Hydroponics in a nutshell is growing plants without a nutrient rich soil. Most people think of hydroponics as growing plants in water. But in reality anytime you grow plants without soil you are growing plants hydroponically.
Why do people bother to grow plants in such an unnatural way?
The answer is simple, you may want to grow a garden in a place that does not have soil or the soil quality is poor. Or you may want to grow plants that will not grow in your climate. For example, in the winter you may want to grow tomatoes but it's too cold to grow them outside so you decide to grow them hydroponically indoors.
You can grow many types of plants hydroponically from the tomatoes I've already mentioned to lettuce, celerty, radishes - just about any type of plant will do.
To grow healthy plants hydroponically you do need to decide on a good hydroponics system incudling hydroponic lights. One such system is called the Wick System.
The wick system is so named because it involves using a wick to bring nutrietns from a reservoir to the plants.
Here's how you set it up.
You put your plants in a growing medium such as perlite or vermiculte. Then underneath the growing medium you have a reservoir filled with nutrients dissolved in water that's seperate from growing medium and not touching it.
You then have a wick often made from nylon that goes from the reservoir to the growing medium. What happens is that the nutrients are pulled from the reservoir into the growing medium where they are absorbed by the plants roots.
Of course there's much more to know about hydroponics than this. You may want to use a totally DIY system like the Wick system or actually purchase a system that's guaranteed to work for you.
If so visit Hydroponics in a nutshell is growing plants without a nutrient rich soil. Most people think of hydroponics as growing plants in water. But in reality anytime you grow plants without soil you are growing plants hydroponically.
Why do people bother to grow plants in such an unnatural way?
The answer is simple, you may want to grow a garden in a place that does not have soil or the soil quality is poor. Or you may want to grow plants that will not grow in your climate. For example, in the winter you may want to grow tomatoes but it's too cold to grow them outside so you decide to grow them hydroponically indoors.
You can grow many types of plants hydroponically from the tomatoes I've already mentioned to lettuce, celerty, radishes - just about any type of plant will do.
To grow healthy plants hydroponically you do need to decide on a good hydroponics system. One such system is called the Wick System.
The wick system is so named because it involves using a wick to bring nutrietns from a reservoir to the plants.
Here's how you set it up.
You put your plants in a growing medium such as perlite or vermiculte. Then underneath the growing medium you have a reservoir filled with nutrients dissolved in water that's seperate from growing medium and not touching it.
You then have a wick often made from nylon that goes from the reservoir to the growing medium. What happens is that the nutrients are pulled from the reservoir into the growing medium where they are absorbed by the plants roots.
Of course there's much more to know about hydroponics than this. You may want to use a totally DIY system like the Wick system or actually purchase a system that's guaranteed to work for you.
If so visit Hydroponics Systems for more information.