Its a pleasure to announce Nikunj Khanna as Belesiri Star perFarmer of Dec 2022! A brief introduction about him in his own words as below...
"I am Nikunj Khanna, and I work in the corporate sector.
I have worked on simple pot-based kitchen gardens (still do work on soil based outputs) but decided to give hydroponics a try in 2021. I had relocated to Bangalore with my family (wife and 2 young boys) towards the end of 2020 on a complete remote work allocation, thus thought of trying out something new.
Since then, I have grown a variety of plants including Tomato, Amaranthus, Spinach, Brinjal, Okra, carrots, from sowing all the way to harvest and rotation. Have grown all these plants using both hydroponic systems as well as soil-based pots to efficiencies of the two systems as well.
I have also tried out different designs and techniques in my balcony, including simple grow bag system, vegetable trey, DFT, Dutch bucket system as well as a vertical tower. I have yet to try out NFT system as well as indoor plantations in controlled environment and would be trying them out soon enough.
I have been trying to understand what system works best for which crop and how to work out the least cost model for a strong and healthy harvest.
I know I am running this slowly, but I do feel I am getting more and more convinced that this could become a secondary for me and my family. All thanks to Guru, who has kept the spirit going simply by being constantly in touch and sharing some great success stories from time to time. Looking forward to the conversation. "
Guruprasad Kurtkoti