Less water, less soil, with excellent results – this is the way to produce beer in a sustainable way thanks to hydroponics
If you think that to grow excellent plants you need to have excellent soil, then maybe you need to think again! In fact, today’s technology makes it possible to render production processes more and more efficient also in conditions and places where previously cultivation would have been unimaginable.
A case in point is the hydroponics cultivation system that we are promoting. With it, through the use of various techniques, it is possible to literally cultivate plants outside of the ground or, better to say, without soil as intended in the “classic” sense of the terminology.
When we connect an innovative system of this kind to the cultivation of plants that traditionally are not grown in a specific place, then it is possible to recreate the environment suitable for practically every plant production need. And this is precisely the system that Alessio Saccoccio, Carlo Muzi, and Alessandro Cinelli, the founding members of the Fondi (LT) start-up decided to use for their “Idroluppolo” project.
Cultivate hydroponic hop plants – to produce beer – in a sustainable and efficient manner. This, in short, is how we would define “Idroluppolo”. By using a hydroponic cultivation system, water consumption is reduced by 50% and, at the same time, the use of soil is drastically reduced. According to the creators of this project, in fact, their special hop plants can grow even where there is no soil available.
Such “soil-less” cultivation is possible thanks to an inert substrate (a growing medium), which effectively replaces soil. This growing medium can be “replicated” anywhere – also in greenhouses – and it can be improved and enriched with special nutrient solutions, so as to give hop plants significantly increased aromatic properties. In Italy, most hops are imported from abroad, consequently, by cultivating hop plants in this way, it will be possible to produce “’local” hops, made to measure and of guaranteed excellent quality.
Furthermore, cultivating hop plants in greenhouses with specific nutrient solutions also allows the crop to be protected from climatic variations, pests, and any form of pollution to the enormous benefit of the final product.
The advantages of such a cultivation system are undisputed, as far as growing processes are concerned, quality, and – last but not least – environmental protection. In fact, using less water and less soil means no further straining of environmental resources that have already been put to the test by numerous human activities.
This pioneering hydroponic project “Idroluppolo”, presented by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, will be present along with many other projects oriented towards sustainable agriculture at the Maker Faire Rome – the European Edition 2019, the world-famous innovative technology fair that will take place from 18 to 20 October at the Fiera di Roma.
