Cultivating crops without the use of soil

摘要

Recently Merlin undertook a bus journey that happened to pass along a main road through one of the less salubrious areas of a large industrial city not far from my home territory. The district is known to be something of a crime hotspot and is certainly not an area to walk through at night. As the bus drew up at a traffic light, Merlin was surprised to see a small industrial unit with a freshly painted sign indicating that the company within the unit offered for sale all manner of equipment for hydroponics.