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Hydroponic Legumes? · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hello there, and welcome back to
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  Hydroponics Daily, your go-to podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
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  I'm your host, Dr. Russell Sharp. Today has been a bit of a strange day.
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  We spend hundreds and hundreds of pounds on Google ads and Facebook ads.
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  We didn't get a single order for any hydroponic fertilizer or biostimulants
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  today, this morning, and then in the afternoon it just went mad.
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  I don't know what Google and Facebook were doing, but it was weird.
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  We had a really good day in the end, but nobody ordered any. It
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  must have been Monday Morning blues everyone had the monday morning blues after such
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  a lovely weekend but yeah i'm happy again now the orders have rolled in for
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  gold leaf or liquid gold as we call it in the uk and all our other bio stimulants
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  and so i thought i'd jump on and record a podcast about something upbeat and
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  cheerful what could be more upbeat and cheerful than growing peas beans orange too and other.
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  Legumes in hydroponics and yesterday
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  we talked about growing potatoes in hydroponics and it's not the sort
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  of crop that springs to mind immediately you know
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  oh let's grow potatoes yeah everyone gets excited but
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  there were lots of reasons why you would could potentially and would want to
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  grow potatoes and the same for legumes it's not
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  the first crop that comes to mind often because they're
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  grown on vines and that's an
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  added complexity when you talk about
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  hydroponics and also you've got beneficial
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  microbes that are essential for the growth of legumes
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  and that adds an extra complexity when it
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  comes to hydroponics but where there's complexities and challenges
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  there are niches that specialists can
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  take advantage of and there are
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  some high value legume crops out there
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  if you can find them they might not even be food crops they
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  might be non non-food crops they might be bio
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  herbicides you can extract from them pharmaceuticals there
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  are you know these things exist in in in
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  legumes what else is in legumes oh from the roots of soya
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  beans you get the leg heme compound
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  which goes into the the is it
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  impossible burger or one of them the the plant-based burgers and meats that
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  the red juice that comes out when you cook those plant-based meats that's from
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  the roots of the soya bean because they need a oxygen scavenging molecule to
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  keep away from the bacteria.
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  And that's why legumes contain a type of heme product, a hemoglobin.
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  Because the bacteria are anaerobic, I think, so they don't want oxygen.
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  You can tell I've not researched this properly this episode,
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  and I'm just spitballing and going off the cuff.
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  But yeah, so there's loads of different compounds in legumes.
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  They're a really interesting plant family.
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  There are lots of toxins in some of them as well, so you have to be careful.
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  And things like lupins can be highly toxic to certain animals,
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  and other plants can eat them.
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  Other things can eat them like snails eat them without getting poisoned
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  but rabbits they're toxic to rabbits and deer
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  and things like this so loads of interesting a really
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  diverse plant family with some plants
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  that can be grown on their own with no support like lupins and you can get edible
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  lupins through to things like mange too which need a support system so we'll
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  talk about that and we'll talk about you know how you're going to grow them
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  hydroponically there are there are some commercial legume growers,
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  not massive, they're in hydroponics at the moment. I think it could be one that takes off.
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  We'll talk about fertilising them because the fertilising will be radically
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  different to normal hydroponics. So let's dive in.
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  Are legumes hydroponically viable?
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  Legumes such as peas, beans and fab beans can be absolutely grown hydroponically.
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  Systems like NFT, DWC, vertical farms
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  have successfully produced the pods for human
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  consumption but also for fodder production and legumes
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  are really important when it comes to animal feed because
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  they're a source of plant-based protein so around here in the fields around
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  my village there are loads of beans being grown that's all for animal production
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  and in the uk there's big interest in getting a lot more farmers growing peas
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  and beans because we import.
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  Legume crops from like america and there's
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  a big carbon footprint from doing this and it's also
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  not food security so we're looking for more fodder legume production in the
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  uk so could hydroponics supply that and there's a lot of interest in hydroponics
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  for fodder supply and and food for animals and so yeah potentially so there's
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  a lot of interest in the uk in growing.
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  Haricot beans for baked bean production.
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  In the UK we eat an awful lot of baked beans and yet we don't produce any of
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  the beans that go into baked beans.
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  So there are a number of farmers, plant breeders, technicians.
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  Food production companies that are looking to produce baked beans in the UK.
