Irrigation Hydroponics

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Posted by admin | Posted in Hydroponics & Seed Starting | Posted on 10-03-2010

Irrigation Hydroponics

Growing your Own Hydroponics Garden: Introduction to Hydroponics Gardening

Hydroponics gardening becomes more and more popular these days. Some consider it miraculous. But what is hydroponics gardening after all? How does this system work? Why is it considered more convenient and more successful than classic gardening (geoponics)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of growing your own hydroponics garden? Here are some answers to the questions above.

With hydroponics you can grow plants (fruits, vegetables, flowers etc.) using water and mineral nutrients instead of soil. The idea behind hydroponics gardening is to provide the plants with all the nutrients they need to absorb, without using soil. Besides, soil is just a nutrient reservoir and its not critical to the plant growth.

You can grow almost any kind of plant using hydroponics techniques but there's no guarantee that you will produce greater crops and more nutritious or better tasting products than with quality soil. What is certain is that hydroponics gardening is cheaper, less tiring and it allows greater control of the plant itself.

Here is a list of the great advantages that hydroponics gardening has to offer comparing with classic geoponics gardening:

- In geoponics gardening you kill the plant when you remove it from the ground while in hydroponics gardening you can package the plant and keep it alive and fresh for longer periods of time.

- In geoponics gardening you have to dispose, sterilize and reuse a solid medium while in hydroponics gardening you don't even use any kind of solid medium.

- In hydroponics gardening you have eye contact and full control of the plant's root system while in geoponics gardening roots are hidden in the ground.

- In hydroponics gardening there's no need to worry about over watering or under watering the plant while in geoponics gardening you always have to change and adjust your watering techniques according on the weather and the soil condition.

- Hydroponics gardening can be developed in areas where there's no quality soil present. For example in areas covered with snow or in a space station while geoponics gardening should always be developed in quality soil in order to produce best crops.

- Hydroponics plants is an excellent plant research and plant learning tool. They can be transferred anywhere without any hassle. In order to study a geoponics plant you have to move to the place where the plant grows.

- Plants grown with geoponics methods may suffer from all kinds of diseases, pesticides, weeds etc. caused by the presence of soil. In hydroponics gardening there's no soil at all no weeds and no pesticides of course.

- The use of water to maintain and preserve the plant can be dramatically reduced in hydroponics gardening, while in classic geoponics gardening you always have to use more water than you need for irrigation.

- A hydroponics garden may be set up with timer systems to automatically fertilize the plants while in geoponics gardening fertilizing the plants is always a pain and most of the times it must be done manually.

- Plants grown with hydroponics techniques are healthier because they receive a balanced and controllable portion of nutrients while with geoponics gardening you can never be sure about the plant's nutrition because there are too many factors to consider, for example whether the soil already contains enough minerals to grow the plants or whether it should be enriched with the right mix of minerals etc.

Here are some of the disadvantages of having your own hydroponics garden:

- Hydroponics gardening usually relies in electrical systems like timers or pumps. These systems control critical aspects of the plant's nutrition routine. If any of the system fails it could result to the total destruction of the plant. In geoponics gardening you just add the water and let soil do the rest.

- If you are serious about hydroponics gardening you need more technical knowledge and information on various subjects (different solutions and mediums, types of irrigation, various materials etc.) while in geoponics gardening the rules are pretty standard and well known to almost everybody.

- Hydroponics plants require close attention, care and support and will die if not frequently monitored while geoponics plants do not require such close attention.

Hydroponics school project help?

I'm doing a project for one of my classes which involves me making a hydroponic herb box with subsurface drip irrigation. I plan to make a wood box, line it and add a pvc pipe grid with a hookup to a waterline. Here is my question....

How can I grow the herbs in sand? (it's extra credit if we do)

If you have proper drainage, you should be able to to grow in sand, but it's such a dense medium, it would help if you could add a bit of perlite or something. What matters is that you maintain proper parameters for your plant. I.e. temperature, PH, nutrient levels, moisture level, and oxygen delivery. Oxygenate your nutrient solution before delivery for best results.