Hydroponics Farming understanding the Basics
Hydroponics is basically a subject under soilless cultivation. Mostly plants are grown in soil but 60 years ago Dr William Gerick gave science to soilless cultivation. Hydroponics by word is made of Hydro which means water and Ponos which means working, so combined together means working with water. Hydroponic farming is a modern technology farming in which plant productivity is controlled by water and nutrients in water. In other words we can say that it is a farming without water and growing crops in water. In this way healthy plants can be grown given the right amount of required nutrients by the plants.
What can be grown in Hydroponic system?
While you can grow almost anything hydroponically, some vegetables thrive more in hydroponic systems than others. Choose plants that don’t mind moisture and that don’t get too big for their set up, such as cucumber, tomato, capsicum, strawberry, lettuce and leafy greens.
Also, when setting up a hydroponic garden, depending on the size, sturdiness and root development of the plants to be grown and the structure of the system, one needs to decide whether to use only a solution culture or some sort of a growth medium.
Plants with shallow roots, like leafy greens, do fine in solution cultures. On the other hand, plants with deep roots, such as beets, and heavy vegetables, such as cucumbers, do better with growth mediums such as foam, coconut husk, sponges, and peat moss.
Also, flowering and fruiting plants need exposure to sunlight while leafy greens grow well even under inexpensive fluorescent lights that are placed above them.
Providing Basic functions of the soil:
In hydroponics Farming, the water is enriched with well-balanced nutrients level and balanced pH level yielding better and faster yields. In hydroponics basic functions of the soil are provided through:
Plant root System Support: A growing medium is used to provide support to plant root system.
Supply of Nutrients: Here the chemical based fertilizers are used by adding them into the water supplied to the plants.
Supply of Oxygen: here the oxygen is provided through water similar to that of in the fish tank.
Supply of water: In hydroponics farming water is directly supplied to the plants as water is the medium they are grown in.
Understanding the Growing Mediums
As far as the Growing media is concerned any plant roots requires water, oxygen, nutrients and physical stability to flourish. By providing all these through mediums other than soil we can get:
A Cleaner environment, less prone to pests and diseases
More control over the water, oxygen and nutrients available to your plants.
Faster growth rates and
Better yields.
For any growing medium to be good for growing it must have these qualities:
High Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC)
High Air Filled Porosity (AFP)
Water Holding Capacity (WHC)
To learn more about Growing Mediums:
Advantages of the Hydroponics Farming:
In Hydroponics plants uses all the minerals without any wastage thus providing less pollution farming.
It requires less water as compared to regular method of using soil.
PH level can be controlled and amount of nutrients also can be controlled.
Farming requires less space and multilevel farming is also possible.
High quality and productivity can be obtained.
Eliminates pesticides and herbicides compared to traditional farming.