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  Could Hydroponics help with that?
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  So you'll see companies like Fork Farms in wisconsin
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  that are growing peas and beans in their flex
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  farm system and they've they've
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  shown good success in their sort of almost commercial
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  scale systems i don't think they're quite like large scale you'll see
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  lots of growers on on reddit also confirming that
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  they've been able to grow peas and beans and mange
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  too there's a company called gyro plant in the
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  uk and they make the little cups that go into nft and.
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  Dwc systems and they've also grown hydroponic legumes
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  sustainably and all year round so they're based in
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  didcot shout out to didcot and at
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  the rutherford laboratory which is like a physics laboratory high like
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  you know like particle physics laboratory i don't
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  know how they came out of that must be some crazy science involved
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  in their little gyro plant cups and then
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  research on farber bean production has been done
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  in palestine in uh the
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  palestinian territories and that was really interesting in that
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  study because they were looking at treated water
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  so desalinated water to see
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  if they could grow the crops now fiber beans are a big staple in
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  in that region and desalinization is
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  a big issue now one of the key things when it comes to growing legumes is most
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  species are extremely intolerant of salt in the system because the bacteria
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  that support the nitrogen fixation which is a key part of growing beans,
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  they die when exposed to lots of salt.
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  So these trials in Palestine were looking at what level they could grow them
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  successfully, and it was found that flowering and fruiting were the limiting factor.
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  You could get a crop with fairly saline water, but they wouldn't flower.
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  So that's really important, really good research that was done there.
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  When I think of farba beans though, I always think of Silence of the Lambs and
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  Hannibal Lecter, That famous line.
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  I'm not going to recreate it because I can't do it justice, but yeah.
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  Anyway, fertilizer requirements. So unlike...
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  Soil-grown legumes, hydroponic legumes normally receive nitrogen directly from
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  the nutrient solution because the biological nitrogen, no one's been able to
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  optimize nitrogen fixation in them.
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  Studies show that even with rhizobia, the bacteria that normally fix nitrogen
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  for legume plants, nitrogen levels often need supplementing to meet growth targets.
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  So that's different to say in a soil in a
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  farm situation the farmer doesn't
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  add any nitrogen to the field on the year that they're growing
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  a bean crop and whereas you
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  can add nitrogen but it's a waste because you
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  can normally just rely on the bacteria to do that now some
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  farms they would also add a rhizobium inoculum
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  especially in regions where the soil's been sterilized or
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  it's never grown beans before and if
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  you've grown hydroponically you might want to try the addition of these rhizobia
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  that fix nitrogen from the air or the
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  soil air and make it into a source that's
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  available to the plant a good source of those would be
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  legume technologies in nottingham in the uk
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  i've been to their facility and we've worked with them on a
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  number of bacterial products they've got really good products we
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  don't work with them anymore because they can't supply us 12 months a year just
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  because they are working so much on rhizobia for soybean and other legume crops
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  so I would definitely look at with and without for rhizobia and a with or without
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  nitrogen if I was ever going to
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  be messing around growing legumes hydroponically that would be essential.
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  A lot of people who've grown hydroponic legumes as well will have added nitrogen
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  because the off-the-shelf hydroponic fertilizers will contain a lot of nitrogen.
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  And you're not going to be able to get a company to make them without nitrogen.
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  And the same for the recipes that you'll find for even experimental hydroponics.
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  They will always contain nitrogen because they're designed for other plants.
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  If somebody wanted to set up a hydroponic system that was lacking in nitrogen
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  to test whether it could be done
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  and grow legumes without nitrogen in hydroponics, then give me an email.
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  I would be happy to create a bespoke legume fertilizer for hydroponics that
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  was lacking in nitrogen.
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  I think that would be really interesting. So if anyone has got the ability to
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  set up that trial and want some nitrogen-less fertilizer,
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  maybe gold leaf or liquid gold as it's called in the UK without nitrogen,
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  then hit me up and I'll see if we can supply that that'd be
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  really interesting to do that every other nutrient would
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  have to be supplied in the in the in the fertigation solution
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  so legumes can't fix anything else out
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  of the air there's nothing else in the air apart from carbon carbon dioxide
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  and water that they could actually use so you know phosphorus potassium calcium
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  magnesium all the micronutrients iron example they would all need to be in the
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  right amounts be interesting to know what would happen about the pH as well
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  without that nitrogen there. So that'd be really interesting.
