© APR 2020 | IRE Journals | Volume 3 Issue 10 | ISSN: 2456-8880

Hydroponic Farm Monitoring System Using IoT

CH. VASANTHA LAKSHMI1, AVARNA. K2, D. NAGA BHAVANI3, G. SATYA SPANDANA4
1, 2, 3, 4
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of
Technology, Namburu, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract- High yielding and high grade of crops are a viable method of producing vegetables (tomatoes,
essential in modern day agriculture, this can only be lettuce, cucumbers and peppers) as well as ornamental
achieved by smart farming technology which is used crops such as herbs, roses, freesia and foliage plants.
for making farms more intelligent in sensing its
controlling parameters. Manual monitoring is in Hydroponics is derived from Greece, hydro meaning
practice which is a very trivial task because the plants water and ponous means work. The hydroponics
may die out if there is no proper care is taken. The technique has many compact types and it can
automatic monitoring and control of the overcome the land problems in urban areas, one of
environmental events such as Total dissolved them is the NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) that can be
solvents (TDS), water temperature, pH, water level or arranged vertically. In hydroponic farming system, the
moisture are carried out by connecting sensors and water will be used continuously and just diminishes
actuators to the Raspberry Pi. The maintenance and because of evaporation by the Sun or by the
automated monitoring are done by the intervention photosynthesis process of plants. If it is compared to
of the IoT that are used to transfer and retrieve data conventional agriculture, water is used once at the time
to the internet (mass storage) and a mobile app is of irrigation, this system can be said to be very
used to communicate the current status of the wasteful in the use of water because a lot of water is
hydroponic system to the user through the use of wasted. In this hydroponic system required particular
internet to their mobile phones. This futuristic system care in controlling water temperature, water level,
can use high data analytics and prolonged data acidity (pH) of the nutrient solution, and higher
gathering to improve the accuracy of reckoning. densities of nutrient solution.

I. INTRODUCTION The control process still uses the conventional way or

still using human power in doing so, for example, in
Agricultural lands are declining in the world. This controlling the density level of the nutrient solution is
happens due to the conversion of agricultural land into performed at least once a day which if the density of
industry and settlement purpose. This happens because nutrients is too high or too low then add water or
of economic and social phenomena, the limitation of nutrients where farmers or owners of hydroponic
land resources, population growth and economic farming system sometimes spent much time. This
growth. Currently, agricultural technology developed becomes a problem which is quite important because
rapidly in urban areas, it is often called urban farming it is not effective and less efficient. This paper focused
or urban agriculture. Urban farming or urban on creating a hydroponic farm management system
agriculture is one powerful solution to cope the that could monitor water temperature, water level,
dwindling agricultural land. The urban agriculture higher densities of nutrient solution and the acidity
using the unused or empty land in urban areas, such as (pH) of a nutrient solution using sensors are related
rooftops, balconies, terraces, even on the walls of and connected to the microcontroller via a website.
buildings. One of the farming techniques used on Hydroponic farming management system allows the
urban farming is hydroponics. “HYDROPONICS” is user to perform control and monitor from a distance.
the growing of plants in a liquid nutrient solution with The green energy concepts used in the Hommons. The
or without the use of artificial media. Commonly used alternative energy source is the sun which was used by
mediums include expanded clay, coir, perlite, utilizing solar panels to convert into Electricity.
vermiculite, brick shards, polystyrene packing peanuts Associated with this research, previously there have
and wood fiber. Hydroponics has been recognized as been several studies related to hydroponics and

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 © APR 2020 | IRE Journals | Volume 3 Issue 10 | ISSN: 2456-8880

automation in agricultural systems at a greenhouse.

The results of this analysis will be used as input for
fertigation systems are already automated to turn on
and turn off the pump to deliver water and nutrients to
plants.

II. SYSTEM AND DESIGN

The hardware design of the Hydroponic system

which consists of sensors, ESP8266, Wi-Fi access
point, microcomputer Raspberry Pi and power
supply, is shown in Fig.1. Microcomputers which
served to accommodate the web server and brokers.
Microcomputers used are Raspberry Pi 2 Model B
ARM Cortex-A7 architecture. Communication
technologies on this system using 802.11 or better
known as Wi-Fi by using the internet. The power Fig.2 Software Design
supply using voltage 5V 2A, this voltage is the
standard voltage and easy to find Fig.2 describes the connection between Raspberry Pi
& mobile or PC with Wi-Fi. Such that when sensors
are connected to Raspberry Pi we further dump the
python code to Raspberry Pi, and the sensors sense the
changes occurred in Hydroponic system, these
readings are posted to the Thing speak cloud and we
can observe the readings from time to time, and further
we can monitor with the mobile app, this is nothing but
called automation using IoT.

III. METHODOLOGY

In the process of hydroponic farming, as shown in

Fig.1 Block Diagram
Fig.3, initially seeds are sown in the soil and they
remain in the soil until the roots are grown. Now these
on any device that is compatible with the USB
baby plants are placed in the hydroponic system,
power supply. Various environmental sensors
where pipes are filled with nutrient solution. Here
installed to detect any change in the physical or
nutrient solution is that, whatever the plants require
chemical environments. Changes in value that occur
nutrients from soil, are well mixed in the water and
in the environment will be read by the sensors and
they are filled in the pipes. And the plants are placed
will become the input to the process management of
such that roots are exposed to nutrient solution in pipes
Hydroponic System.
as shown in Fig.4. Hence plants get sufficient
nutrients, enough water they want, even
photosynthesis is also carried out adequately.

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6. Return system (tubing, channel) to guide the used

nutrient solution back to the reservoir

In the NFT system, there are 2 main components: the

grow tray (or channel) and the reservoir that contains
water and nutrients.

