Organic Hydroponics in Koh Samui Thailand .....

by lecras eric
(Thailand)

I am Eric, and I want to start a small business here in Thailand Koh Samui. Just wonder if it possible to do it here? We have many hydroponic here, but none organic. Maybe you have contact or you know how to organize it? and can you tell me the cost to supply about 30 guest hotel and restaurant? I also want to do vegetables- tomato and avocado and maybe some strawberry too....what will be my investment? Thank you for your help and comment, Eric.

Answer: Eric- it is possible to do organic hydroponics anywhere in the world. The key to a healthy organic garden is compost, and the key to healthy organic hydroponics (one way, at least) is compost tea. Properly made compost is loaded with living, beneficial micro-organisms, readily available nutrients, humic acids and fulvic acids, as well as many other beneficial substances.

You can place one or two cups of compost into an old sock or pillow case, and suspend it in 5 gallons of room temperature water. Place an air bubbler into the solution to keep it aerated. Also add 1/4 cup of kelp meal (or liquid seaweed, like Maxicrop) and 1/4 cup of un-Sulfured molasses. Let brew for 24-48 hours before using. The tea will have to be diluted before using. Small amounts of other substances, such as high Nitrogen bat guano or high Phosphorus bat guano, can be added to the compost tea to make more suitable fertilizers for the veg stage or flowering stage.

Your investment costs are partly dependent on how quickly your crops grow. Supplying a 30 guest restaurant with varieties of lettuce and herbs would be a relatively small investment. This is true for a number of reasons. First, lettuce, herbs, and spinach all produce edible parts while in the vegetative stage of plant growth. This means they can be grown using less powerful lights (fluorescents) and with fewer fertilizers. They also grow very quickly- some varieties of lettuce in as little as 14 days! Because of the quick turnover, you can supply a 30 person restaurant with lettuce day after day from only two or three medium sized hydroponic systems.

Tomatoes and avocados, on the other hand, require more powerful lights in order to fruit properly. Also, they take several weeks of vegetative growth followed by several weeks of flowering (fruiting) before they begin to produce the tomatoes and avocados. This requires much more fertilizer and more electricity. Also, due to the long production time, you will need many hydroponic systems in different stages of production in order to produce a steady supply of tomatoes and avocados to a 30 guest restaurant.

I cannot tell you exactly what your investment would be....but based on the comparison above, you should be able to begin to assemble lists of the equipment you will need, how much space you may require, how much fertilizer you will need, how much electric you will use, and basically how much it will cost to produce these different products on a regular basis. Start by figuring out how much of each product you will need to produce in order to supply the 30 guest restaurant on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. Compare this to your yield per plant (and consider how quickly the crop grows), and you will begin to get an idea of how much equipment you will require.

You may want to start with a contract to supply salad greens, spinach, and fresh herbs (since this can be set up quickly and produce quickly), and allow this to pay for the set-up of the tomato and avocado production. Strawberries grow quickly, some varieties produce constantly, and they are easy to grow....they may also be a good crop to start out with. I hope this helps you out Eric, and Happy Growing!