Presenter(s): Cristoff Ligon
Co Presenter(s): Gavin Bradley
Faculty Mentor(s): Sarah Stoeckl
Poster 176
Session: Environmental Leaders ARC
During the Winter 2019 term and the Spring 2019 term, the Community of Environmental Leaders hydroponics team has been hard at work building and maintaining hydroponics systems in the University of Oregon GrowPod. Hydroponics is an easy and cheap growing method that does not require the use of soil to raise plants, more specifically food such as leafy greens, mint or any other edible plant organically and with a minimal impact to the environment. The hydroponics team built three Deep Water Cultures in order to grow lettuce, mint and tomatoes. We used five-gallon buckets, small air pumps, plastic baskets and finally Growrock, a lightweight, expanded clay aggregate as the growing medium. Our result was beautiful, lush and not to mention delicious leaves of lettuce and will most likely result in tomatoes and mint in the near future. Hydroponics can easily be integrated into any home as it is inexpensive, easy to maintain, very sustainable, and requires little knowledge of how to grow food traditionally. This will inspire and educate people to add hydroponics into their home so they can achieve a smaller carbon footprint and live a more sustainable life.