In the grow tray, there are net pots that contain the
growing media (perlite, coconut, Rockwool) to hold
Fig.3 Hydroponic Farming the plants and reserve nutrients from the nutrient
solution. But in reality, most growers don’t use
growing media in the NFT system as the roots have
had enough moisture, nutrients, and oxygen from the
system.

The NFT system uses a pump to deliver water to the

grow tray and a drained pipe to recycle the unused
water nutrient solution. How does this work? The
grow tray is placed at an angle (supported by a rack or
on a bench) to let the water flow down towards the
Fig.4 Plant roots placed in pipes nutrient return pipe. The excess nutrient solution will
flow out of this pipe and move into another channel or
There are many techniques followed in Hydroponic tube, where it is re-circulated through the system
Farming but NFT- Nutrient Film Technique is the again.
popular one that is practiced widely in Hydroponic
farming and it is shown in fig.5 as below. The roots of the plants hang down to the bottom of the
channel where they come into contact with the shallow
film of the nutrient solution and absorb the nutrients
from them.

The thin film of the nutrient solution allows the plants

to be watered but not entirely soaked. This thinness
also allows the upper part of the roots to remain dry
and have access to oxygen in the air.

IV. ALGORITHM
Fig.5 NFT System
Hydroponics is a method of cultivation without soil.
What you need to build a nutrient film technique Its lexical meaning of hydro is water. However, this
system (NFT) method requires other planting media such as gravel,
sand, coconut fiber, a substance silicate, broken rock
1. A reservoir to contain the nutrient solution or reef, pieces of wood, and foam.
2. Nutrient pump
3. Tubes to distribute water from the nutrient pump to In the growth and development process of watercress
the NFT growing tubes is influenced by independent variables, namely levels
4. Channel for the plants to grow in of nutrients, acidity, and temperature
5. Net pots to contain plants and growing media to
start seedlings in Those independent variables can be used as input
variable system to predict the watercress growth and

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development. if more or less temperature the water has. The purpose

of this sensor is to detect whether the water or nutrient
Variables used in this study were the variables of input solution level is upto a sufficient height for plant
system: growth or not . That is to detect if water or nutrient
a. Variable of the TDS solution is present in the pipes or not. The pH of the
b. Variable of water level nutrient solution for most nutrient film technique is
c. Variable of water temperature 6.0-7.0.
d. Variable of pH
V. RESULT
The Algorithm it follows is shown in fig.6. We use
TDS, Water temperature & moisture sensors. There Readings from sensors & its values that are posted in
are some limitations for the growth of plants in Thingspeak cloud via Raspberry Pi can be observed
hydroponic system. So, sensors are connected to from time to time. There are some limitations for the
Raspberry Pi and we dump the python code to growth of plants in hydroponic system. Figures 7 and
Raspberry Pi, and further it is connected to Thing 8 show the sample view of TDS, water temperature
speak using IoT, here the readings from sensors can be graph posted in Thingspeak cloud. The maintenance
observed from time to time. If the values are not within and automated monitoring are done by the intervention
the range when observed in Thing speak. We can of the IoT that are used to transfer and retrieve data to
regulate them manually according to the requirement the internet and a mobile app is used to communicate
of plant growth. the current status of the hydroponic system to the user
through the use of internet to their mobile phones.
Through mobile app we can turn on or off the motor,
can control the temperature of nutrient solution etc.
and some are done manually.

Fig.6 Algorithm for Hydroponics

Fig.7 TDS graph in Thingspeak cloud
It is mandatory to check TDS- Total Dissolved
Solvents in the nutrient solution. Because plants
should be supplied with sufficient nutrients if any of
the quantity is less then there will not be a better
growth of plants. The following result shows TDS
graph that varies time to time even when salts are
increased or decreased. TDS range should be in
between 200-500 ppm, and it is different for different
vegetables.

The water temperature should be in the range 18-26 C.

Fig.8 Water Temperature graph in Thingspeak cloud
It should in that limit only otherwise the plant may die,

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VI. CONCLUSION & FUTURE SCOPE Published in: 2018 International Conference on
Smart Systems and Inventive Technology
Hydroponically grown plants do not come in contact (ICSSIT).
with soil borne pests and diseases thus saves costs of [7] Jones, J.B. 2005. Hydroponics: a practical guide
soil preparation, insecticides and fungicides. Since the for the soilless grower. CRC Press. Boca Raton.
amount of nutrients is fed directly to the plants, there Fla.
is no wastage of water due to run off or evaporation.
[8] v Mason, J. 1990. Commercial hydroponics.
Today, hydroponics is an established branch of
Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst, NSW.
farming. Progress has been on large scale and results
obtained in various countries in the world have proved [9] Dr. D.K. Sreekantha, Kavya.A.M “Agricultural
that this technology is thoroughly practical and has Crop Monitoring using IoT- A Study” IEEE 2017
very definite advantages over conventional methods of 11th International Conference on Intelligent
crop production. Systems and Control (ISCO), pp. 134-139, 2017.
[10] Foughali Karima, Fathalah Karimb,Ali Frihidab
Many IOT enabled hydroponic farms such as rooftop “Monitoring system using web of things in
farms, vertical farms and green buildings can be precision agriculture” ELSVIER The 12th
placed near the city areas which will directly cut International Conference on Future Networks and
transportation costs & using IOT plants can be Communications, Vol. 110, pp. 402-409, 2017.
transported safely. A standard website can be made
which will take sensor data place correct graphs and
help farmers to attain information. This way every
farm will be used for research purposes. Government,
big co-operations will jump into hydroponics because
of low arable land, availability of water, costs, climate
change and increasing population.

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