Hydroponics for Beginners
How to Buy Hydroponic Gardening Supplies
Homemade hydroponics - How to make a deep water culture (DWC) system
Urban Farming: Hydroponics in the City
Hydroponic Gardening Howto & Tips
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Hydroponic Gardening involves growing plants with the essential elements needed for the plant to grow.
**A hydroponic gardening system can be outdoor or indoor.
**The essential elements are: nutrients, water, light, habitat.
**The rate of growth of a hydroponic plant can be up to 50% faster than a soil plant grown under the same conditions.
**The reason for this is that the plants get their nutrition fed directly into their roots from nutrient rich water. Since this water is so high in nutrient content, the plant does not need large roots to search for nutrition. And since the plant expends less energy in growing roots it has more energy available to be productive above the rootline! Hydroponically grown vegetables are healthy, vigorous, and consistently reliable. This form of gardening is clean and extremely easy, and it requires very little effort.
**Hydroponic systems are normally categorized as passive or active. An active hydroponic system moves the nutrient solution with a pump. A passive hydroponic system relies on the capillary action of the growing medium or a wick.
In a passive system the nutrient rich solution is absorbed by the medium or the wick and passed along to the plant's roots. But a downside with this method is that they are usually too wet and do not supply enough oxygen to the root system for the best growth rates.
Hydroponic systems are also characterized as recovery or non-recovery. In recovery systems, the nutrient solution is re-circulated for reuse. In a non-recovery system however, the nutrient solution is not recovered.
You may be unsure of whether to buy or build a hydroponic system. If you have an 'engineering mind' and want to build one, consider buying one first just to get familiar with the inner workings. Buy a system which does not cost a lot of money. It will give you a better understanding of how hydroponics works and the hands-on experience can be worth the cost of the system as you will be able to reuse the parts when you decide to build one.
**Hydroponic Gardening allows you to grow approximately two to ten times the normal growing yield in less than half the space and half the time, making it very popular among Indoor Gardeners.
**Of all soilless methods, water culture, by definition, is true hydroponics. It is also the simplest active hydroponics system to set up on a small scale. In this system the plant roots are totally immersed in a nutrient solution. In a water culture system the roots grow directly into the reservoir as opposed to having a remote reservoir. The actual design of the system is limited only by the imagination of the builder. The system must provide means to (1) support the plant above the solution, (2) aerate the solution, and (3) prevent light from reaching the solution (to prevent the growth of algae).
**Wick systems are passive systems, meaning it has no moving parts and the nutrient solution remains in one place. Plants are fed through capillary action from a wick drawing nutrient solution into the growing medium from the reservoir. The biggest draw back of this system is that plants that are large or use large amounts of water and nutrient may use up the nutrient solution faster than the wick(s) can supply it. In this case additional wicks may be used as a supplement, or another technique can be utilized.
**Drip systems are probably the most widely used type of hydroponic system in the world. They are similar to drip irrigation systems popular with commercial farmers for their ability to conserve water through direct feeding. Operation is simple; a timer controls a submersed pump, which turns the pump on and off. Nutrient solution is dripped onto the base of each plant by a small drip line. In a recirculating drip system the excess nutrient solution that runs off is collected back in the reservoir for re-distribution.
**The Ebb and Flow (or flood and drain) system works by temporarily flooding the grow tray with nutrient solution and then letting the solution drain back into the reservoir. This action is normally done with a submerged pump that is connected to a timer. The timer is set to come on several times a day, depending on the size and type of plants, temperature and humidity and the type of growing medium used. The drain cycle improves the oxygen contact with the plants roots. Using the right medium will ensure that moisture will be available for the roots so that they do not dry out between cycles. One of the main attractions of an Ebb and Flow system is the ability to containerize your plants and physically move them around. This aids in continuous production scenarios and enhances the control of a grower utilizing a veg (blue) and bloom (red) room scenario. The main disadvantage of this type of system is that unless your medium ensures moisture retention there is a vulnerability to power outages, since the only way for your plants to access food is through the action of the pump.
**The Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) is a water-cultural technique in which plants are grown with their root systems contained in a plastic trough through which nutrient solution is continuously circulated. Work on NFT cropping was pioneered by Allen Cooper at the Glasshouse Crops research Institute in Littlehampton, England, in 1965. The term nutrient film technique was coined to stress that the depth of liquid flowing past the roots of the plants should be very shallow in order to ensure that sufficient oxygen would be supplied to the plant roots.
