International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume şǰȱœœžŽȱŘǰȱŽ‹›žŠ›¢ȬŘŖŗŞ 67

ISSN 2229-5518

IoT based Automated Hydroponics System

Shreya Tembe, Sahar Khan, Rujuta Acharekar

Abstract— Over the years, traditional farming for harvesting with the use of soil takes longer time to decompose making it prone to
diseases and expensive. Hydroponics system means growing plants without soil with better results, especially in areas with space and
environment unsuitable. Commercial Hydroponics is the upcoming technology that grows plants through an inert media instead of natural
soil. This system has no adverse effects on environment or quality on crops. In contrast, it provides better nutrient value and allows
controlling the nutrients via nutrient solution. Its main aim is to save water, improve quality of crops avoiding the adverse effects of
pesticides and factors affecting quality of soil and save land. This paper provides an overview about the cost-effective implementation of
Hydroponics for small farmers in India.

Index Terms— hydroponics, IoT, soilless, automation, growth, nutrients, crops

——————————  ——————————

1 INTRODUCTION
Humans require air, food, water, and living space in order to 9.3 hectare of Hydroponics agriculture in Shimla district with a
survive. These things are not endless in nature and thus humans joint venture WPC, Netherland is progressing towards protected
are dependent upon the optimization of land area and the preser- greenhouse environment.[9]
vation of biodiversity. The human population is increasing and
predicted to expand from 7.0 billion to 9.5 billion people within ————————————————
the next 40 years (Sahara Forest Project, 2009). An ever-  Shreya Tembe is currently pursuing degree program in electronics and

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increasing demand for food species is implied, and it is estimated telecommunication in St. Xavier’s Institute of Engineering, India, E-mail:
that food production will have to be doubled in order to compen- [email protected]
 Sahar Khan is currently degree program in electronics and telecommunica-
sate and provide availability to all. tion in St. Xavier’s Institute of Engineering, India. E-mail:
The word “Hydroponic” defines as any means to grow plants [email protected]
via a medium that does not include the use of soil but involves
inorganic nutrients or nutrient solution. Gericke who described
methods of growing plants in liquid media (nutrient solution)
introduced the term Hydroponics. Besides Gericke, many at- 2 REVIEW OF RESEARCH PROPOSAL
tempts were made to adopt the methods of soilless growing plants 2.1 History
during thirties. However, technological progress was too inade- The idea of hydroponic cultivation is a dated back from the
quate due to insufficient knowledge about the nutrients and high history of Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The modern hydro-
cost involved in the process. Despite of all, countries like USA ponics did not begin until the 17th century according to the
and others were keen to adopt this technology so that growing High Times report on "The history of Hydroponics". In addi-
plants indoors without the favorable soil required as well as con- tion, following up on this report, "Willow Tree Experiment"
trolling the nutrient is possible. was a booster to inspire scientists to dig deeper into these
One of the basic principles for vegetable production, both in methods, by splitting up roots from soil and water source.
soil and in hydroponic systems, is to provide all the nutrients the This led to growing use of techniques that required only nutri-
plant needs. Several chemical elements are essential for growth ents to nurture crops. A duo of German scientists W. Knop
and production of plants, in sixteen elements: carbon, hydrogen, and Julius von Sachs contributed greatly in this field by dis-
oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, calcium, mag- covering that, the three main elements for nutrient solution
nesium, manganese, iron, zinc, boron, copper, molybdenum and formula are potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen. The High
chlorine. Among the elements mentioned above, there is a divi- Times magazine has also said that a major leap in the technol-
sion according to their origin: organic, C, H, O and minerals; ogy of hydroponics took place in 1980's as an Israeli scientist
broken down into macronutrients, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, and micro- from Volcani Institute of Ein Gedi discovered the aeroponics
nutrients, Mn, Fe, B, Zn, Cu, Mo, Ni, Cl (Malavolta, 2006). In method, which transformed the desert into an immense oasis.
hydroponic crops, absorption is usually proportional to the con-
centration of nutrients in the solution near the roots, being much In the 1920s, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station im-
influenced by environmental factors such as salinity, oxygena- proved the existing ways and making sand & water hydro-
tion, temperature, pH and conductivity of nutrient solution, light ponics capable enough for large-scale crop production. Ac-
intensity, photoperiod and air humidity (Furlani et al.,1999). [4] cording to NASA space mission reports, space hydroponics
has been initiated since 2002. They have replicated the envi-
Besides these facts, the progress of Hydroponics is being en-
ronmental ambience by implementing powerful LED lighting
couraged in India commercially. Letcreta Agritech is Goa’s first
system, a green house that will control these moisture, humid-
indoor Hydroponics start up that produces 1.5-2 tons of leafy
vegetables of good quality and pest free. Bit Mantis Innovation ity and temperature automatically. Growing crops in low lati-
provides IoT solution GREEENSAGE i.e. a micro edition kit tude areas of Mars, where the sunlight acquired is adequate,
using hydroponics method for water usage and nutrient suitable have successfully conducted series of experiments. Now, this
for individual's convenience. Junga Fresh n Green, a start up with form of agriculture has also been introduced in India. With
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume şǰȱœœžŽȱŘǰȱŽ‹›žŠ›¢ȬŘŖŗŞ
ISSN 2229-5518

