In hydroponics and aeroponics, crops with a short growing cycle are most popular – leafy lettuces, spinach, sorrel, celery, green onion, dill, parsley, basil, tarragon, cilantro, lemon balm, radishes, tomatoes, peppers and other leafy, spicy herbs and botanical or decorative flowers. Seeds are germinated in greenhouses on the ground using peat-sapropel soil improvers SatoSoil®. If necessary, seed dressing and seedling disinfection are carried out with liquid potassium humate Sato® Seeds, even after shaking off the substrate when transferring seedlings to a nutrient solution.
End-consumers and nutritionists report that hydroponically produced plants have a less pronounced taste and color. This is partly due to the fact that the optimal nutrient solution is 97-98% ordinary water and 2-3% macro and micronutrients, plants do not have contact with the soil and are almost isolated from pathogens and pests.
The concentration limit of mineral salts is about 8 g/l of nutrient solution, a higher concentration is detrimental to plants. Experts suggest that the weaker organoleptics of plants obtained in industrial hydroponics is due to limited contact with the organic environment, the choice of the most productive, but not necessarily tasty varieties, harvesting before ripening, priority of space optimization over taste and nutritional qualities of products.