What is Hydroponics?
In simple terms, Hydroponics is nothing but growing plants without soil; the growing medium could be sand, gravel, coco-peat or just water with added nutrients. It is all replacing the soil with salts and nutrients rich water and using it to grow your favourite plants. This methodology is extremely favourable for gardening in drought-stricken areas and thus is named as Earth Friendly Gardening. You may like to read about Aeroponics.
Advantages of Hydroponics:
Plants can be grown anywhere:
Using Hydroponics, plants can be grown without soil, with minimal light and in a with little space.Plant growth can be controlled:
In the hydroponic system nutrient and water delivery and can be monitored, and a variety of nutrients can be used to grow plants compared to conventional soil based planting.Eliminate gardening tasks of soil based systems:
Hydroponic plants do not need weeding, fumigation, soil aeration or application of pesticides like the soil based conventional planting.Conserve water and nutrients:
Hydroponics provides a complete gardening solution as it can function in a closed loop, by recycling and reusing water and nutrients. This, in turn, is beneficial for the environment as it reduces the carbon footprint of operations.“Transplanting Shock” is less in Hydroponics
In contrary to the conventionally grown plants Hydroponic seedlings can be grown in a wide variety of propagation medium that can be transplanted into the hydroponic system easily. This eliminates the risk of transplanting shock.Provide the highest yield per area
Hydroponic systems can grow plants all year round and are capable of going vertically. The unique technique has the potential of providing more yields annually than soil based planting.Hydroponic potting mixture:
Two part coco-peat & one part vermicompost is a perfect potting mixture for all kinds of vegetable plants, indoor plants & succulents.Click here to buy coco-peat online & vermicompost online in India.
Disadvantages of Hydroponics:
Like other technological advancements, Hydroponics too has a few drawbacks:- Setting up Hydroponic system involves high set-up cost and constant supervision.
- If the commercial hydroponic garden faces a power outage, and your plants dry out; you will have to water your garden manually.
- The pest infestation and infections via soil are avoided but in Hydroponics water-based microorganism can be a threat.
- Unlike traditional gardening, Hydroponics requires proper technical knowledge.
Need more insight? Feel free to pick up the book Soilless Gardening - A Complete Guide by William Frederick Gericke at our online store Ugaoo.com
Happy Gardening!
