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Comment by pard68 | Hacker News Reader

I worked for a hydroponic tech startup, in no world is it cost effective if you're a large company. Small scale in a basement or backyard, yes, but this stuff doesn't scale, largely because it's priced for the marijuana industry. If you are growing lettuce with your hydroponics equipment that you paid weed prices for, you will never see your way out of the red.

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There are large companies that produce hydroponic lettuce commercially, and have for a long time, making good profits.

I'd love to hear about these. I joined that startup because I wanted to be a part of the alt-ag world, I left because I found out I was just part of the stoner world.

Google "Hydroponic lettuce farm Australia", a few big farms come up. They're not new, I think some have been running 30+ years.

Most of them look to be NFT using PVC drain pipes on a large scale.

Ah so DIY, I wasn't clear but that was what I meant by "small scale". I'll check out this stuff, thanks.

But is that the cost of fabrication, or the cost of off-the-shelf? Like you said it's priced for the marijuana industry, but if you scale up enough you can make your own manufacturing deals, no?

The company I worked for had three "core" child companies. A consumer online store, brick and mortar stores, and a "we don't respond to your emails unless you're talking six figures per transaction". Even the at-scale business was running sticker prices that make it hard to do business if you're not growing something with a marijuana-level return.

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