No-Dirt Farming : A Fillmore family produces cucumbers and tomatoes with a computerized life-support system.

Located on the back roads of Fillmore, surrounded by citrus groves and rolling hills, five greenhouses contain vegetables grown in a way not common to Ventura County.

They are being grown hydroponically. To the layman, this is soilless farming.

Since 1987, the Bob Beylik family has grown cucumbers and tomatoes using an inert growing medium instead of soil.

During a recent tour, Beylik’s son Scott explained the process of their hydroponic farm.

“An analogy would be to compare this to a human life-support system,” 22-year-old Beylik said. “We have to provide everything the plant needs to survive, which it would normally draw from soil.”

“Everything” is provided via a computerized irrigation system.

“All the nutrients--calcium nitrates, nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, zinc, copper (and more)--are present in the water,” he said.

The Beyliks prepare the life-supporting water by mixing water in large tanks with all the nutrients required for survival. The water is then pumped to the plants and released upon computer command.

Through thin tubing, the water-nutrient mixture drips into the inert growing medium called Rockwool.

“It’s made from a special volcanic rock,” Beylik said. Heated until it turns into a liquid and then spun at high speed, the result is a threadlike substance similar in texture and appearance to wool.

“Rockwool provides a perfect growing medium,” Beylik said. “It holds a 50-50 water-air ratio.” It is perfect for the plants’ root system to thrive, he said.

As the sun rises and sets, the “computerized fertilizer injection system” senses the amount of solar energy beaming into the greenhouses. Scientists have determined approximately how much water a plant will take in, according to how much sunlight the plant is exposed to, Beylik said. The more light intensity, the more water the plant will need. The computer is programmed to provide for the plants’ fluctuating needs.

Before switching to hydroponics in the summer of 1987, the Beyliks raised their greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes in soil. A 20% production increase was realized after the switch to hydroponics.

Beylik, a senior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo studying agriculture business management, first witnessed hydroponics in Holland while traveling abroad on a Future Farmers of America program. “I stayed with a family that raised greenhouse cucumbers using the same type of system we now have,” he said.

According to Beylik, Agrisystems of Ventura County raises lettuce hydroponically, but other than a few small-scale operations in Carpinteria, the method is not widely used.

“Europe is where it is happening on a large scale,” he said. “Greenhouse growing provides high production when you consider the acreage that we produce in,” Beylik said.

Their total greenhouse space is about 2.5 acres. The growing area in the greenhouse is maximized by stringing the vines vertically so they grow upward. “We can produce a lot more in this confined area than a farmer can out in his field with the same acreage,” he said.

Competition with large-scale field growers is stiff, nonetheless.

“We only sell our tomatoes--a Beefsteak strain--at the farmers’ market,” Beylik said. “It’s not feasible to be growing them for the open market where we have to compete with field farmers and the Mexican imports.”

However, the controlled greenhouse environment does provide a window of opportunity, he said. “Our tomatoes are grown for the winter market when area field growers are out of season.”

The Beyliks’ cucumbers, a European gourmet variety, are sold on the open market, including to large chain stores.

“These are not cheap to grow,” Beylik said. “It costs about 30 cents per seed because it is very difficult for the seed company to develop this strain. One of the reasons we’re able to survive is because this variety of cucumber cannot be grown outside. We call it a seedless variety. The seeds are apparent, but they will never completely mature.”

* WHERE AND WHEN

The Beyliks’ hydroponically grown tomatoes and cucumbers are offered at the following farmers’ markets:

* Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.; Montgomery Ward parking lot at Main Street and Mills Road, Ventura.

* Saturdays, 8:30 a.m. to noon; corner of Figueroa and Santa Clara streets, Ventura.

* Thursdays, 5 to 8 p.m.; Janss Mall at Hillcrest Drive and Moorpark Road, Thousand Oaks.