reference to Statistics Times, India accounts for 7.68% GDP of d) Deep water culture: A reservoir acts as the container to
the total global agricultural output. store the nutrient solution. Oxygen, water and nutrient supply is
provided by suspending the roots of the crops in this solution.
2.2 Need
According to the World Population Prospects, India ranks e) Drip system: In this system, the nutrient solution is
number 2 in the list of countries by population. This popula- released onto the base of plants and e-nutrient solution is
tion is growing at the rate of 1.2% every year. The major ne- collected and resused.
cessity of every human being is food. In order to meet up to
the food demands of this growing population, it is necessary
f) Aeroponics: This is very similar to Nutrient Film
to implement vertical gardening, which will give optimum
Technique. However, the only difference is that, instead of using
produce in a limited space. As we know, states like Madhya
a recirculation method, it is replaced by sprinklers. These
Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa, Karnataka and sprinklers do the task of misting the root zone with nutrient
Maharashtra face severe drought conditions. This has an ad- solution
verse economic impact on the agricultural sector of India. As
mentioned in the Economic Survey of Maharashtra, there was
a 2.7% decline in the economy of agriculture sector in 2015-16.
However, if the above-mentioned techniques are imple- 4 ADVANTAGES
mented, the farmers shall not remain dependent of the cli-
matic changes, lack of water and challenges faced due to fluc- To define the purpose of this topic it is essential to know
tuating moisture conditions. As said earlier, the income of an about the outcomes and benefits of Hydroponics. It works best
average farmer in India is approximately 6426 INR, which for areas unsuitable for conventional farming such as arid,
shall limit him from implementing such a beneficial technol- degraded or deserted, it is independent of the weather thus
ogy. [11] allows cultivation throughout the year. To serve the world
population, it can add to the fast economic return including

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optimal use of water and other resources. Thus with increase
in production it allows gives better standardization of cultiva-
3 TYPES OF HYDROPONICS tion and cultivation time making better use of land , thereby
increasing total yield in the greenhouse. Hydroponics is the
alternative to soil sterilization to combat the chemical side ef-
fects resulting toxicity and other harmful effects. The best part
4 CITATIONS about it is, the nutrients can be better controlled and moni-
tored than in crops cultivated in soil. The recycling of green-
house effluents reduces fertilization and eliminates nutrient
leaching. The reuse of the nutrient solution effluents in closed
soilless culture systems entails the risk of disease spread via
the recycled leachate. A disinfection system should be in-
stalled to avoid infections in the reused water. Wohanka ex-
tensively outlines this topic in a recently published review.
Due to the above characteristics, which enable an appreciable
restriction in pesticide use and nutrient leaching, hydroponics
Fig. 1. Types of Hydroponics (Image source: Google)
is considered not only compatible but also strongly favourable
and supportive to the application of integrated crop manage-
a) Wick system: The simplest technique compared to all ment in greenhouses.
the above is wick system, as it does not consume electricity,
use pumps or has any moving parts.

5 DISADAVANTAGES
b) Ebb and Flow (flood and drain): This is the most
uncommon method, also known as Ebb and Flow technique. The The major disadvantage of Hydroponics is its costing that is
plant roots are not exposed like done in Nutrient Film Technique higher than natural soil process as it requires soilless culture
(NFT) setup including controlling and monitoring equipments and tech-
nical skill to cope up with it. It also requires constant supervision
i.e. water-based microorganism can be easily introduced or in
c) Nutrient Film Tehnique: A structure similar to PVC
case of power outage setup must be handled manually. Above
pipes is implemented in this technique. A series of plants are
listed are of minor importance in comparison to cultivation on an
grown in line using this form of structure. The nutrient solution is
industrial scale.
pumped into the pipe like formation and then collected back into
the reservoir through the other end, where an outlet is created for
the solution to flow out. In other words, recirculation is applied
and at the same time, water conservation is proved from this
method.

