Videos by Vishwa Chandrasekharan
CV Hydro's Soilless Cultivation/Hydroponics Training Centre Bangalore, India is a cut above any o... more CV Hydro's Soilless Cultivation/Hydroponics Training Centre Bangalore, India is a cut above any other training institutes in the Indian Sub-continent. More details are on our website www.cvhydro.in
#Hydroponics #Hydroponics India #life #perspectives #purpose #love #believe #joy #change #selfawareness #kindness #AskAlmaMentor #journey #contribution #conversation #story #hydroponics #askcvhydro #soillesshorticulture #urbanfarming #travel #vlogger #entrepreneur #inspiration #leader #coaching #mindfulness #spirituality #mindset 71 views
Papers by Vishwa Chandrasekharan
Turmeric Research Salem Var India, 2021
An experiment was conducted to evaluate a variety of turmeric popularly grown in Tamil Nadu state... more An experiment was conducted to evaluate a variety of turmeric popularly grown in Tamil Nadu state of India called the Salem Variety for yield, curcumin enhancement, presence of heavy metals, microbiological contamination and quantity of clean saleable material at time of harvest using the soilless cultivation method viz. Media culture, here cocopeat. The turmeric finger rhizomes were trialed in HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) Grow Bags, black within and without. The research was conducted in three conditions from day one with same batch of seed finger rhizomes of Var. Salem. Agronomy practices as followed in Soilless cultivation methods were followed as per Industry best practice. The three conditions were T1, T2 & T3. T1 was in open condition open to the elements of the weather. T2 was in a Naturally ventilated Polyhouse without a shade screen and Fogger system. T3 was in a shade-house with white 50 % shade level and insect screen 40 mesh on all sides. During the entire experiment the following parameters were observed and analyzed:
Soil-less Cultivation Master's Program, 2021
CV Hydro's Master 90-Day Program in Soilless Cultivation is the only one of its kind in SE Asia.
my life, 2021
my life in soilless cultivation
TURMERIC TRAINING COURSE, 2021
During the times of the pandemic when everyone was at home, we were on the field doing groundbrea... more During the times of the pandemic when everyone was at home, we were on the field doing groundbreaking research and development on soilless turmeric and we simply cracked Turmeric using soilless technology. CV Hydro, is, the brainchild of Lt Cdr CV Prakash (veteran), the pioneer in Indian Soilless Horticulture. www.cvhydro.in Our breakthrough, is now known to even the highest echelons of the Ministry of Agriculture/ICAR/IARI/IISR etc, at the centre and they have asked us to disseminate information to those interested to take up Turmeric cultivation. The results of the Turmeric we grew was validated at Eurofins, a world renowned/reputed lab. The results showed: • Zero heavy metal residues • Negligible/ acceptable microbial contamination • Higher curcumin content than normal* • Unbelievable yields. We have developed the needed Best Practices and Standard Operating Procedures for Turmeric and we have decided to teach interested people before the season kicks off beginning of May 2021. These will be disseminated during the course. We will show students how to grow Turmeric using simple methodologies and how they can make turmeric grow multi-fold from seed (finger and mother rhizomes). The duration of each course is 5 days (Monday to Friday). The courses will be held in 5 batches of 20 students each, for five consecutive weeks. Batches are on dates as mentioned follows: 1
ANNUAL NEWS LETTER -CV HYDRO
1: 1 ANNUAL NEWS LETTER FROM CV HYDRO-THE YEAR THAT WAS-2020 Dear Friends, Greetings everyone. As... more 1: 1 ANNUAL NEWS LETTER FROM CV HYDRO-THE YEAR THAT WAS-2020 Dear Friends, Greetings everyone. As is usual tradition, here is our year-end newsletter to let you know how 2020 happened for us and our feelings about the same. Read on. As the curtains are almost drawn over the year 2020, a year that posterity will remember forever, a year that was traumatic for each and every human in the world, the COVID-19 pandemic swept like a tsunami bringing great hardships and sorrows for many. Yes, humanity came together as one and presented a good fight and it looks like the scourge is on its way out and for good. Our humble thanks to all the medical and para-medical professionals, the police, volunteers all COVID-19 warriors all over the world who risked and, in many cases, even gave their tomorrow for our today. Their selfless contribution will never be forgotten. The pandemic was also responsible for tectonic shifts of long held human paradigms, concepts, beliefs and dogmas many of