Hydroponic
Hydroponics is a subset of hydroculture and is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite or gravel.1 As Peter Harper mention in Autonomy., “greenhouses are extremely useful aids to autonomy in food production, and are often incorporated into dwelling structure.”2 Greenhouse can extend the time of the growing season and has a varied production, in an autonomous house a greenhouse can not only provide food production but also can purify air, permitting lower ventilation rates and lower heat losses. In Street Farm House a semi-hydroponic system was successfully used, together with the usual temperate crops grown outside the house, make the unit self-sufficient in vegetables for most of the year. Hydroponic has certain disadvantages, for example, chemical nutrients need to be brought from the outside, even with a careful recycled, certain minerals and vitamins might not enough to sustain it. However, these disadvantages can be overcome by combining bedding systems, species of plants etc. Overall, compared to soil plant, hydroponic have a higher growth rate, use less water and fewer pesticides. Therefore, hydroponic is a system that has the potential to widely apply to greenhouses.