What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is simply soil-less gardening. Imagine growing a beautiful garden inside your home with fragrant flowers and fresh vegetables. Even during the coldest winter months you can have a continual reminder of spring and summer inside your home. And, with the change in seasons to warmer weather, you will be able to transplant your favorite homegrown plants outdoors sooner. Hydroponics makes gardening a year-round joy no matter what the weather conditions are.

There are several advantages to hydroponic gardening versus traditional soil gardening:

• greener and healthier plants • faster plant growth rate • increased yield • optimum nutrient intake which results in healthier plants • less mess • no weeds • no soil pests and disease • more abundant plant per square foot of gardening space • no need to repot plants as they grow

Hydroponics – A more efficient way to grow

Ancient societies in Egypt, Babylon, Greece, etc., realized the intrinsic need for hydroponics.   Mainly this was due to the fact that good, hearty soil simply isn’t the standard across the globe.   Today, many people are realizing this once again as climate changes or situations prevent them from gardening in the traditional sense.

Many people shy away from the term hydroponics – either thinking it must be too complicated or it is just too new.   Actually, hydroponics is one of the most ancient means of gardening and also is pretty simple.    Hydroponics can save you time, money, and even water!

There are four basic types of hydroponic systems: drip systems, deep water culture (DWC), ebb and flow (flood and drain) and aeroponics.   The key to all of these is that the water delivers the nutrients to the root system and not the soil (hence, hydroponics – literally “water working”).   These five techniques are just five ways of delivering the food to the root system and people are improving upon them every day!

Drip systems usually consist of a drip ring or drippers staked in a container which is filled with an inert hydroponic medium, such as hydroton (expanded clay pellets).   The most popular of these systems is the Water Farm from General Hydroponics.

Deep water culture systems are inexpensive to set up and a great way to learn about hydroponics.   .   In these systems, the roots dangle in the nutrient solution which is kept agitated.   Emily’s Garden is a great, ready-to-grow kit called for those wishing to try their hands at DWC.

Ebb and flow is the most popular type of system that we sell.   There are endless ways to set these up and many come ready to go, such as the Ebb and Gro from CAP.   Botanicare also has a series of systems in sizes ranging from 2’x2’ up to 4’x8’, with different styles and sizes in between.   In these systems, a tray floods with nutrient solution and drains back into a reservoir only to do this again on a schedule, which is based on the plants need for food.   These easy-to-use systems provide quick results and the grower can use a wide variety of inert plant media.

Finally, aeroponics has become something of a rock star in the field of hydroponics.   In aeroponics, the root systems are misted with nutrient solution.   The best seller of this type is the Aeroflo² from General Hydroponics.   We also carry Power Cloners and EZ Clone machines which will root your cuttings using aeroponics!