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5 EQUIPMENTS of range, a red light is indicated. However air temperature can be

controlled, possibly a fan can be used for extensions.
In order for the controller to be used for growing and automa-
tion and for people to use it, following are the requirements as
mentioned below. g) Light level: Light level can be a problem for the growth
of plants in Hydroponics. LEDs can be controlled and customized
to any desired color temperature for nurturing the vertical hydro-
a) Arduino Mega 2560: Arduino Mega 2560 is used as ponics garden. Environmental ambience can be replicated by the
we are interfacing several sensors to the board. It has graced with use of a LED grow light system. According to a journal report
up to 54 digital I/O pins, 16 analog pins, a 16MHz crystal fre- "Growth and photosynthesis of Chinese cabbage plants grown
quency and 4 hardware serial ports. It has pins to access inter- under light-emitting diode-based light source" conducted in 2009,
rupts and has EEPROM i.e. permanent storage is possible, thus LEDs can be scientifically used and implemented to grow
satisfying the interfacing requirements. crops.[10]

b) Temperature and Humidity sensor: DHT11 performs

this task. For temperatures up to 80 degree Celsius, they provide
an accuracy of ±0.1% and a fair response speed of 2 seconds. 6 CONTRIBUTION
Their humidity measuring range is 0 to 100%, which is sufficient
Over the years, traditional farming with the use of soil me-
for this system. The plants are very sensitive to fluctuating tem-
dium consumes a lot of space and water; not on that, but it is also
perature and humidity, if both of these parameters are high; the
prone to pest attacks, resulting in higher use of pesticides. Hy-
plants lack their ability to transpire. Thus, it has an adverse effect
droponic system means growing plants without soil with better
on their growth. However, they adapt to a higher humidity range
results, especially in areas where, the environment is where sea-
once their roots have matured. An RTC (Timer circuit) can be
sonal changes are not promising or face drought conditions. In-
implemented in order to keep track of the time, such that the sys-
stead of soil, coco peat, rock wool, vermicompost are used. Our
tem will detect whether it is day or night.

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approach is to make an Automated Hydroponic System reducing
labour cost as well as improving the quality of plants cost effec-
c) Real Time clock (RTC): DS3234 RTC can be used via tively. Our contribution is to make an Arduino based project the
SPI interface. It comes with in-built power sense to detect power plant will be planted indoors and parameters such as pH level,
fails and set battery automatically. The clock being the centre of temperature, and humidity electrical conductivity will be moni-
the controller used to power up at certain intervals. The accuracy tored. Based on the monitored data, the automated part includes
of the timer is ±2ppm between 0 to 40 degree per C. it can sup- sprinklers for pest, humidity adjustment unit and pH up/down
port alarms giving flexibility for future uses. pump accordingly. This again is interfaced with a Wi-Fi module
making data easy to monitor. This Hydroponics system requires
d) pH level and circuit: Every child is born differently less pesticides, water and space than traditional agricultural sys-
and has his own unique tastes. Similarly, the crops have their tems. This may be stacked (if outfitted with led lighting) in order
own preferences in pH levels. The control of pH is important to to limit the space usage (vertical farming). This makes them op-
avoid nutrient loss. If we have to select one range of pH, most of timal for use in cities; where space is particularly limited and
them require an acidic environment (between 5.5 to 6.0). Howev- populations are high-self-sustaining city-based food systems
er, most of them adapt to survive up to the range of 7.5. The pH mean a reduced strain on distant farms, the reduction of habitat
is constantly reported. There are several methods to monitor these intrusions, fewer food miles, and fewer carbon emissions.
values of hydrogen ion concentration such as litmus tests. How-
ever, in gardening, these levels need constant monitoring and this
is achieved by using pH probes. These devices can be interfaced
to an Arduino. The major challenge faced in this stage is the pH
module, which is used to amplify the output of the pH probe
(which is just 59mV per pH unit). These modules require ampli-
fiers with very high input impedance; if this need is not satisfied
then loading effect on the probe will be very high. There are vari-
eties of amplifiers that can be considered in the designing part of
this step (LMC6001, TL072, and TL062).

e) EC level and circuit: Nutrients are made of mineral

salts, which are then dissolved into water. The strength of the
nutrient solution can be detected by an electrical conductivity
meter. As each nutrient has different salt content, it may lack
some nutrient or have abundance of one of the nutrients, etc. This
makes EC measured at constant pH.