which were against smooth and peaceful living and anti-evolutionary in nature. The year 2020 also taught one and all amongst many other things the value of consuming food rich not in quantity but in quality, in that, the value of immunity. Many perished due to poor immune levels, many bucked the virus with better immune levels. COVID-19 was also in many ways a wake-up call for humanity. It slowed us down, gave us ample opportunity to look within our lives. Questions like "What am I after?", "Wither am I running to?", "Where is my life leading to?" and many hundreds of such questions passed millions of minds. Humanity in the greed for the material longings of life had lost compassion, consideration, love, respect and the like and was moving dangerously towards self-annihilation and in many ways COVID was a speed-bump reminding us all that life is more than usurping and plundering a beautiful planet like Mother Earth. Coming to CV Hydro, we too had our own learnings during the year 2020. We moved from our old base at Dharwad in northern Karnataka State to Bangalore on the 5 th of February 2020 and hit the ground running. A new and more modern training Centre for training our 90-day students in Soilless horticulture was built in record time by 11 th March 2020. Even before the formal inauguration we had 5 students signed up for their grueling 90-day endeavor. But the imminent lockdown alas, put paid to my students journey as all of them had their parents recall them to their homes. Then there was a lull for a few months till around September after which some students who had gone home returned and new students started coming in. As I write, we are glad to have 10 students training at the new training center at Bangalore. More than ever, I am happy to say that we did not have any cases of Corona infections amongst the students and the staff, thanks to following strict hygiene and sanitation discipline. During the prolonged several lockdowns announced by the government at the center, I decided to look for ways to fill the gap by conducting close to four free webinars creating awareness about soilless farming. In addition, we started our live online Basic, Intermediate and Advanced courses and trained more than 150 students not just from India but from as far as United States, Australia, Mauritius, Singapore as well. The Basic course was a two-day theory course followed by a one-day practical session and was conducted by me. Ms. Meghana Reddy, M.Sc. (Agriculture), an erstwhile student of mine and a gold medalist from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore joined me to teach the Intermediate courses which was an online two-day affair as well. Meghana is an
Nursery business, 2020
This small paper is meant to educate people in my country how nursery business is so profitable
CALLING INVESTORS, 2019
Here is a business plan calling for investors from all over the world in setting up a world-class... more Here is a business plan calling for investors from all over the world in setting up a world-class training institute for soilless horticulture learning.
This was a project submitted to the Karnataka Grand Challenge competition or award of grant. Its ... more This was a project submitted to the Karnataka Grand Challenge competition or award of grant. Its a paper that address Vit A deficiency in the state and ways to mitigate the same.
This long term practical residential training program has the prime objective of teaching potenti... more This long term practical residential training program has the prime objective of teaching potential Soilless Cultivation/Hydroponics aspirants the very basics of this science through step by baby step practical hands-on training. This Course aims to remove all myths and cobwebs that are associated with this technology and teach students right from scratch the technique of growing plants. The idea is to give perspective and an ideal starting point for beginners and entrants to this way of cultivation. At Aggragannya Skill we firmly believe that it is important that one 'start's small, learns hard and then scales up'. Any attempt to dive straight into Commercial cultivation without skill can be an unmitigated disaster. There are several cases of financial losses in India where such entrants have burnt big holes in their pockets. Success in this method is 90 percent horticultural skill. Technology contributes the rest. This is where the 3-month practical training comes in handy.
My recent dissertation at the Global Agri Connect 2017 held under the aegis of the National Skill... more My recent dissertation at the Global Agri Connect 2017 held under the aegis of the National Skills Foundation of India. on 12th Oct at the Le Meridian Hotel New Delhi.
