Hydroponic Crop Science

Major in Hydroponic Crop Science and we'll prepare you for one of these careers.

• Hydroponic crop producer
• Researcher

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Hydroponics, which means “water working,” is a method of growing plants without soil in a balanced nutrient solution within a greenhouse environment. It teaches and practices water and fertilizer conservation and reduction in pesticide use while producing the highest-quality products at phenomenal yields. Crops, such as lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, leafy greens, herbs and ornamentals can be grown by hydroponic techniques. Crops can be produced out-of-season and, therefore, demand a premium price.

Hydroponics is the scientific frontier of agriculture, which sustains human life on Earth. The challenge is to meet the world’s food needs while preserving Earth’s natural resources. At the same time as we are concerned with hydroponic food production on Earth, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration is also committed to this new technology to cultivate crops in space, which is vital to human exploration of the Moon and Mars.

Within the last decade, the hydroponic industry has grown tremendously with large acreage greenhouse installations in the United States as well as in Canada and Mexico. Worldwide, the annual production of vegetables alone is in the vicinity of 4.1 million tons, and, when combined with cut flowers, gives a total annual industry of over $4 billion dollars.