Greenville County farmer Jesse Adkins has no problem teaching people about hydroponics — up to a point, that is.
“I can tell you everything you need to know, but I won’t tell you everything I know,” he said, laughing. “I don’t want to educate the public so much they become my competition.”
Adkins has been running Hurricane Creek Farms in Pelzer for more than 15 years. Since then, his agricultural products have become a hidden gem, sought out by local chefs and restauranteurs on their never-ending quest for the best quality ingredients.
Restaurants like The Anchorage, Husk, Oak Hill Cafe, Kitchen Sync, Grits and Groceries, Swamp Rabbit Cafe and others have featured Hurricane Creek Farms on their menus.
“All the chefs come down here and they see what we got,” Adkins said.
While he’s well known for his freshly-milled cornmeal, grits, Black Angus cattle and house-made ice cream, Adkins’ specialty is hydroponics, which, simply put, is produce grown without the use of soil.
Instead of soil, the produce grown inside the 1,800-square-foot greenhouse at Hurricane Creek is planted in what’s called “perlite,” an amorphous, volcanic rock that has been super-heated into a glass-like substance. The volcanic rock gives the roots of the plants something to hold onto and spread while all the sustenance comes from water in which nutrients have been dissolved.
“This gives us total control over what the plant gets,” Adkins said, as he strolled through the greenhouse. “That’s what’s called CEA — controlled environmental agriculture.”
Once the plants are ready, they are transferred into a “dutch bucket system” for produce like tomatoes, peppers, basil and cucumbers, or a “raft system” for lettuce (the difference is dependent upon how tall the plants grow).
Using a boiler fueled by logs sourced from tree removal services, Adkins keeps the plants warm from below while their roots stretch out in water enriched with chemicals: calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, phosphorous and magnesium.
“If your nutrients are right, the flavor is going to be right,” he said.
A growing industry
Hydroponics farming offers a wide range of control that traditional farming does not. Plants grown with hydroponics require just 10% of what plants would need grown in soil, since both evaporation and absorption are more calibrated. With the plants absorbing water enriched with exactly the right recipe of chemicals, grow times are quicker by about 30-50% and the flavor is more robust.
Farmers living in areas with poor or arid soil don’t have to worry about harsh conditions. Weather is also no longer a factor, and farmers can use LED lights to keep plants growing even during the dark winter months.
It’s that kind of control that has spurred rapid growth (no pun intended) in the hydroponics industry. The global hydroponics markets are expected to be valued at $22.2 billion in 2028, more than double its $9.5 billion value in 2020, according to Reports and Data, a market research and consulting company.
Locally, hydroponics are quietly gaining traction.
Tyger River Farm in Greer, founded in 2012, has taken hydroponics farming and expanded it into a 13,000-square-foot, fully automated greenhouse facility capable of producing thousands of items a week. Natural gas heaters recirculate fans, exhaust vents cool plants, mechanical vents control temperature and an evaporative cooler aids in controlling humidity.
“The automatic, retracting shade system also helps with temperature control and light levels,” the farm explained on its website. “LED grow lights specific to photosynthesis provide supplemental lighting during the winter months when solar light levels are too low for growing crops. We even have carbon dioxide generators to enrich the surrounding air if the levels become low.”
Farms can also utilize large-scale resources like CropKing, based in Lodi, Ohio, which specializes in supplying hydroponic structures and equipment.
Owner Marilyn Brentlinger said in the 40 years the company has been in business, the market has never been so strong.
“We started in a two-car garage and now we’re in a 30,000-square-foot building with 30 employees here just at this site,” Brentlinger said. “Obviously business has picked up.”
For farmers like Adkins, CropKing is a resource that ensures he isn’t playing a guessing game with his nutritional solution. All he has to do is send a sample of his local water to CropKing and he gets back a full breakdown of the chemical components already present in the water.
“When we look at their water, we can generate a recipe of chemicals for what they need based on what they already currently have in their water,” Brentlinger said.
Despite his joke about not training the public to be his competition, Adkins is well aware that starting a hydroponics farm of the size of Hurricane Creek Farm requires a significant upfront investment: steel and plastic to build the greenhouse, heating and cooling, electrical equipment, and so on.
But he says there’s no reason hobbyists can’t use hydroponics to grow their own fruits and vegetables.
“There are plenty of easy systems you can buy to get started,” he said. “I say it’s worth a try.”
Local hydroponics equipment rescues:
- L.O.T.U.S. Urban Farm & Garden Supply
- Foothills Hydroponics
- Edens Supply
- Future Gardens
