Hydroponics

Ever heard of soil-less gardening? Another name for it is hydroponics. It’s the latest development in agriculture - a solution, they said, to the problem of gardening in small spaces.

“Hydroponics is soil-less gardening. It means more food in less space with less water in less time,” explains Dan Lubkeman, president of the Hydroponic Society of America, an organization that has helped hobbyists and commercial growers from 23 countries on five continents since 1979.

“It’s like playing Mother Nature indoors. You provide the sun, food, water, and fresh water,” he adds.

You immediately know that you are eating a product of hydroponics as soon as you chump on a carrot. Just from the crunch of it, or the moistness of the lettuce, the meatiness of a beefsteak tomato, and the overall clean, fresh flavor that explodes in your palate like delicious edible fireworks…. It’s hydroponics through and through.

Hydroponics can be used on any produce and plants. What grows using the traditional methods also grows in a hydroponics system. Aside from saving space and soil, this method also has several other benefits, including no soil-borne diseases, no weeds to pull and no soil to till. These are just your regular, run-of-the-mill side benefits of soil-less gardening.

“Also, the plants can be grown close together, which means it’s easy to grow salad makings in your kitchen,” adds Neil Watson, a spokesperson for General Hydroponics, which manufactures and sells hydroponic products in Sebastopol, California.

For those who live in condominiums or in residences with little yard space, that’s great news. Now, you can grow tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries right in your own home. But you should not that hydroponics itself is a complicated method. In fact, it is composed of more than one method.

Some methods of hydroponics do away with soil. Others use only a little material as a means of physical support. Whatever method you choose, you should know as early as now that growing plants hydroponically may involve more than the usual matter of trial and error.

Below are some common types of hydroponics currently used by home gardeners and farmers worldwide:

Passive Hydroponics

This is considered by many as the simplest approach, mainly because it requires the least maintenance. All you, as a grower, need is a container filled with a medium. Place the container in a tray of nutrient solution. Occasionally, the solution may need to be replaced.

Flood and Drain

This is another name for “ebb and flow” hydroponics. Place pots made of a medium in a tray above a reservoir of nutrient solution. To replenish the nutrients in the tray, all you need is a pump set on a timer. This will keep the pot regularly flushed with food and air.

“This might be the most popular, most practical and cleanest method available,” Watson says.

Deep Water Culture

In this method of hydroponics, the roots of your plants are suspended from above and allowed to hang into an aerated nutrient solution. As an aid to aeration, you can use standard aquarium pumps, air stones, or any device that produce bubbles. Aeration help deliver oxygen to the roots.

Watch out for algae formation. To prevent them from forming in the container, choose a plant container that is light-proof.