How We Will Grow without Soil Tomorrow

01 · The Direction

Better insight, better workflows and more deliberate resource use

Three things must come together for useful progress: plants receive suitable conditions, people understand the state of their system and the effort remains appropriate to the objective. This produces three directions of development.

The Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge at Wageningen University & Research tests AI-assisted crop management in technically equipped greenhouses. Such trials demonstrate possibilities; they do not prove the existence of a maintenance-free universal solution for home growing.

02 · At Home in the Living Room

Making the small productive garden practical for everyday life

At home, the main priority is fitting cultivation into the daily routine. You want to cut herbs, observe plants and notice shortages early. Useful developments for small systems would therefore reduce maintenance obstacles, provide clear indicators and use readily accessible components.

What a suitable next step might look like

You begin with a few herbs or loose-leaf lettuces. After one crop cycle, you know how quickly the reservoir level falls and whether the light is sufficient. Only then do you add, for example, a reminder or better lighting controls. You solve an observed problem and can then assess whether everyday use improves.

What remains true: A living-room system supplements your kitchen. Plants need space, light and care. An app can neither replace missing light nor turn a small area into a complete vegetable supply.

For beginners, the University of Minnesota Extension describes small indoor and outdoor installations. This provides a practical foundation before adding technology.

03 · At Home on the Balcony

Deal more effectively with changing weather

On a balcony, the opportunities lie in using daylight and limited space skilfully. The challenge is the variable location: sun, wind, heat and rain affect plants and nutrient solution. Future-ready solutions should make these fluctuations easier to manage.

A robust setup comes first

A reservoir protected from direct sun, secure fixings and accessible pipes are valuable even without electronics. Rain must not dilute the nutrient solution uncontrollably. Mature plants still need sufficient light; the number of planting positions alone says little about usable yield.

Practical scenario: Instead of immediately adding more plants, you observe water use and temperature for one summer. For the next season, improve precisely the point that made maintenance difficult. An alert does not replace a person who can intervene during your absence.

What remains true: Hydroponics does not make a balcony independent of the weather. Even a small solar solution does not supply electricity at all times; a system requiring a continuously running pump needs an appropriate power supply.

04 · Semi-Professional Growing in the Greenhouse

From a single reading to coordinated crop management

When you want to harvest larger quantities regularly, repeatability matters. Young plants, irrigation, climate, maintenance and harvesting must work together. At this scale, better-documented workflows and purposefully automated routine tasks offer a sensible development path.

What research contributes

WUR trials use algorithms to connect measurement data with controls for greenhouse conditions. Practical transfer to smaller installations is a separate task: technology, crops and supervision must fit together. A convincing experimental result does not replace this assessment.

A so-called digital twin is a computational representation of a system or crop. It can be used to investigate possible developments. Its outputs are only as useful as the underlying data and assumptions; it is not a certain forecast for every plant.

Practical scenario: You document several lettuce crop cycles, initially add records of water temperature and additions, and evaluate losses. You add a control where a recurring error has been demonstrated. Then compare harvest, effort and consumption with the previous workflow.

05 · Sensors, Rules and AI

Good Automation Begins with a Clear Question

A sensor measures. A display makes the value visible. An alert indicates a deviation. Only a control system changes operation. These steps should remain traceable so that you understand why your system behaves differently.

1. 1 · MeasureIs the water level actually too low?
2. 2 · InterpretIs the value plausible and critical for this crop?
3. 3 · ActIssue an alert or trigger a limited action.
4. 4 · VerifyDid the action have the desired effect?

pH and EC: useful, but not a complete picture of the plant

pH describes how acidic or alkaline the solution is. Electrical conductivity, or EC, indicates the total concentration of dissolved salts. An EC sensor does not identify the exact proportions of every nutrient. Automated instruments must also be checked, cleaned and calibrated according to manufacturer instructions. The Oklahoma State University Extension explanation of pH and EC covers their use in hydroponic cultivation.

Where AI could help

AI can assist by summarising measurement histories, flagging deviations or deriving suggestions from comparable crop cycles. Whether an application does this reliably must be tested on the actual installation. An unusual leaf photograph alone is not an unequivocal diagnosis: light, roots and nutrient solution must also be considered.

Automatic dosing or other interventions require reliable measurements, limited adjustment quantities and a defined response to measurement errors. For a few plants at home, manual care may remain easier to understand than an additional control system.

Question before every extension: Which decision will this improve—and what will the system do if the reading is missing or wrong?

06 · Water, Energy and Materials

The Future Also Depends on the Balance

Recirculating water is a strength of many hydroponic systems. A return flow alone, however, does not make a completely closed circuit. Water losses, cleaning, solution changes and nutrient-solution composition also form part of the assessment.

What you can compare yourself

Record water additions, electricity use, usable harvest and maintenance time. Compare similar crops and seasons. This shows whether a change actually helps or merely shifts the work elsewhere.

Worked example: If the same lighting task genuinely requires 10 watts less power for 14 hours a day, that is 4.2 kilowatt-hours less over 30 days. The calculation says nothing yet about acquisition costs or whether the plant lighting is equivalent.

Vertical growing uses height but requires adequate light and access on every level. A sunlit balcony, an illuminated indoor shelf and a heated greenhouse have different balances. Blanket promises such as “always more sustainable” or “guaranteed cheaper” provide little help.

07 · Your Way Forward

Let Your Growing Project Develop with Your Experience

Five Questions for a Future-Ready System

• Does it suit the mature plants and the light available at the location?
• Can you readily access and clean containers, pipes and sensors?
• Are wear parts replaceable and spare parts available?
• Do essential functions remain available if the internet connection is interrupted?
• Can you identify the benefit in the harvest, consumption or labour saved?

08 · Realistic Prospects

An Additional Way to Grow Food

Hydroponics offers opportunities for fresh herbs at home, seasonal cultivation on a balcony and purposefully managed greenhouse crops. Further development can make access easier and improve the use of existing installations.

How large a role it will play depends on the crop, location, energy, labour and demand. It complements other cultivation methods. A technically impressive installation is not automatically the right solution for every plant and household.

Benefits of hydroponics in everyday life →

How hydroponics originated →

Sources and Context

Status: September 2026. The fundamentals and research notes are based on the following university sources. Statements about possible private applications and gradual expansion are editorial assessments. No fixed launch dates, yields or savings rates are predicted.

• Wageningen University & Research: Autonomous Greenhouse Challenge – Research approaches to data- and AI-assisted greenhouse management.
• University of Minnesota Extension: Small-scale hydroponics – Fundamentals and practical requirements for small installations.
• Oklahoma State University Extension: Electrical Conductivity and pH Guide for Hydroponics – Monitoring and interpreting nutrient solution.