**Feel free to experiment by building your own hydroponic system. As long as you have oxygenated nutrified water at the proper pH it doesn’t matter how you feed them. The possibilities are endless! Be sure to enclose your reservoir so as to prevent evaporation and control feeding times via timers in the case of a top-drip or ebb and flow setup.
**A hydroponic gardening system can be outdoor or indoor.
**The essential elements are: nutrients, water, light, habitat.
**The rate of growth of a hydroponic plant can be up to 50% faster than a soil plant grown under the same conditions.
**The reason for this is that the plants get their nutrition fed directly into their roots from nutrient rich water. Since this water is so high in nutrient content, the plant does not need large roots to search for nutrition. And since the plant expends less energy in growing roots it has more energy available to be productive above the rootline! Hydroponically grown vegetables are healthy, vigorous, and consistently reliable. This form of gardening is clean and extremely easy, and it requires very little effort.
**Hydroponic systems are normally categorized as passive or active. An active hydroponic system moves the nutrient solution with a pump. A passive hydroponic system relies on the capillary action of the growing medium or a wick.
In a passive system the nutrient rich solution is absorbed by the medium or the wick and passed along to the plant's roots. But a downside with this method is that they are usually too wet and do not supply enough oxygen to the root system for the best growth rates.
Hydroponic systems are also characterized as recovery or non-recovery. In recovery systems, the nutrient solution is re-circulated for reuse. In a non-recovery system however, the nutrient solution is not recovered.
You may be unsure of whether to buy or build a hydroponic system. If you have an 'engineering mind' and want to build one, consider buying one first just to get familiar with the inner workings. Buy a system which does not cost a lot of money. It will give you a better understanding of how hydroponics works and the hands-on experience can be worth the cost of the system as you will be able to reuse the parts when you decide to build one.
**Hydroponic Gardening allows you to grow approximately two to ten times the normal growing yield in less than half the space and half the time, making it very popular among Indoor Gardeners.
**Of all soilless methods, water culture, by definition, is true hydroponics. It is also the simplest active hydroponics system to set up on a small scale. In this system the plant roots are totally immersed in a nutrient solution. In a water culture system the roots grow directly into the reservoir as opposed to having a remote reservoir. The actual design of the system is limited only by the imagination of the builder. The system must provide means to (1) support the plant above the solution, (2) aerate the solution, and (3) prevent light from reaching the solution (to prevent the growth of algae).
**Wick systems are passive systems, meaning it has no moving parts and the nutrient solution remains in one place. Plants are fed through capillary action from a wick drawing nutrient solution into the growing medium from the reservoir. The biggest draw back of this system is that plants that are large or use large amounts of water and nutrient may use up the nutrient solution faster than the wick(s) can supply it. In this case additional wicks may be used as a supplement, or another technique can be utilized.
**Drip systems are probably the most widely used type of hydroponic system in the world. They are similar to drip irrigation systems popular with commercial farmers for their ability to conserve water through direct feeding. Operation is simple; a timer controls a submersed pump, which turns the pump on and off. Nutrient solution is dripped onto the base of each plant by a small drip line. In a recirculating drip system the excess nutrient solution that runs off is collected back in the reservoir for re-distribution.
**The Ebb and Flow (or flood and drain) system works by temporarily flooding the grow tray with nutrient solution and then letting the solution drain back into the reservoir. This action is normally done with a submerged pump that is connected to a timer. The timer is set to come on several times a day, depending on the size and type of plants, temperature and humidity and the type of growing medium used. The drain cycle improves the oxygen contact with the plants roots. Using the right medium will ensure that moisture will be available for the roots so that they do not dry out between cycles. One of the main attractions of an Ebb and Flow system is the ability to containerize your plants and physically move them around. This aids in continuous production scenarios and enhances the control of a grower utilizing a veg (blue) and bloom (red) room scenario. The main disadvantage of this type of system is that unless your medium ensures moisture retention there is a vulnerability to power outages, since the only way for your plants to access food is through the action of the pump.
**The Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) is a water-cultural technique in which plants are grown with their root systems contained in a plastic trough through which nutrient solution is continuously circulated. Work on NFT cropping was pioneered by Allen Cooper at the Glasshouse Crops research Institute in Littlehampton, England, in 1965. The term nutrient film technique was coined to stress that the depth of liquid flowing past the roots of the plants should be very shallow in order to ensure that sufficient oxygen would be supplied to the plant roots.
**Feel free to experiment by building your own hydroponic system. As long as you have oxygenated nutrified water at the proper pH it doesn’t matter how you feed them. The possibilities are endless! Be sure to enclose your reservoir so as to prevent evaporation and control feeding times via timers in the case of a top-drip or ebb and flow setup.
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