What Is Hydroponics

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Introduction

Most consumers have purchased ‘hot house tomatoes’ or ‘vine ripe tomatoes’ in local supermarkets. These are all grown using a hydroponic system. We’ve all been eating hydroponic produce for years.

Why do commercial growers use hydroponic systems?
They do it because they can get two to three times the yield of a traditional soil crop. They are able to control the plant growth much better and they can control most bugs & diseases with biological controls as opposed to pesticides.

What is the difference between growing in soil/peat and growing hydroponically?

With soil or peat mixes, the potting mix changes over time. Although it might be a great mix in the beginning, it eventually starts to compact and leads to root bound plants.
Many people find it difficult to figure out when to water. By the time one sees a plant drooping from lack of water, it is often too late to save the plant.
With soil or peat mixes, part of the fertilizer and water poured into the pot or garden bed is not available to the plant.
The plant needs a huge network of roots to search for water and food.
When the plant cannot find the exact food it needs, it does not produce the quantity of flowers or size of tomatoes expected.
When a hydroponic growing medium, such as Inert Media, such problems are avoided. How?
Inert Media is just a fancy container for plants.
With Inert Media, it’s a matter of simply adding water with plant food whenever the ‘container’ runs low.
The plant has easy access to all the water and food it needs. The container – the Inert Media -- holds nothing back.
The plant no longer needs the huge network of roots to find the food -- it is all right there.
The plant has far less bug and root disease problems because the “container” (the Media) was completely clean when you started.

So when the plant doesn’t have to spend extra energy on searching for water and food and extra energy fighting bug and diseases, it has a lot of surplus energy! And where does the surplus energy go? The plant grows much faster and sets more flowers and better quality fruits.

Plants require something in which to anchor their roots.
Our Inert Media has lots of little air pockets that make excellent storage for water and air.

These little pockets encourage the plant to set lots of small fine roots. These are the “hair roots” that absorb the food. The thick roots anchor the plant and transport the food from the small roots

More of the smaller fine roots mean more food for the plant and the faster it grows.
It is very easy to figure out when to water. When the weight of the container feels about half the weight of what it was after the last watering, it is time to water.
Water until the water runs out the bottom of the container. Our Inert Media has a Capillary action that is second to none.
This means that you can either water from the top of the plant or from the bottom, this gives you a greater flexibility of choice of system.
In a soil mix, when a plant wilts, more than likely the plant has been fighting for days to survive and when it droops so much, it’s probably already past the wilting point. In Inert Media when the plant droops, it is because it is suddenly out of water and just adding some will revive the plant.

News articles regularly report about problems with farm fertilizers draining into in to the ground water. Inert Media as part of a hydroponic system allows for the re-circulation of the used water instead of just draining it to waste.

In addition, because it is entirely water-based, it is possible to fully automate a hydroponics system, so if the gardener is absent for an extended period of time, the plants will not suffer. The water is typically reused, as opposed to traditional farming methods where much water is lost through evaporation or runoff.

In an indoor hydroponics system, plants may receive sunlight through artificial means such as grow lights. Another consideration for indoor hydroponic gardens is air circulation. This prevents fungal diseases and allows the plants to draw out the necessary carbon dioxide they require.

The most important factor in hydroponics however, is the nutrient solution that must be mixed with water. Standard fertilizers are inadequate, because they lack some of the elements necessary that the plants would otherwise derive from the soil. Specially-formulated hydroponic fertilizer mixtures are required. These are widely available, but should be tested after dilution to ensure a pH of between 5 and 6. The nutrient solution should be changed every two weeks. In between changes, make sure that the volume is kept level by adding more water only, and not additional fertilizer formula. If water evaporates and the water level gets too low, the nutrient solution will become too rich and could actually burn roots.

There are three different ways of culturing hydroponically-grown plants. The simplest one, the nutrient film technique, simply uses a plastic trough as a container. Holes are placed in the top to hold the plants. The trough is sloped slightly, so the solution will flow past the plants to a reservoir.

Other methods include aeroponics which suspends the roots in a mist rather than a solution, and aeration, which uses an air pump to deliver oxygen to the roots that are immersed in the solution.

An aggregate system of hydroponics uses inert material, such as clay pebbles or foam chips to surround the roots and provide support to the plant. The most common aggregate system is the flood and drain method, which fills a container with the aggregate. The container is then flooded with the nutrient solution as often as necessary.

Hydroponics systems are easy to set up for a home gardener, and can produce an excellent yield of quality plants. Equipment is not expensive, and systems can even be home-made from common materials that can be found in any hardware store.

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HYDROPONIC GROWING