f) Air temperature: The controller reports air tempera-

ture on real time basis to the screen. In case if the level falls out Fig.2 Proposed Block diagram

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Fig. 1. Types of Hydroponics (Image source: Google)
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ISSN 2229-5518

Fig.2 shows the block diagram of the IoT Based Automated (A) COST EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF PH PROBE
Hydroponic System. The system is divided into the following MODULE
monitoring (consisting of various sensors), controlling, automat-
The pH probe modules available are extremely costly and since
ing and storing data sections. Arduino Mega 2560 is used to suf-
fice the requirement of interfacing all these parameters together our main aim is to reduce the system cost
to perform in synchronization. The temperature and humidity As shown in Fig.4 pH probe module schematic layout, the pH
sensors sense the surrounding environment, while the pH level probe amplifier consists of IC TL072 which is a very high
sensor provides us with the pH value of the nutrient solution and impedance operational amplifier (the impedance is 10 12 Ω) Also,
the Electrical conductivity will check the nutrient value. In addi- it consumes very low power as compared to other ICs
tion to this, based on Humidity adjustment unit will enable the (LMC6001, TL062) that we had shortlisted. A dual to single
water sprinklers to cool down and control humidity within the supply converter is made using the same IC, which splits the
planting house. Sprinklers are needed for sprinkling the pH solu- input 10V to ±5V. Hence, we do not have to use a separate power
tion/nutrient solution/water in response to the humidity, pH and supply for both positive and negative swing of the OPAMP. An
EC sensors. The pH pump will help in feeding the pH solution to inverting amplifier with a gain of 4.7V is required to amplify the
the plant. The pH value should be between 5-6.5 so that the plant
pH probe output voltage, which is in millivolts (0 to ±414mV).
will remain unaffected. LED Grow lights are used to produce
To scale the output to be less than 5V (as we are using arduino)
lights (red and blue) at two distinct spectrums simultaneously
without bleeding into other wavelengths and minimal heat pro- we have used a voltage divider network. Finally, we will obtain a
duction. In addition, pest detection unit will detect pest on plants scaled and amplified output that can be applied to one of the
and sprinklers will be activated to sprinkle organic pesticides. analog pins of Arduino Mega 2560.
The output data is interfaced with ESP8266 Wi-Fi module so that (B) PROPOSED IMPLEMENTATION OF LED GROW
the data can be stored on cloud and monitored remotely and con- LIGHTS
veniently.
From Fig.5. Light spectrum for Hydroponics, it is observed that

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plants require red and blue spectrum. A process called
photomorphogensis is a9 plant process completely related to light
spectrums absorbed by the plants. Also, it is absolutely different
from photosynthesis.Plants will be nurtured the best if grown
under red and blue lights. From study, it is said that the LED
grow lights should be kept at least 30 cms above the plants, to
avoid leaf burns. [12]
A combination of red and blue LED strips is going to be used to
achieve a lighting system that replicates the above mentioned
behaviour. This stage is a very crucial stage, hence light intensity
control through Arduino will also be added, to control the light
intensity, similar to how the sun changes its intensity. This will
allow us to grow healthy plants indoors, during odd climates that
do not suit the plant we wish to grow. Hence, LED grow light
system is extremely important, as it can help in nurturing plants
Fig.3 Proposed structure for Hydroponics that belong in a different time of the year or season.

Fig.5 Light spectrum for Hydroponics. (Image Source: Google)

7 CONCLUSION

The aim of this paper is to show the details of hydroponics

that is implemented using electronic circuit, water and nutri-
ent solution i.e. soilless. The system automatically supplies
nutrient and nutrients can be monitored. Once the monitoring
Fig.4 pH probe module Schematic is done corrections can be done i.e. it can be controlled accord-
ingly leading to higher productivity. We are aiming to imple-
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International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume şǰȱœœžŽȱŘǰȱŽ‹›žŠ›¢ȬŘŖŗŞ
ISSN 2229-5518

ment pest detection and connecting to Wi-Fi module (IoT

based) to make the automated model more flexible. This sys-
tem saves water and fertilizers, gives better yields as com-
pared to soil system.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This prototype is an excellent opportunity where authors came
across developing and improving our knowledge in the field of
electronics. Authors consider themselves honored to be led
throughout in the completion of this research work. Authors wish
to express their indebted gratitude to their honorable principal
Dr.Y.D. Venkatesh and special thanks to Mrs. Smita Pawar who
in spite of being extraordinarily busy took out time to hear and
guide the authors of this paper and lead them on the correct path.
This experience of work exposed them to self-development and
exposure to the field knowledge.

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