USA - South Dakota - Brookings Embraces Soil-Free Farming

Hydroponics and Aquaponics gaining popularity in the sustainable agriculture market

Lakacee Lipp, Reporter

October 8, 2024

Plants grown vertically and harvested inside the trailer by Engel and his team. By: Lakacee Lipp

Growing food without soil has been increasingly popular nationwide in recent years.

Hydroponics is the technique of growing plants using water as a nutrient solution and a growing medium instead of soil. Sustainable production methods like hydroponics and aquaponics can help produce food in various ways, including year-round production, increased space efficiency, and decreased waste while using up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture.

It isn’t new for the Brookings community to start experiencing places like South Dakota State University’s College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences (CAFES) and SoDak Greens.

CAFES

Graduate research assistant Andrew Engel is working on his PhD in agricultural and biosystems engineering and is interested in this research area. 

“Andrew has vast experience with hydroponics and is planning some exciting work for his PhD program,” said David Wright, the head professor of the department of agronomy, horticulture, and plant science.

Engel says, “There have been a lot of technologies that have been adapted to precision agriculture that aren’t adapted for controlled environment agriculture.” 

Although hydroponics and controlled environment agriculture can be defined as precision horticulture, Engel’s current research uses technology like hyperspectral and artificial intelligence to create a program to monitor plants. He hopes that the technology he makes will notify you when your plants are doing poorly, through factors like pH or developing white mold.  

He hopes this program will be used in places with food insecurity so that people with minimal experience can turn the system on and produce high-quality, fresh produce.

In the past, Engel and his research team used a freight farm purchased by the university to conduct a study using a vertical hydroponic growing system right here in Brookings. 

The researchers always aimed to provide perfect plant conditions during their study. To this end, they controlled the growing environment and used a water filtration system to help purify the water of calcium or salts, making the lettuce sweeter. 

The hydroponic trailer ended up being the coldest climate in the study. 

One day, Engel hopes to own a more extensive hydroponic system in South Dakota to help decrease the cost, keep the produce and money local, and, in turn, give consumers fresh products.

SoDak Greens 

SoDak Greens also uses hydroponics to make fresh greens accessible to everyone in the region without using pesticides, herbicides, or other harsh chemicals to keep their produce fresh and healthy.

SoDak Green is located in Brookings and is operated by two SDSU alumni, Kalyn Gutormson and MacKenzie Mattern. Both SDSU alumni use their agriculture and horticulture experience to bring fresh greens to more people in eastern South Dakota. 

Another type of growing that is becoming increasingly popular is aquaponics. 

Aquaponics use the waste produced by fish or other aquatic animals to supply nutrients for plants grown in water. In turn, the plants growing in the aquaponic system filter the water that returns to the fish, decreasing the amount of waste.

Healthy Harvest from Elkton, South Dakota, grows produce using aquaponics. 

Terry from Health Harvest grows everything from strawberries to microgreens in his aquaponics system. He even has contracts with local grocery stores like Hy-Vee in Brookings to sell his produce.

To learn more about these producers, follow SoDak Greens and Healthy Harvest on social media. You can also support local producers by checking out their fresh produce and products at local grocery stores.