REVERSE OSMOSIS
Reverse osmosis (RO) is a water purification process that uses a partially permeable membrane to separate ions, unwanted molecules and larger particles from drinking water. The result is that the solute is retained on the pressurized side of the membrane and the pure solvent is allowed to pass to the other side. Reverse Osmosis has been used by several cutting edge industries to build optimum treatment system for water purification. Those treatment systems are used for commercial, residential and industrial applications.
HYDROPONICS
Hydroponics is the art of gardening without soil. Hydroponics is a Latin word meaning “working water.” In the absence of soil, water goes to work providing nutrients, hydration, and oxygen to plant life. From watermelons to jalapenos to orchids, plants flourish under the careful regimen of hydroponics. Using minimal space, 90% less water than traditional agriculture, and ingenious design: hydroponic gardens grow beautiful fruits and flowers in half the time. There are six types of hydroponics available as of now. These systems use cutting edge technology and are a bit expensive which is considered to be one the major con of the price. Since the soil pollution is on rise, hydroponic technology is booming.
HOW IS HYDROPONICS RELATED TO RO?
One of the most common practices in hydroponics is to use reverse osmosis (RO) water in order to create your hydroponic nutrient solutions. This water is made by running another water source – most commonly tap water – through a reverse osmosis system that removes a very large portion of the ions within the initial water source.
The idea behind using RO water is to have the best “base” for the construction of a nutrient solution. If your water starts up with some substances within it, then the amount of control you have over composition is limited and therefore your results might suffer because of that.
If for example your nutrients add 150 ppm of Ca. but your water already contains around 40-60 ppm then adding so much Ca. might place you within a suboptimal spot. If your water contains a lot of carbonates, sodium, fluorides or other substances they can also cause significant problems within your hydroponic crop. Using RO water brings a “clean slate” that ensures that what you add is what you get. Since the RO process is known to remove the impurities like this and hence make the process to be viable with Hydroponics.
In addition to that there aretwo main issues with using RO water. The first is that it’s a very energy intensive process – therefore a costly process – and the second is that the waste products of the RO process can create environmental problems. Additionally tap water already contains many nutrients necessary for plant life – mainly Mg and Ca. – so why would you remove these elements only to later add them again later on? Surely you would rather save the energy from the RO process and use the nutrients within your water as part of your nutrient solution.
There are however some circumstances where using RO water is unavoidable. If you water contains more sodium than your crop can deal with , more than 50 ppm of chlorides or if there are more than 10 ppm of fluoride then you will need to use RO water because elements in those quantities are not going to be good for your plants.
Netsol Water can provide with the best customized RO plants for your irrigation purpose, with much yield and a low cost.
