Design and Development of Automated Nutrient Regulation System for Hydroponics Unit

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. Hydroponics, a subset of hydro culture, is a growing plant without soil, using mineral nutrient solutions in a water solvent. In soil less culture especially, hydroponics, the problem of regular maintenance of nutrient solution and required technical knowledge. The automation in hydroponics further helps to boom up the hydroponic cultivation. Automated nutrient regulation in hydroponics environment with automatic nutrient feed technology was developed and tested in the present study. The experiment was carried out an automated controlling and regulation of pH, TDS, temperature in polyhouse hydroponic system using Arduino-Uno controller, solenoid valves containing nutrients, water, pH-up, and pH-down and sensors. In this study, the sensors are connected to Arduino-Uno controller in which liquid crystal display (LCD) of Arduino-Uno circuit controls and regulates the system based on the coding which has been programmed previously. Calibration was done for all the parameters in the automated system. TDS and pH values of nutrient solution were recorded by using TDS and pH sensor probes respectively were fed to Arduino which adjusts the values, if required, through actuators. The prototype model was able to monitor and control the pH and TDS of hydroponic water in the required range with high accuracy.