Background In India Horticulture is progressing and its total production has surpassed the total ... more Background In India Horticulture is progressing and its total production has surpassed the total food grain production, which indicates that the country is moving towards horticultural revolution, providing nutritional security too. Protected cultivation of horticulture crops is a technology which is less environment dependent and enhance crop and land productivity with quality produce. Area under protected cultivation is increasing due to change in the perception of growers and support from both central and state governments through varies schemes to encourage protected cultivation. The popularity of soilless cultivation under protected environment has increased drastically in a short period of time especially in corporate farming besides, there is a shift in traditional method of cultivation to modern method, leading to an increase in experimentation and research in the area of indoor and outdoor soilless farming. Keeping this in view two days National Consultative Workshop on Protected Cultivation to Meet Future Challenges (with special Reference to Soilless Cultivation, Hydroponics and Aeroponics) is organized at
The first ever live demonstration of Hydroponics in the history of India was executed at the Codi... more The first ever live demonstration of Hydroponics in the history of India was executed at the Codissia Expo Centre at Coimbatore in India in 2014. This is a short write up on the same. Video can be seen at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUjpqdg2Ioc
Here is a test paper I made for Simplified Hydroponics Beginners
Hello Sir, I am happy to inform you that I had a meeting with the Engineer-in-Chief yesterday reg... more Hello Sir, I am happy to inform you that I had a meeting with the Engineer-in-Chief yesterday regarding our subject, to our delight he was very happy with the scope of hydroponics for community service, we are willing to handover the complete open landscape under Delhi government authority that is being lying underutilized as of now namely road dividers, dead parks & other such spaces provided they serve the purpose of community service and benefit the people of Delhi. So from here onward we would like to move further and would like to raise few questions that will strengthen the basis of project implementation, the queries are as follows: 1) As per senior officials wish we are looking forward for a PPP model in case any other model fails, in PPP model we would like you to establish, operate and manage the complete setup of hydroponics in the places that we provide you, for that purpose inputs we require from your side are as follows: a) Unit cost of establishing, operating & maintaining the complete setup of hydroponics including electricity consumption, nutrient water cost etc along with all the peripheral component costs, we are looking forward to cost per square meters or whatever unit you choose to calculate costing. (Soil/water type, temperature, humidity level and seasonal preference to be mentioned to keep calculations as realistic as possible) Answer: Dear Sir, the answer to this question can only be given once I do a visit to New Delhi and see for myself the spaces that you wish to allot for the Hydroponics project. I say this because only once I see the spaces I will get a clear understanding of the various kinds of systems that will fit these spaces. Like for Dividers we will need a separate /specific system , for parks a specific kind of system. Based on the volumes involved in terms of Bill of Materials for different kinds of systems we can come to more accurate pricing. We must see how the systems can also mould with the surroundings and be aesthetically pleasing. Regarding the PPP model yes that sounds good for sure. Only thing would be to form teams locally to look after day to day workings and from my end I will be auditing them both remotely by way of sensor feedbacks as well as by frequent visits. I intend to train Master Supervisors mainly from ex-Service/Armed Forces background as they have the necessary skills to manage these systems efficiently. b) Complete profit/loss calculations, for e.g. if we provide you 100 Sq.m of land for hydroponics having source of natural lighting and water connection how much yield of which agricultural of product can we expect and the cost of production of that particular item for 100 sq.mts, the selling value of the produce, the amount you wish to retain as income and the amount you wish to give us, or may be the amount you expect us to provide to carry out the business model in a way that it continues to help community at large. If your model proves to be more beneficial than the existing horticulture model that we are following we would look forward to replace that. Answer: Dear Sir, Here again I can only give you a rough idea for costs but that we need to work out after careful consideration of what kind of crops grow best in the New Delhi environs. New Delhi has a smog problem that creates less light levels and pollutants in the air are to be considered before judging yields of various vegetables and herbs. Attached to this please find a generic table that shows how much of each vegetable that can be produced in a well controlled environment and possible remunerations possible in terms of net profits. In fact I propose that in unused spaces like vacant parks we can have systems that display soilless cultivation/hydroponics not only for its intended purpose of being commercially viable but also as a eco-tourism spectacle where money can be earned when public visit the place. That can also be another business vertical. In some of the larger parks or areas we can even have a kiosk wherein individuals can buy inputs like seeds nutrients and hydroponic kits which they can take home for their home hydroponic gardens.
Its always very important to know what to expect from your Hydroponics Consultant. Client is a gr... more Its always very important to know what to expect from your Hydroponics Consultant. Client is a greenhorn and has no idea what he must expect from a contract that he has signed with his Consultant. So this document will be of immense value .
An article written by my Mentor in Simplified Hydroponics Ms Peggy Bradley , a world renowned per... more An article written by my Mentor in Simplified Hydroponics Ms Peggy Bradley , a world renowned person in this field who work has touched the lives of millions.
How 2 individuals and 4 start up companies in agri technology are teaming up in India to create a... more How 2 individuals and 4 start up companies in agri technology are teaming up in India to create a synergy hitherto unknown.
