A Hydroponics-based Agriculture System

[voidbeetles]

Hi!

One of my current writing projects is set in a civilization that has, for thousands of years, lived in a sort of large scifi underground bunker. They have easy access to water, very little access to soil (they're able to compost biomass, add minerals, etc, but that will only get you so far), and no access to sunlight (grow lights will have to suffice) - for these reasons, I imagine that their agriculture system is mostly hydroponics-based. Though I've done a little research on hydroponics, I'm having difficulty extrapolating this information to my worldbuilding, mostly because a lot of the info I've found relates to singular plants without giving a good sense of what fares better/worse compared to others. And also just because I have a hard time wrapping my head around plant cultivation in general, I think. I was wondering if anyone here had any insights! (Or suggestions of topics/resources to look into more!)

The big questions I'm thinking most about are:

• Compared to, say, the modern Western world, would certain foods/food groups be underrepresented or over-represented in this fictional world's cuisine? (for example, I imagine that rice might be the main staple, as flooding rice fields is pretty important to cultivating it... and that potatoes might not be such a good choice, as their "main thing" is growing beneath the soil?)
• What effect would this have on the plant fibers that are most commonly used for making clothes (and other fiber technology like rope)? That is: how would cotton, linen, hemp, etc fare? Would a certain one of these plants be more common? More expensive? Quicker/easier to grow/harvest on large scales? (This question is especially relevant because my protagonist has an interest in textiles.)

Comments

[conuly]

You don't need to flood rice fields. You can flood rice fields, which makes it convenient to grow rice in wet places where you can't grow other crops (and which also helps keep away pests and weeds - plus, your paddies can double as fish farms!) - but rice can grow just fine on dry land.

You also don't need to grow potatoes under soil. Potatoes will grow very happily in a basket with a little bit of soil, and then you can keep dumping straw or leaves or compost or whatever over the lowermost leaves whenever they pop up.

[voidbeetles]

Interesting, thank you!

I think this gets at why the question seems so complicated to me as well… because there aren’t always such clear-cut rules about what will make a plant happy/easy to grow. Plus all sorts of other factors that come into play (cultural relevance of a food beyond its convenience to cultivate, or synergies with other foods, or other kinds of care like keeping away pests…)

[conuly]

BTW, while looking up rice + fish farming I found out that some places traditionally raise rice + fish + ducks in the same paddy. Which is amazing, so thank you for prompting me to double check that.