Basics of Hydroponic Gardening

• Feb 24, 2023
• Admin
• 2

The basic principle behind hydroponic gardening is that the use of soil is completely substituted with nutrified water i.e. nutrient solution this is why hydroponics is also called as soilless growing of plants. There are mainly four functions of soil in supporting plant life, first it supplies water and nutrients to the plants, second, provides aeration to the plant roots and third it acts as an anchor and fourth it buffers the soil pH and nutrient concentration. In Hydroponics nutrient solution takes care of all the functions of soil by way of water carrying the essential plant nutrients in the right proportion and at appropriate pH, the aeration of the roots is taken care by the pores of the inert media or by oxygenating the nutrient solution depending upon the hydroponic system used. Hydroponic gardening is best carried out in a hydroponic greenhouse, which can be any type of greenhouse but instead of soil a hydroponic greenhouse uses only nutrifeid water and inert materials to grow the plants in the controlled environment of a greenhouse. The great advantage of using hydroponic gardening system in greenhouse cultivation is that the greenhouse soil does not become sick and above all chances of soil borne diseases are completely ruled out, hence no fumigation of soil with banned chemicals like Methyl Bromide. There are a number of hydroponic gardening system like Floating or raft, Drip, NFT, Ebb & Flow, which can be successfully used alone or in combination in a hydroponic greenhouse. One can go for a hydroponic garden at home at a small scale that may be easily run by using a raft floating over the nutrient reservoir or by using a drip system and anchoring the plants in clay pebbles or another inert media held in the netted cups, a beginner may use premix nutrient solution to start with. Institute of Horticulture Technology has developed small circulating type of hydroponic systems suitable for hobbyists and entrepreneurs looking forward to a commercial start up or others willing to start their own hydroponic garden at home.