OWEN O’ROURKE / ITEM PHOTO
Anthony Eugenio, the owner of Green Harvest Hydroponics in Peabody, with a LED indoor growth environment.
By GAYLA CAWLEY
PEABODY — A local business owner has seen indoor plants grow faster and more efficiently by eliminating the soil through a system called hydroponics.
Anthony Eugenio, owner of Green Harvest Hydroponics, 82 Newbury St., expanded his business to that location in April. His first store opened in 2013 in Plaistow, N.H.
Eugenio, a Lawrence resident who owns the business with his father Joe Eugenio, said the plan is to open up stores in other locations. There are only the two stores now. Green Harvest is a retail store, which sells materials a person would need to grow plants inside or outside through hydroponics.
Eugenio said hydroponics is a plant-growing method that eliminates the use of soil. According to a dictionary definition, hydroponics is the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil.
Eugenio said the normal plant-growing method with soil requires plants to search for nutrients enriched in the soil after it is watered. With hydroponics, the process of being exposed to the nutrients is sped up, as nutrients are being directly injected into the water, which foregoes the need for feeder roots to search for nutrients embedded in soil, he said.
Eugenio said the hydroponics method has different ways of introducing water to the plants, with the most popular being the ebb and flow, or drain and flood. With that method, clay pebbles hold the plants up and water floods into those pebbles throughout the day. Water can also be misted onto the plant periodically.
Another method is deep-water culture, with plants being kept in water all the time. Nutrients are added to the water and the water is changed out every week, according to Eugenio.
With hydroponics, Eugenio said plants grow up to 50 percent faster. He said fruits and vegetables are also larger, because they are directly ingesting nutrients.
“(It’s about) being able to turn over crops faster and more efficiently with more yield,” Eugenio said of the benefits.
Eugenio said hydroponics makes plants easier to grow inside, and is “my generation’s version of gardening.” For drawbacks, he said some people are turned off by the fruits and vegetables having more of a watered down flavor.
He said hydroponics is becoming more popular and that other countries have adopted it quicker than the United States.
