Propagating plant clones, or cuttings, is not a new concept but the process of aeroponic cloning is not always well known.  In aeroponic propagation, the cultivation of sibling or cloned plants is done using an aeroponic system instead of the more traditional soil-potting.

When setting up an in home garden, aeronponic propgation might sound like something you may be interested in.  Here are some basic steps to follow to start your own aeroponic cloning operation:

• Select a healthy branch from the parent plant with several clusters of leaves.
• Cut off a piece of the branch leaving at least 2 leaf nodes intact.
• Remove the largest few leaves as they can be hard for a rootless plant to maintain in the early stages.
• Then remove all branches and leaves apart from the top 2 sets. Make sure they are within close proximity to the aeroponic fogger and aeroponic mister.
• You are now well on your way to procuring your first crop of cloned plants.

There are many wonderful experiments going on all around us with hydroponics, with the view to feeding the people of the world when conventional methods start failing us.  I love this article combining fish and vegetables and urge you to read further at posted link:

“Growing fresh fish and vegetables in the Sonora Desert’s 110-degree weather has never been easier.

Through aquaponics, Jason Licamele, a doctorate candidate at the University of Arizona, is growing tilapia and fresh vegetables in a closed water system that operates year round.

In four separate 350 gallon tanks Licamele farms tilapia in Tucson. Waste water is pulled from those tanks and sent through mechanical and biological filters before being mixed with minimal organic nutrients to water the plants he is growing in an adjacent greenhouse room. The plants pull necessary nutrients out of the water and the water is returned to the tanks with the fish.

Jason Licamele adds the fuel to his system, fish food. Through hydroponics he can grow 32 heads of lettuce per square meter.”

Read more

In hydroponic plant growing systems, nutrients are dissolved in water.  The soil is replaced with a growing medium, which is a soil substitute that holds the roots and supplies them with water, nutrients and oxygen.

Nutrient solutions can be delivered in a couple of ways.  You can drip feed it to each plant, or you can flood the root chamber, then drain it out. These methods require a pump and timer to circulate the nutrients through the roots. You can also grow the plant roots in the air by spraying them with a fine mist of nutrient solution or grow them by aerating the solution under each root mass with an air pump.

There are six basic types of hydroponic systems making up the basis of all hydroponic gardening:

* Wick
* Water Culture
* Ebb and Flow (or Flood & Drain)
* Drip
* Nutrient Film Technique (N.F.T)
* Aeroponic

There are two ways that nutrients reach your plants with aeroponic hydroponics.  One configuration used is an ultrasonic fogger, rather than a pump to create the nutrient particle. In the case of using an ultrasonic fogger in the hydroponic grow box, the fogger would actually create a fine micron misty fog rather than a 25 micron water droplet. This is a much finer particle and will look more like a heavy fog or floating mist. With this type of system hundreds of thousands of tiny hairs will actually develop on your plants roots. It seems as if these tiny hairs were there to pick up each and every water droplet that surrounds it. The same as in the pump method, the ultrasonic fogging aeroponic hydroponics system can be controlled with a timer 15 minutes on a 15 minutes off so you have both the wet and dry to keep your roots happy and growing fast.