Module Overview
This module introduces the concept of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) and provides background on the main methods of CEA used in the classroom, including how to relate these skills to potential career opportunities.
Learning Goals
After this module, learners will be able to:
- Differentiate between hydroponic, aeroponic, and aquaponic production techniques.
- Describe and apply CEA production techniques suitable for school growing.
- Incorporate related agriculture career awareness information and workforce development skills.
Roadmap
These items will all appear, in order, in the module.
- READ & WATCH: What is Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)?
Please click NEXT at the bottom of this page to advance through the module. To return to the list of modules, PC users click “Modules” in the top left corner, App users click the back arrow in the top left header.
What is Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA)?
Watch this video and read through this page to learn about controlled environment agriculture.
(56 seconds)
Video Transcript: Controlled Environment Agriculture
Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) is a method where the inputs for indoor growing such as temperature, lighting, water delivery, and feeding of nutrients are carefully controlled. This allows for faster, more efficient growth using less water and fertilizer than is used when growing outdoors.
Using CEA techniques allows for indoor, classroom-based growing. It is the key to being able to plant, maintain, harvest, prepare, and taste fresh vegetables and herbs during the academic calendar year, even in the winter.
In GTS we use the AeroGarden system to grow both herbs and tomatoes. This system comes with its own LED light supply, a reservoir to hold water and nutrients (nutrient solution), and a pump to circulate the nutrient solution through the plant roots where uptake of water, nutrients, and oxygen occur. Plants growing in CEA need the same nutrients as plants growing outdoors, but they are suspended in nutrient solution instead of being added to the soil.
Differences Between CEA and Outdoor Raised Bed Growing
Growing medium. Outdoors we grow in soil. In CEA we do not grow in soil, but instead grow in soilless media such as peat moss, coconut coir, perlite, or rockwool.
Pollination. Whereas outdoor plants are pollinated by wind and insects, you may need to become the pollinator of your CEA plants when growing inside. For example: tomatoes need pollinators to set fruit, so you need to hand pollinate them in a hydroponic system if you wish to get a successful harvest. The following video shows 3 fun ways to pollinate your plants for the maximum vegetable yield in your AerGarden
(1 minute, 2 seconds)
Video Transcript: AeroGarden – Ways to Pollinate for Maximum Vegetable Yields
Three Ways of CEA
The three ways that plants grow in CEA are aeroponics, hydroponics, and aquaponics. Aeroponics and hydroponics are often used interchangeably but there are some differences in the two techniques.
Aeroponics is when the plant roots are intermittently bathed in nutrient solution. Hydroponics is when the plant roots are continuously bathed in nutrient solution. Some units are a hybrid of both types of growing. For example, the AeroGarden starts with aeroponics to get the plants to germinate and then as the pump cycles, but as the plants grow their roots will grow down into the reservoir to continuously uptake nutrient solution.
A third type of CEA is aquaponics. This uses fish to provide a nutrient solution from the manure in the water they live in. This solution is circulated through the plant roots where the plants take up the nutrients, cleaning the water before it is returned to the fish.
The most common plants grown in CEA worldwide include leafy greens, herbs, and vining crops such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons.
Some notes on CEA:
- Ohio is one of the fastest growing states in CEA, and as of 2023, we were the #2 state in the nation for indoor production of fruits, vegetables, and herbs.
- You can grow the same varieties of plants such as kale or lettuce in all three GTS methods at the same time, allowing for the use of comparison studies with your students.
- The key to CEA growing is providing the necessary lighting system for indoor plant growth. The AeroGarden Harvest LED lighting panel provides optimal lighting.
- Plants take up their nutrients in the inorganic form, which is why we can add fertilizer in the form of ions into water to make nutrient solution for plant roots to absorb in CEA.
Please click NEXT at the bottom of this page to advance through the module. To return to the list of modules, PC users click “Modules” in the top left corner, App users click the back arrow in the top left header.
