Before you start your hydroponic garden, you need to determine what kind of growing medium you want to work with your system. The type of growing medium you use depends on the type of plants you grow and the type of hydroponics systems you use.
Essential Elements
Water and light are the basics of growing plants. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants that use mineral solutions to dissolve water in the soil. This is the method to grow hydroponic plants because the soil is less of a solution.
You will enjoy a wider selection of plants growing in your hydroponic grow system than if you were growing them in the soil. When you grow in a hydroponic garden, your plants need fewer resources, and the nutrients and solutions they receive are exactly what they need. You need less water to grow your garden and plants that grow in a controlled environment mean you have less to deal with disease and pests.
For a variety of reasons, hydroponic nutrients differ from the nutrients (fertilizers) used to feed the plants growing in the soil. You must use a nutrient mixture (primary, secondary or micro) specially developed for hydroelectronics.
How Is It Different From Conventional Gardening?
Hydroponic Gardening enables gardeners to control variables in a way that traditional soil cultivation cannot, such as the pH and strength of the solution in which the plants grow. Required that the hydroponic grower has full control over the nutrients the plants receive, setting up a hydroponic grow system is as simple as a bucket of water, soluble nutrients and styrofoam. The plants get everything they need to survive in the system.
Things To Consider
When you decide to plant a hydroponic garden, it is important to understand the different systems available and decide which method works best for you. There is much to learn about hydroponics, and there is no doubt that there are people who have more sophisticated setups. Most hydroponic growers start with a simple, inexpensive system like the one described above and learn the basics before investing in a more complex system.
The first thing you want to do when starting a hydroponic garden is to decide what kind of plants you want to grow. The amount of space you have, the type of plant that you grow, your budget and the quantity you want to grow will all be taken into account when selecting the hydroelectronics system.
You need a hydroponics system, hydroponic nutrients, an inert hydoponics medium and a light source at the time of planting. The only specialized hydroponics components you need are the nutrients the system needs, and a growing substrate such as perlite or coconut, both readily available in garden centers.
A hydroponic system has various structures such as towers, trays and frames that store water and other inert media and provide a place for plants. There are many different types of hydroponics systems that experiment with the different ways plants absorb water via their roots.
The Starter Kit
The advantage of having your own system set up is that you can adapt the design to your space and the type of plants you want to grow. Starter hydroponics kits can be used with any system, but you can start by using a 20-gallon aquarium tank, a plastic aquarium pump, seedlings and styrofoam holes where the seedlings can grow. If you do not have a lid, you can cut holes in a styrofoam package so that the plants can grow into it.
You need a hydroponic nutrient mixture to serve as a kind of fertilizer for your aqueous plants. The easiest way to ensure that your plants get the nutrients they need is to buy a commercial hydropon fertilizer, formulate the plants that you want to grow and follow the instructions for use.
If you use organic hydroponic nutrient supplements that contain beneficial microbes, as many root developers do, make sure that the water you use does not contain chlorine or chloramine. To make a nutrient solution, start with good quality water such as RO, reverse osmosis, spring or distilled and mix the hydroponic fertilizer according to the amount ascribed by the fertilizer manufacturer.
Kratky Method
All that is left over means that you have to aerate the water in a DWC system to replenish the oxygen used by the roots. In the Kratky method, plant roots are grown in a mineral solution before they begin to use air pockets that form at the top of a preserving jar to provide much-needed oxygen to the root system. The soil, air and pores in the room supply the oxygen for the roots, which is returned to the hydroponic system when the water is pumped.
This method allows the root system of plants to be in direct contact with the oxygen and nutrients that it needs allowing it to grow quickly and efficiently for the plant. This system does not require a growing medium as the plant is held in the base of the stem and the roots of the plant are exposed to the nutrient solution while growing in the container. Depending on the system, a plant root can be grown in a system in which it is constantly misted with a nutrient-rich solution.
These plants are easy to grow if you have only just started hydroponics, they are not fertile and they are long enough to grow in shallow root systems.
Unlike a domestic cat, which is fed the food it wants, the roots of a fast-growing plant feed on an abundance of nutrients that are balanced by the roots themselves. Plants use the earth to give plants the nutrients and food they need and collect these nutrients in a hydroponic system. Running allows the plants to get the necessary nutrients for production.
