Hydroponics at Sandemetrio
Sandemetrio Opificio Erboristico is committed to innovation not only to keep up with the times, but to anticipate what will come in the future.
Ours is a dynamic company by the vocation of its founder, the entrepreneur Giuseppe Maria Ricchiuto, who, together with every department manager, spends a part of his time researching innovative and experimental techniques, in order to improve on what is fulcrum of Sandemetrio production: organic farming.
Over recent months, our company has been involved in a particularly important project dedicated to hydroponic cultivation.
This is a special agricultural technique that allows for the cultivation of plants without any soil, just with water containing dissolved nutrients.
The soil is replaced by an inert substrate, such as expanded clay, coconut fibre, rock wool, or zeolite, and the roots of the plants are immersed in a stream of the solution made of water and nutrients.
Sandemetrio is experimenting with hydroponic cultivation using a vertical wall at the company facility and certain Green Farms, at which species of plants specially chosen and selected by the internal Research and Development team will be produced.
One of the greatest advantages of hydroponic cultivation is a significant reduction in water consumption, thanks to the closed system that recovers nutrients not used by the plants, recycling it in the water solution.
With such systems, water savings of up to 80 to 90% can be achieved, compared with traditional soil cultivation. The reduction in waste and water and nutrient loss leads to significantly lower environmental impacts.
In experimenting with the hydroponic technique, Ricchiuto has set himself the goal of being able to cultivate in any place and condition, such as outdoors or indoors, horizontally or vertically, in very large or very small spaces, in cellars or on roofs. It’s a dream and a project that does not differ much from the Sky Greens project, which provides an urban greening solution to the problem of overbuilding.
The project is still at the experimental phase, with no organic certificate for soil-less cultivation as yet, but we already have our own production of hydroponic salad that Ricchiuto gladly welcomes to his dining table.
We will keep you up-to-date on developments! Keep following us.