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Videos by Vishwa Chandrasekharan
#Hydroponics #Hydroponics India #life #perspectives #purpose #love #believe #joy #change #selfawareness #kindness #AskAlmaMentor #journey #contribution #conversation #story #hydroponics #askcvhydro #soillesshorticulture #urbanfarming #travel #vlogger #entrepreneur #inspiration #leader #coaching #mindfulness #spirituality #mindset
Papers by Vishwa Chandrasekharan
#Hydroponics #Hydroponics India #life #perspectives #purpose #love #believe #joy #change #selfawareness #kindness #AskAlmaMentor #journey #contribution #conversation #story #hydroponics #askcvhydro #soillesshorticulture #urbanfarming #travel #vlogger #entrepreneur #inspiration #leader #coaching #mindfulness #spirituality #mindset
Soilless Cultivation for Future Food Security
www.cvhydro.in
Intensive 5- Day Workshop in Controlled Environment Horticulture - with emphasis on Hydroponics is being conducted at Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Workshop 16th July to 20th July 2018. The workshop will be conducted by Mr Tony Bundock from Australia, who has decades of experience in Controlled Environment Horticulture among other subjects. He is also a Director on the panel of the famous institution Protected Cropping Australia and reigning Secretary of the Hydroponics Farmers Federation of Australia. Tony also has worked as a senior instructor at The Chisholm TAFE Victoria and as is a Certified Master Trainer for world leader Priva Holland climate control and irrigation systems. Tony is the Founder and Director of Genesis Horticulture based in Narre Warren Melbourne, Australia. Indian Protected cropping industry suffers from a woeful lack of skill and this workshop is sure to upskill the knowledge of prevailing and aspiring practitioners.
Highlights
Training conducted by Tony Bundock, Genesis Horticulture, Melbourne, Australia
Training Venue is an Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence
Soilless Cultivation with Climate Control Techniques
This is a start-up in the Urban Hydroponics Gardening space and doing some great work.
They are Incubated by Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore as well as Bio-Innovators Lab Karnataka, India
www.woolly.io is their website.
Woolly is a start-up company I Mentor and play Chief Grower roles.
Enjoy this presentation
Growing plants within protected environs calls for a very keen understanding of plant needs and its basic requirements. This means intricate understanding of what a particular crop needs as per its cultural practices.
In India today there are several poly-houses and greenhouse being operated by growers/farmers. However there seems to be a skills gap in knowing as to how to tweak various parameters such as Light, Temperature, Relative Humidity, Wind speeds, Irrigation scheduling , Plant protection, accurate Nutrition management, Root Zone management etc., leading to varying degrees of success amongst practitioners.
In my presentation during this workshop, we will look at how the tools that growers have at their disposal to control the environment, are manipulated with respect to the important environmental influences on plant growth and development, for the actual optimization of the greenhouse environment.
One of the primary aims of optimization of the greenhouse environment is to maximize the photosynthetic process in the crop. The strategy used to maximize photosynthesis is through the management of transpiration. Therefore, on-going modifications are made to the greenhouse environment to manage the transpiration of the crop to match the maximum rate of photosynthesis.
Managing growth and development of an entire crop for maximum production involves the manipulation of temperature and humidity to obtain not only the maximum rate of photosynthesis under the given light conditions, but also the optimum balance of vegetative and generative growth of plants for sustained production and high yields.
This implies that growers can direct the results of photosynthesis, the production of assimilates, sugars and starches, towards both vegetative and generative in a balance.
Light limits the photosynthetic productivity of all crops and is the most important variable affecting productivity in the greenhouse The transpiration rate of any greenhouse crop is the function of three variables; ambient temperature, humidity and light. Of these three, it is light which is usually out of our control as it is received from the sun. Supplementary lighting does offer opportunity to increase yield during low light periods, but is generally considered commercially unprofitable. The other means for manipulating light are limited to screening or shading and are employed when light intensities are too high. However, there are also general strategies to help maximize the crop's access to the available light in the greenhouse.
The optimum temperature is determined by the processes involved in the utilization of assimilate products of photosynthesis, i.e. distribution of dry matter to shoots, leaves, roots and fruit. For the control of crop growth, average temperature over one or several days is more important than the day/night temperature differences.
Development and flowering of plants relates to both root zone and air temperature and control of temperature is an important tool for the control of crop growth.
Precision heating of specific areas within the crop canopy add another dimension of air temperature control beyond maintaining optimum temperatures of the entire greenhouse air mass.
