Hydroponics, Aquaponics, Bioponics-
Making Sense of Soilless Terminology
In the previous post, Are Soilless Crops Less Healthy?, we looked at some common concerns that are raised regarding the ‘naturalness’ and healthiness of crops cultivated in soilless growing systems, relative to crops grown in soil. While that post focused on broad distinctions between the nutrient levels maintained in soilless productions and soil-based farming, there is a wide range of sources from which those nutrients can be derived. Similarly to how various manufactured fertilizers or animal manures can be used to supplement nutrients into farm-fields over time, soilless growers have a number of nutrient options to choose from, both manufactured and natural.
When discussing soilless growing operations, terminology can quickly become confusing due to the dual-tiered use of the word hydroponic. From a technical standpoint, hydroponic growing is any form of soilless crop production, with the word hydroponic tracing its roots to the greek words hydro (water), and ponos (labor). Though the term hydroponics can designate a division between soilless and soil-based growing, the term hydroponic has taken on a second use in recent years.
Given the proliferation of different nutrient sources for soilless cultivation, the term hydroponics is commonly used to denote soilless growing systems than use nutrient salts and other manufactured fertilizers to drive crop production; this subclass of soilless growing is also referred to as conventional hydroponics or chemical hydroponics, contrasting it with soilless systems that use more ‘natural’ sources of nutrients.
Broadly speaking, soilless growing techniques that derive their nutrients from biologically active, ‘natural’ sources, such as animal wastes, are referred to as bioponics, or natural hydroponics. While some might note that conventional hydroponic growers often use mined phosphate, which is technically a natural resource, it is a non-renewable resource, and stands in contrast to the common understanding and use of the term ‘natural’, when describing nutrient sources.
Over the past few decades, the field of aquaponics, which uses aquaculture wastewater as the nutrient source for soilless growing, has become the most prevalent form of bioponics or natural hydroponics. Similarly to how the term hydroponics has grown to designate an industry in contrast to other forms of soilless growing, aquaponics has reached a point where it stands as its own industry, aside from other forms of bioponics.
When discussing a growing facility, the first questions that could be ask is, ‘is it soil-based, or hydroponic?’. Upon learning that a facility is a hydroponic (soilless) operation, it could then be asked, ‘is the facility hydroponic [conventional hydroponic, chemical hydroponic], aquaponic, or some sort of bioponics?’.
As a point of interest, people have designed bioponic systems that use everything from human waste to rabbit manure and turtle wastewater as the nutrient source for growing soilless crops.
To learn more about some of the advantages and disadvantage of various styles of soilless growing systems, check out Do We Expect Too Much From Aquaponics.
