In the near future, you might not need to go to the garden or the grocery store to get your favorite salad fixings. Instead, you might be able to pluck them from your desktop or kitchen countertop.
Horticulture educators from the University of Missouri Extension and Lincoln University Cooperative Extension will soon teach classes in hydroponics, a system for growing plants without the usual constraints of the outdoors – temperature, water, sunlight, soil, or location.
MU Extension horticulturist Donna Aufdenberg and 16 other educators from MU Extension and Lincoln University participated in “teach the teachers” training, thanks to a Specialty Crop Block Grant through the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
In November, Aufdenberg will be teaching two hydroponics workshops next month: Nov. 6 in Perryville and Nov. 13 in Jackson. Other dates and locations are to follow.
Each educator received a hydroponic unit for growing salad greens. Most units fit on a desktop and use the nutrient flow technique, in which plants grow in a nutrient solution that circulates around the root system. Units require electricity, and plants need some type of lighting, preferably LED lighting.
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