owner of homehydrosystems.com! I use a lot of the info on your website, thanks a lot for taking the time to put it all together!