"Aeroponics" is indeed a good option but it does not need the "high" pressure pumps. We can pump with very low powered pumps. We, actually, formulate our own nutrients. We are about to start testing our automatic IoT solution to mix nutrients, measure the temperature pH and EC. Right now, we do the testing manually and we can slide the EC by a factor of 0.1 easily.

For those interested here is a video of our lab. Our structures are vertical for our research. However, our commercial (big) deployments will be flat or an "A" system. Right now, we are leveraging the abundance of sunlight in the tropics (India). We can produce 10x the traditional farming without any stacking but at a fraction of the cost of other hydroponics/Aeroponics setup.

Photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/XytrQYsQ0UaSKozV2 Locavore Demo Tour https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2CRI61_DlQ

Awesome work! I'm experimenting with a custom built, mostly-computer-controlled aeroponic myself, but it is way more on the hobby scale than this work you are doing.

One question - do you have any kind of automatic way to clear clogs in the sprayer heads?

As replied earlier, we tested and realized we can do much better by dripping it from top instead of the mist. We will also be doing flood-n-flush kinda method in the much bigger setup. Cleaning was one thing we learned the hard way and so the reason for our modified method.

We will still be using mist spray method with other crops that has less dense rooting, etc.

You could... detect pressure build up -> assume clogged

set pressure 0

open a solenoid connected to h2o2 with enough elevation to reach the clog

detect flow increase ->assume unclogged

close solenoid, set pressure 50 psi (or whatever)

This might best be done with a hydraulic circuit rather than electronic sensors, by the way. Ie. to detect pressure build up have a secondary line with slight resistance before the nozzle that when pressurized triggers other hydraulic elements which cut pressure, etc.

Woah, very neat setup. That looks more like a vertical NFT setup than aeroponics though. Is there a fine nutrient mist that I can't see? or is it simply pumped to the top then drips down the edge?

Yes, the structures are vertical NFTs. The method is borrowed from aeroponics. In our lab test, we wanted to source things locally, reduce CAPEX/OPEX to the lowest we can and have the best ROI possible. We realized that instead of spending additional motor horsepower and thus more electricity, we can reduce it by pumping up once and then dripping them from the top. The mist/spray method also clogs quite often and is more cumbersome to clean. Our next step with both Flats and "A" systems will use something similar -- perhaps a "flood and drip". We have also realized the benefit of the "Dutch Bucket" system for growing more common food/plants.

I looked into it, but it seems pretty risky? Especially since if u miss the schedule to most every hr the plant dies very quickly