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  So the rhizobium question could potentially help reduce the nitrogen use.
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  How much, we don't know. The problem is, is if you have bacteria in your roots
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  and then you get algae, normally what you would do is when you get algae,
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  you sterilize the system with something like hydrogen peroxide.
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  However, you would damage the microbes in the plant roots if you sterilize the root system.
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  So there's a another added complication.
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  As I said, the rhizobia are anaerobic. That's why they've got these heme pigments
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  in there and they need sugars.
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  So you could struggle with the sort of oxygen levels, the high oxygen levels. I don't know.
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  It's worth it looking at. So if you've sort of skipped over the fact that legumes
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  have nodules on their roots, if you're looking for a healthy legume plant,
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  there'll be lots of, if you dig them up, you'll see lots of nodules.
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  And then you can stain these to see if they contain the bacteria.
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  The nodules also host mycorrhizae as well, so you could add mycorrhizae into
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  the system and they will be helping with the absorption of phosphorus,
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  not fixing the phosphorus, but the absorption of phosphorus.
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  So that'd be interesting. Legumes are not the only plants that fix nitrogen.
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  Things like alder also fix nitrogen. They'll have nodules on their roots.
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  Lots of plants have nitrogen-fixed bacteria associated with their roots,
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  but legumes are the best at doing it, and they absorb the most amount of nitrogen,
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  and they're probably the only food crop that does it.
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  So one of the misconceptions is that if you grow a legume crop,
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  you don't need to add nitrogen the next year, because the roots that are left
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  there will contain loads of nitrogen.
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  And it's not true because all the nitrogen is going into the pods to fill these
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  peas and these beans and these monstros full of protein.
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  The nitrogen goes into amino acids and the amino acids go into protein.
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  So once you've harvested all that protein, there's not much nitrogen left.
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  So don't think that you can add loads of nitrogen by doing that.
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  The only way you would do that in a soil-based system is by adding a legume
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  green manure and then digging it in before it flowers and fruits.
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  So what else can we say? You might want to inoculate your seed with the rhizobium
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  and the mycorrhizae before you sow them.
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  And obviously, gentle aeration, not too much. Other interesting notes.
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  Some people have looked at cereal legume co-cultivation in various systems.
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  You can do something called boats, which is, what is boats? Is that barley and oat?
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  No, not beans and oats are boats. Beans and oats, boats.
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  That's that's seen that being grown here just a few fields away from where i am now,
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  you might want to look at the photo period similar to other fruiting sprouts
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  around 16 hours for flowering and pod development so these are long day plants
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  as opposed to short day plants.
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  Like hemp and hops what system would i choose if i was going to grow legumes
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  i'd probably go nft dwc would,
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  I wouldn't start off with EWC, it might be good, but I'd look at that later on.
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  So yeah, and I might also look at, rather than going for peas,
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  beans, legumes, or chickpeas would be a good one to look at,
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  because they don't require support.
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  But I probably, if I was going to grow anything first time, it would probably
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  be edible lupins, because they're an unusual, bespoke, what's the,
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  niche crop that you could get high value for and you could almost have like
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  a super food and also the beauty of that is that they're big plants but they
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  support themselves so you could get a lot off and then double looping without
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  having to have support whereas chickpeas they are more for like.
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  Marginal land in like africa and places like that where in
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  asia where they don't grow they'll grow in
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  very low water levels they'll they'll produce
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  harvest but they're not going to produce bumper yields whereas a
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  lupin they grow like you know crazy and also
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  lupins are fairly resistant to mildew they will get it though because the water
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  bounces off their leaves they've got like this weird they're not waxy leaves
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  but they've got loads of hairs on them and the hairs are hydrophobic and they're
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  just the water just bounces off the good news is that when you do get mildew on lupins.
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  You can treat them with chitosan really easily and it's one of the great examples
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  we've used in the past to show how chitosan works as a biofungicide because
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  it doesn't stick to where the.
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  The healthy leaves it only sticks to the damaged leaf it's
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  really cool so that's something to look at and also
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  there's loads of interest in pea proteins and legume proteins from not just
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  a vegetarian vegan meat alternative perspective just in alternative foods and
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  food development food science looking
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  at ways of incorporating different proteins and what can be done with
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  plants so if you think of a huell you know not not gruel huell it's that is
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  a pea protein based meal replacement whatever lots of um so there's lots of
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  interest in pea proteins so.
