Hydroponics
Water and fertile lands to farm are becoming scarce
these days, and thus hydroponic, or soilless gardening, has
become a real life saver. In the past, farmers were completely
at the mercy of the seasons, but with the development of the
hydroponics system, they can now grow crops throughout the
year and yield excellent harvests regardless of the season.
That is the most direct effect of
hydroponics.
 Being able to grow plants
that survive and thrive without soil as the nutrient
source was first described historically by Woodward in 1699,
although the technique has been around since the time of
the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
However, it
wasn't until the 1840s that the principle was first
applied to modern agriculture. Researchers discovered
that by developing a formula containing all the essential
nutrients that plants to growth — nitrogen,
phosphorous, potassium, carbon dioxide and hydrogen dioxide
(H20) — the requirement of soil to grow
them could be eliminated completely. Adopting this
idea, several German botanists soon developed the basic
nutrient formulas and growing techniques still in use
today.
When using hydroponic
gardening, growing crops needs as little as 10%
as much land as regular farming and less than 10% as much
water. Water usage can sometimes be dramatically
reduced even further if the water is
re-circulated.
An important advantage of
hydroponic gardening is that the produce is much less likely
to be affected by insects in the soil or diseases caused
by soil microorganisms. This, of course, means
that growers are less likely to use insecticides to keep these pests under control. The
overall result is that you have crops that don't
carry traces of insecticide and so they can be picked ripe
just before eating, so preservatives are not
needed.
Produce such as broccoli, cabbage, celery,
chard, cucumbers, eggplant, flowers, grapes, lettuce, melons, onions,
peppers, pole beans, radishes, strawberries, and
tomatos can all be grown hydroponically.
An
additional attractive benefit of hydroponic gardening is
water economy. In arid areas where water is precious and must be
re-circulated, hydroponic systems can help improve
harvest yields. In fact, large volumes of hydroponic
foods can be grown rapidly in a relatively small
area. It's been reported that four heads of
lettuce can be raised in the same amount of space required to
grown one head of field lettuce.
There
are several techniques to hydroponic gardening. With
water culture, the roots of the plants are held in a large
waterproof tank. The plants are supported by mesh or string,
and they get their food from the nutrient formula contained in
the tank.
Another form of hydroponics is gravel
culture. This method is considered a more costly system to
install and maintain, because it requires a
waterproof bench which is filled with inert pea-sized gravel.
These are used to support the roots of the plants. A
solution containing all the essential nutrients required by
the plant is then pumped into the gravel from a holding tank.
When the bench is full of the solution, the pump is turned off
and the solution drains back to the holding tank.
The
solutions for both systems are replenished periodically. And
for lighting, a number of grow light devices are available
used to automate lighting for plants.
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