Root zone temperatures are primarily managed to remain in a narrow range to ensure proper root functioning.
Plants exchange energy with the environment primarily through the evaporation of water, through the process of transpiration. Transpiration is the only type of transfer process in the greenhouse that has both a physical and biological basis. This plant process is almost exclusively responsible for the subtropical climate in the greenhouse. Seventy percent of the light energy falling on a greenhouse crop goes towards transpiration, the changing of liquid water to water vapour and most of the irrigation water applied to the crop is lost through transpiration.
Transpiration is a key plant process for cooling the plant, bringing nutrients in from the root system and for the allocation of resources within the plant. Transpiration rate can determine the maximum efficiency by which photosynthesis occurs, how efficiently nutrients are brought into the plant and combined with the products of photosynthesis, and how these resources for growth are distributed throughout the plant. Since the principles of VPD (Vapour Pressure Deficit) can be used to control the transpiration rate, there is a range of optimum VPD’s corresponding to optimum transpiration rates for maximum sustained yield.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the inputs of photosynthesis and as such CO2 plays an important role in increasing crop productivity. Optimal CO2 concentrations for the greenhouse atmosphere fall with the range of between 700 to 900 ppm (parts per million). Crop productivity depends not only on efficiency of interception of light but also on the efficiency with which light is converted to chemical energy in photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide enrichment to 1200 ppm increases the maximum conversion efficiency by a substantial amount.
Air pollutants can be a concern for greenhouse production. The incidence of air pollutant injury to plants is increasing as more growers have poly-houses and greenhouses withi8n the vicinity of air pollution sources such as factories emitting smoke and also traffic exhausts..
Plants are comprised of 80 to 90% water and the availability of adequate and a good grade of quality water is very important to successful crop production.
Growing media must be absolutely sterile and no microbiological contamination should be present. The choice of media will also depend on crops being grown. Media samples must be tested before being employed in full scale commercial use.
Water quality analyses also report the electrical conductivity or E.C. of the water. The ability of water to conduct an electrical current is dependent of the amount of ions or salts dissolved in the water. The greater the amount of dissolved salts in the water, the more readily the water will conduct electricity. Electrical conductivity is an indirect measurement of the level of salts in the water and can be a useful tool for both determining the general suitability of water for crop production, and for the ongoing monitoring of the fertilizer feed solution. Using electrical conductivity as a measure to maintain E.C. targets in the nutrient solution and the root zone can be used as a management tool for making decisions regarding the delivery of fertilizer solution to the plants.
The relative acidity and alkalinity of the water is expressed as pH and is measured on a scale from 0 to 14. The pH of a fertilizer solution has a dramatic determining effect on the solubility of nutrients, how available the nutrients are to the plant.
In order to support optimum growth, development and yield of the crop, the fertilizer feed solution has to continually meet the nutritional requirements of the plants. Plant nutrients are broadly classified into Macro and Micro Nutrients.
The design of a fertilizer feed program is a relatively straight forward process once the nutrient target levels are decided and basic information about the water quality, feed delivery system, and component fertilizers are known.
Water and fertilizer are delivered simultaneously to the crop via the nutrient solution, and the amounts of water and fertilizer delivered varies with the changing requirements of the plants. The plant's requirements change as they develop from seedlings to mature plants and in accordance with the day to day changes in the growing environment. In order to manage the delivery of nutrients and water to the plant, it is important to have a way of determining the crop's requirements for fertilizer and water.
Therefore it must be remembered that to get the plants to perform to their genetic potential one must take due care to address most of the points enumerated above. When all parameters are well addressed the plants can actually bewilder us by their performance.
It is a document aimed at getting USAID for simplified hydroponics projects in India to create livelihood and sustainability for the people.
26TH AUG 2019- 13TH AUG 2019
Intensive 5- Day Workshop in Controlled Environment Horticulture - with emphasis on Hydroponics is being conducted at Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Workshop 16th July to 20th July 2018. The workshop will be conducted by Mr Tony Bundock from Australia, who has decades of experience in Controlled Environment Horticulture among other subjects. He is also a Director on the panel of the famous institution Protected Cropping Australia and reigning Secretary of the Hydroponics Farmers Federation of .. continue reading
Highlights
Training conducted by Tony Bundock, Genesis Horticulture, Melbourne, Australia
Training Venue is an Indo-Israeli Centre of Excellence
Soilless Cultivation with Climate Control Techniques