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  Combining all that vegan science
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  that that alternative meat science
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  and hydroponics and vertical farming you can get a lot
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  of investment from the city of london or wall
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  street if you set up a hydroponic pea protein wouldn't
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  have to make any money you just have to get investment that's that's
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  the key isn't it really as i say pea is very very
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  intolerant of salt stress so i would look at i would
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  definitely do a dose response curve looking at nutrient levels because
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  some of the higher dose response dose levels
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  recommended by some hydroponic fertilizer companies would
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  just to be way too much one plant species
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  that is a legume that is tolerant of
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  high salt levels is tree lupin and
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  so if you if you
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  could breed in the salt tolerance from tree lupin
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  into the other species that might be something you could look at for hadroponics
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  that'd be interesting and then you would also need and this is one of the key
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  factors i can't believe i've missed it is you would need to have good pollinators
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  in your growing environment because peas would require pollination to set good fruit sets.
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  So you want the actual pea, the beans, the seeds, the seeds.
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  Farber beans the one or two then you
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  would need bumblebees or some
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  other pollinator in your grow environment that could pollinate those flowers probably
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  going to be a bee of some sort because of
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  the shape of the flowers the i think they're
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  almost certainly bee pollinated you couldn't
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  have a moth or a butterfly or anything like that or
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  maybe a hoverfly potentially maybe even a blue
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  bottle um companies like biobest that
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  sell set bumblebee sets mums
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  sets houses hotels something
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  like that that they um that you can put into your grow environment
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  you'd almost certainly need one of those i have seen some growers
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  who buy a pack of maggots from the fishing
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  tackle shops and then just wait for the blue bottles to
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  emerge and then allow the blue bottles to pollinate they're not as good as bumblebees
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  but they are a lot lot cheaper so you could do an experiment you could have
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  one greenhouse with bumblebees and you could have one greenhouse with maggots and blue bottles.
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  Interestingly i think copper have just released hoverfly larvae
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  as a biocontrol agent for aphids and
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  when they metamorphosize into the
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  actual hoverfly they would also be a really good pollinator so that would be
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  an interesting one could you control the aphids on your legumes with hoverfly
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  larvae and then also allow them to complete their life cycle and form hoverflies
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  that could pollinate and i'll probably stop this podcast now and see if hoverflies
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  can pollinate a legume and i'll sound really clever when i come up with the answer you,
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  one second's time. Yes, hoverflies can pollinate legumes.
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  So I wasn't on a stupid tangent there. So that's a wrap for today's episode
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  on legumes in hydroponics.
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  If you're interested in integrating peas and beans into your setup,
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  if you're a commercial setup and you're looking to look at that,
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  and if you're looking for a hydroponic fertilizer that lacks nitrogen,
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  get in touch with me and we can set up an experiment and some potential formulations for that.
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  I'd be really interested in doing that if you're a grower who's looking
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  at legumes and you've been shared this podcast episode then
• 18:53
  you are the person who shared it with you a drink and if
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  you could also do me a favor and screenshot
• 19:00
  this your podcast provider on your
• 19:03
  phone and share it to social media and say this was an amazing episode or check
• 19:07
  out hydroponics daily that would be great as we spread the word and try and
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  grow our listenership in other countries where are peas and breens grown most
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  in the world where am i going to get loads of listeners this episode i don't know so chickpeas.
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  Africa lupins are a weed in new zealand i know that monge too i would imagine
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  that's france isn't it with a name like that or it might be peckham in london
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  because that was a famous quote from a comedian in a famous sitcom in the uk
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  only fools and horses monge too del boy monge too,
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  yeah if you know where there's loads of legumes grown then
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  let me know there are lots lots of villages in the
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  uk called thing like barton in the beans
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  and other strange village names where i
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  guess traditionally they're growing loads of legumes but yeah come
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  on come on guys let's set up some hydroponic legume farms i think it's a really
• 19:56
  interesting topic and definitely one i hope to revisit in the future when some
• 20:00
  of you set up some commercial farms doing some really interesting things and
• 20:04
  extracting some really interesting compounds and foodstuffs from there until
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  tomorrow that's been hydroponics daily thank you very much.