How Does Hydroponics Work

How Do Hydroponic Gardening Systems Work?
By Tony Buel

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There are some advantages with hydroponic gardening over traditional gardening.

For example, the rate of growth of a hydroponic plant can be up to 50% faster than a plant grown in soil with the same conditions. And the yield of the plant is also greater!

The reason? Plants get their nutrition fed directly into their roots from nutrient-rich water. Since this water is so high in nutrients, the plant does not need large roots to search for its nutrition.

Since the plant expends less energy growing roots, it has more energy available to be productive above the rootline.

The Benefits of Growing Hydroponically

Hydroponically grown vegetables are healthy, vigorous, and consistently reliable. This form of gardening is clean and extremely easy, and it requires very little effort.

Hydroponic gardening is also beneficial to the environment. For example, this form of gardening uses considerably less water than soil gardening because of the constant reuse of the nutrient solutions.

And fewer pesticides are necessary in hydroponic crops. Topsoil erosion is not an issue either, since hydroponic gardening systems use no topsoil.

Feeding the Plants

How exactly does a hydroponically grown plant get its nutrition, nutrition it normally gets from the soil? These nutrients come in liquid or powdered mixes that can be purchased at a hydroponic supply store.

Like soil, hydroponic systems can be fertilized with organic or chemical nutrients. But you should know that an organic hydroponic system can be considerably more work to maintain since the organic compounds have a tendency to clump.

Hydroponic systems are normally categorized as passive or active. An active hydroponic system moves the nutrient solution with a pump. A passive hydroponic system relies on the capillary action of the growing medium, a wick.

In a passive system, the nutrient solution is absorbed by the medium or the wick and passed along to the plant's roots. But a downside with this method is that the medium is often too wet and does not supply enough oxygen to the root system for the best growth rates.

Hydroponic systems are also characterized as recovery or non-recovery. In recovery systems, the nutrient solution is re-circulated for reuse. In a non-recovery system however, the nutrient solution is not recovered.

Interested?

If you're thinking about growing hydroponically, you may be unsure about whether to buy or build a system. If you have an "engineering mind" and want to build one, consider buying one first just to get familiar with the inner workings.

Buy a system that does not cost a lot of money. It will give you a better understanding of how hydroponics works. The hands-on experience can be worth the cost of the system as you will be able to reuse the parts when you decide to build one.

Hydroponics gardening is a popular and growing hobby, even a business for some. Many are finding this to be fun, exciting, and easy to establish.

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This will explain how to do your very own system - Build a Homemade Hydroponics System