Things to consider when running experiments in hydroponics

Two different growing facilities are never exactly the same. Fine tuning nutrient solutions, irrigation cycles and environmental conditions is therefore fundamental to achieve the best possible outcomes under different growing conditions. This naturally requires experimentation, which is not trivial to carry out. Today I am going to talk about five important things you need to consider when carrying out experiments that will help you maximize what you learn from them and avoid running experiments where no valuable information will be obtained.

The number of plants. Any experiment relies heavily on sample size in order to generate data that can lead to valid conclusions. A small sample size will have an inherently larger variability due to randomness that will make any conclusions naturally weaker. The smaller the studied effect is expected to be, the larger the sample size that will be required. Some things can be studied with a small number of samples - say just 5 plants - while others require very large number. For example if I'm trying to determine whether a 5000ppm concentration of Na will kill plants I can just do that with a small group, while if I'm trying to determine the effect of several different levels of Na on plant growth, then I'll need a large group, properly divided among different treatments.