Hydroponics Gardening

What do the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Floating Gardens of China, and a popular science fiction television program have in common? Hydroponics gardening!

You may have heard of a hydroponics gardening system before this, in which case you’ll understand what I’m talking about. If you haven’t heard about hydroponics gardening, don’t worry. Hopefully by the time we reach the end of this article, you will have a clear idea of what is a hydroponics garden. And if someone asks you whether you think a drip system, or an ebb and flow system is better, you'll know exactly how to answer.

Before we get on to the subject of drip, and ebb and flow systems, let’s take a crash course in hydroponics gardening.

Coming from the Greek words ‘hydro’ for water, and ‘ponics’ for labor, the word hydroponics in gardening terms is used to specify a type of gardening that doesn’t have its roots in soil. This soil-free type of gardening depends entirely on a nutrient-enriched water based system.

These nutrients can either be in the form of specially formulated chemicals for hydroponics gardening, or they can come as a variety of natural nutritional ingredients found in nature itself. The use of either nutrient form is solely dependent upon the gardener.

Hydroponics gardening consists of growing plants in containers that use no soil whatsoever. These containers come in many varieties.

In a hydroponics system, a plant needs a "growing medium" to help its roots dig in. There are many options fro choosing the medium material. Shale is a simple and easy solution, especially for the first time gardener. With a little bit of research however, you can easily find out if Hydroton or Rockwool is a better growing medium for you than shale would be. (Hydroton and shale can be used in an ebb and flow system, while horticultural Rockwool can be used with just about any system).

Now we touch on the systems used to pass along the nutrient enriched water to the plants. Again there are many options for the hydroponics gardener to choose from, but here I will explain the two systems I mentioned earlier.

Simply put, the ebb and flow system uses a pump to respectively flood and then drain your containers at regular intervals. The drip system uses a continuous drip that supplies a steady ration of water solution that’s measured out for each plant.

Also it should be noted that hydroponic gardens enable the plants to have a higher growth rate, and many gardeners take advantage of this to create higher yield vegetable and fruit gardens.

Now that you have a broad understanding of hydroponics gardening, with a little more research you should be able to set up your own hydroponics system, and keep yourself growing fresh fruits and vegetables year round!

And if you want to head back to working with the earth, check out our article on landscaping.