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Organic Gardening Tips

Hydroponics

Hydroponics is a Latin phrase meaning “working water.” Today, this is the process of growing plants without the use of soil. Hydroponics uses mineral nutrient solutions in water. Hydroponics has been proven as a successful way to grow healthy, stable, and high-yielding plants. When fruits and vegetables are grown hydroponically, the plants are nutrient-rich and tasty.

The two techniques for growing by hydroponics are medium culture and solution culture. Medium cultures use a solid medium such as sand or gravel to facilitate growth. Solution culture does not use these elements, and simply uses the nutrient solution.

How do Hydroponic Plants grow?

Plants grown hydroponically grow so well because they are getting all the nutrients they need in an ideally balanced environment without soil, which forces plants’ roots to search for their necessities. This means the plant can spend less effort trying to ingest food and more effort on vegetative growth and reproduction.

Hydroponic plants may grow completely in liquid or use small amounts of gravel, dirt or sand. Your hydroponics system can be in a mass fashion with many fertilizers, different mediums and automation or as simple as a single plant growing in a hand-watered bucket.

Creating a Positive Environment for your Plant 

When growing hydroponically, it is crucial to remember that the nutrients and minerals soil-plants receive naturally, your plant relies on you to receive. A healthy hydroponics environment must have water, aeration, nutrients and physical plant support.

One thing you can do to ensure a healthy environment when using foliar feeding for hydroponic plants is to use a small amount of EM-1 Microbial Inoculant . While this does not substitute for nutrient solutions, it does maintain recommended dilution ratios for your plant. It is also a good idea to condition the water you are feeding your plants with EM-X Ceramics. Specialized hydroponic fertilizers can be used to ensure your plant grows as healthy as possible.

Part of hosting a positive environment for your hydroponic plants also means maintaining an ideal pH level. Similar to soil plants, very high or very low pH levels in hydroponic systems disable plants from absorbing the nutrients they need. Fortunately, like many other aspects of hydroponic systems, pH levels are much easier to monitor, test, and control than soil plants.

What are the Benefits of Growing Hydroponically?

Because of the absence of dirt, nutrients are more accessible and create greater yields. The absence of dirt also means less space is required.

Plants in hydroponic systems are maintained in a controlled environment. Should the plant show mineral or nutrient deficiencies, the concentrations of these ingredients applied in water can be easily altered. Additionally, soil plants are frequently subjected to soil-born pesticides, diseases, weeds, and pesticide use. These risks are almost completely eliminated with hydroponics.



There are a number of methods and mediums used to create hydroponic plants. It has become very easy and affordable to experiment with hydroponics at any level. So try it out and start seeing higher yields soon!

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