Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower

The eighth edition of Hydroponic Food Production: A Definitive Guidebook for the Advanced Home Gardener and the Commercial Hydroponic Grower serves as a comprehensive guide to soilless culture (hydroponics) for hobby and commercial growers. Extensively updated from the seventh edition published in 2013, this bestseller is a "methods" book to show the reader how to set up a hydroponic operation with the options of using any of many hydroponic cultures presently used in the industry to grow vegetable crops. Written by Dr Howard M. Resh, a recognized authority worldwide on hydroponics, the book presents detailed information on hydroponic growing systems and features more than 600 photographs (200 in full color), drawings, and tables.

New to this edition:

• Presents greenhouse environmental control systems and examples of sustainable greenhouse technology, and demonstrates uses of automation and robotics in harvesting, grading, and packing.
• Introduces indoor vertical farming, and vertical growing systems, as well as the expansion of tropical hydroponics and rooftop greenhouses.
• Provides information on automation in large-scale raft culture and nutrient film technique (NFT) operations in the growing of lettuce, leafy greens, and herbs.

A new chapter 12 discusses control of environmental factors in greenhouses. It covers information on systems to regulate temperature, relative humidity, carbon dioxide enrichment, lighting, and fertigation with examples of sustainable greenhouse technology. This chapter demonstrates automation in the regulation of the greenhouse environment to crop production methods with emphasis on robotics in harvesting to transporting, grading, and packing equipment. The use of retractable roof structures in tropical, humid climates is an alternative for growing greenhouse crops.

A new chapter 14 describes vertical indoor farming. It presents background information on early vertical greenhouses and sack culture systems to present vertical systems used by greenhouses and existing vertical greenhouses and future concepts. Vertical indoor farming reviews systems of vertical tiers of shelving growing lettuce, leafy greens, and herbs under LED lighting in large warehouses. The chapter exemplifies automation in these vertical farms with each specific system and it contains information on vertical growing in containers and/or modular units.

Chapter 15 contains new information on tropical hydroponics describing hydroponics in Peru. Expansions of rooftop greenhouses with new locations in New York, Chicago, and Montreal display updated facilities and crops.

Howard M. Resh (born January 11, 1941) is a recognized authority worldwide on hydroponics. His website: www.howardresh.com presents information on hydroponic culture of various vegetable crops. In addition, he has written six books on hydroponic culture both for commercial growers and backyard hobbyists. While a graduate student at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada in 1971, he was asked by a private group to assist them in the construction of hydroponic greenhouses in the Vancouver area. He continued with outside work in greenhouses and soon was asked to conduct evening extension courses in hydroponics.

Upon graduation with his doctorate degree in Horticulture in 1975 he became Urban Horticulturist for the faculty of plant science at the University of B.C. He held that position for three years before the call of commercial hydroponics took him to many projects in countries such as Venezuela, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, the United States, and in 1999 to Anguilla, British West Indies, in the Eastern Caribbean.

While in the position of urban horticulturist, Resh taught courses in horticulture, hydroponics, plant propagation, greenhouse design, and production. During this period, while he was urban horticulturist and later general manager for a large plant nursery, he continued doing research and production consultation for a commercial hydroponic farm growing lettuce, watercress, and other vegetables in Venezuela. Later, during the period 1995– 1996, Resh became project manager for the Venezuelan farm to develop hydroponic culture of lettuce, watercress, peppers, tomatoes, and European cucumbers using a special medium of rice hulls and coco coir from local sources. He also designed and constructed a mung bean and alfalfa sprout facility to introduce sprouts into the local market. In the late 1980s, Resh worked with a company in Florida in the growing of lettuce in a floating raft culture system.

From 1990 to 1999, Resh worked as the technical director and project manager for hydroponic projects in the growing of watercress and herbs in California. He designed and constructed several 3- acre outdoor hydroponic watercress facilities using a unique NFT system. These overcame production losses due to drought conditions in the area.

From there in mid- 1999, Resh became the hydroponic greenhouse farm manager for the first hydroponic farm associated with a high- end resort, CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa, in Anguilla, British West Indies in the northeastern Caribbean. The hydroponic farm is unique in being the only one in the world owned by a resort growing its own fresh salad crops and herbs exclusively for the resort. This farm has become a key component of the resort in attracting guests to experience real homegrown types of vegetables, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, eggplants, lettuce, bok choy, and herbs. The resort, together with its hydroponic farm, has gained world- wide recognition as one of the leading hotels of the world.

Resh continues to do consulting on many unique hydroponic greenhouse operations such as Lufa Farms in Montreal, Canada. There he established the growing techniques and hydroponic systems for a rooftop hydroponic greenhouse in downtown Montreal. All vegetables are marketed through a community supported agriculture (CSA) program.

In 2016, Resh retired from full- time work at CuisinArt Golf Resort & Spa and now independently consults with a number of companies including work on indoor vertical farming.