Let’s examine some of the basic Hydroponic Systems available to the home user.

EBB AND FLOW

Also called the Flood & Drain, this system works by flooding the reservoir routinely with nutrient solution and empties back to yet another tank to be recycled. Crops on this method are put into trays which hang over a nutrient chamber. The choice of growing medium will determine how often and how long you flood the container for. To regulate your ebb-and-flow cycle a water pump is utilized. This system is considered the most typical of all hydroponic systems.

DRIP

Having the identical set up as an Ebb & Flow system with a reservoir and trays that hang over the nutrient chamber, this hydroponic system works by a constant drip of solution pumped in the growth tray. Flow rate can be difficult to control on a drip system as well as the emitters are prone to clogging. These problems can be magnified when you try to make your own drip system.

WATER CULTURE

This setup will work well for beginners as it is widely considered the easiest arrangement for small scale hydroponic systems. Crops drift on top of nutrient tanks with dangling plant roots within the solution. An air pump can be employed to oxygenate your nutrient solution. Water Culture is one of the oldest examples of hydroponic systems; however it can be a bit tough to control. You must make an effort to keep light from getting to the nutrient solution as it promotes the growth of algae. Algae will eat the nutrients you are trying to feed to your plants, and when pieces of algae die they attract pests leading to many other problems.

WICK

This technique needs no pump and little upkeep. Wicks, usually nylon rope, soak up the nutrients solution to the plant roots inside the growth tray. The solution will not cycle out of the trays so you may have issues with dissolved solids in the nutrient solutions crystallizing on the wick which results in a decline of water absorption. Should there be any pH issues they are slower to remedy because the wick itself harbors additional nutrients which would throw the actual nutrient pH off.

These simple, yet versatile, hydroponic systems allow the home user to pick and choose which method will work the best in spaces available.  After all you are not limited to just one way of growing. Each will have their positive and negative attributes and you may be surprised at what works best for you.  All these hydroponic systems allow for adjustments to make them capable of growing organic crops.

What are they?

Now it may seem that these solutions must be some strange scientific process, however the basics are quite easy to understand. Growing mediums do not contain any nutrients on their own and obviously plants need food to live.  In hydroponic systems this need is dealt with by using nutrient solutions. A solution is a homogeneous mixture of two or more substances, which may be solids, liquids, gases, or a combination of these. In other words it’s a mix of a variety of nutrients in water.

Why is it important?

Plants require different proportions of nutrients during vegetation and flowering stages. Current nutrient products are more advanced than earlier counterparts and now allow precise adjustments based on these growth stages. This means you can get a bigger bang for your buck by increasing yields in your produce crops with a little research. (more…)

You can grow hydroponic lettuce in every variety that we would normally find at the supermarket or in a seed packet. It is one of the fastest growing plants to experiment with.

First, you will want to have a hydroponic nutrient solution that provides everything that a lettuce needs to grow and thrive.

Next you need to support the plants as they grow.  For this, you may want to use perlite, which is the most highly recommended substrate for the growth of hydroponic lettuce. For other types of hydroponic plants, you can use gravel or rockwool but perlite has proven optimal for lettuce. Hydroponic plants grow very fast so you will be able to replant as soon as you take the harvest.  If you don’t need a whole lettuce head at once, just cut a few leaves off the plant and leave it growing.  You will be able to repeat the crop over and over again without risk of rot, mold, or disease.

As hydroponic gardening becomes increasingly popular more and more ideas are coming to the forefront. With growing plants in water and a nutrient solution, you can save time, money and space and enjoy year round fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers. Although there are many commercially produced nutrient solutions available to nourish and grow your plants, it is possible to create your own homemade hydroponics nutrients solutions, even if you have no previous experience.

Creating your own nutrient mixtures can be nearly as enjoyable as growing the plants themselves. It is quite possible to produce various kinds of solutions. Doing some homework is essential to determine which nutrients you need and in which concentrations to best suit your plant’s needs.

I found another good tip for your in home garden full of roses:

Many growers of roses use a baking soda solution to fight powdery mildew fungus. Mix one rounded tablespoon of baking soda with one tablespoon of summer horticultural oil in a gallon of water.

Spray this mixture on the plant as long as the temperature is not above 850 F. This will not stop powdery mildew once it has established itself. But it can be an excellent preventative.

Another treatment is sulphur dust. Apply either sulphur or lime sulphur about every seven to ten days.

Many quality nutrients provide beneficial microbes that colonize on a plant’s roots. This, in turn, will inoculate a plant for life against disease.

When purchasing products with beneficial microbes, remember that they are living organisms. Pay close attention to the shelf  life of the product you are considering. A long shelf  life, which most quality products provide, will help assure you of getting living, vibrant microbes that will go to work for you.

Quality nutrients also help to guard against insect infestation.  If your roses are attacked by pests, you’ll be giving them the ability to recover.

If roses are worth growing, they’re worth feeding with the best nutrient fertilizers.  If you want to grow quality roses, feed them quality fertilizers.

Generic fertilizers found at box stores and other gardening stores and supermarkets, generally lack two important things. One is the essential minerals needed to produce quality flowers. Even when a cheap product appears to have a complete formulation, don’t be fooled. Some manufacturers use cheap minerals which plants cannot readily absorbed. This will end up giving you disappointing results.

The other reason for shopping quality is to be assured of a well tested nutrient formulation that includes the proper balance of minerals. Too little or two much of a particular mineral can either starve the plant or set up a toxic condition.

The technique of growing in hydroponics has become very popular lately among indoor farmers. Hydroponics is nothing more than growing plants in water instead of soil. The water is pre-mixed with hydroponics nutrients that give the plants roots all the nourishment they need to grow big and strong as if they were in nature. Hydroponics nutrients are similar to the fertilizers that are found in nature coming from the earth. Plants grown hydroponically grow bigger and faster than plants in nature because hydroponics spoon feeds the plant everything it needs to grow at optimum speed.

When plants are growing in an hydroponics application such as a grow box for instance, plants will receive more light per hour than they would ever receive in nature. This is because you can keep a light in the hydroponic grow box system on longer than the sun would naturally shine in nature. The plants are being spoon-fed exactly the right amount of lighting in high doses.

I just read these interesting statistics in a news item.  Why on earth do we still do traditional farming to grow these foods?  Let’s do our best to spread the word and get everyone growing at least part of their own food at home in hydroponics.

“The yield in hydroponics is much greater than the traditional way of soil farming. Wheat yields 5,600 lb in soil farming, while it produces 8,000 lb in hydroponics. Potatoes yield 1,56,000 lb in hydroponics in contrast to just 18,000 lb in natural farming.

The pioneers of hydroponics were Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, New York, New Jersey Agriculture Experimental Station, Alabama Polytechnic Institute and Horticulture Experiment Station, Netherlands. Hydroponics did not reach India until 1946. First research on hydroponics was done in Government of Bengal’s Experimental Farm at Kalimpong in West Bengal.”

Read more….

Often, home hydroponics gardeners miscalculate how much space is needed to produce the quantity of plant material they hope for. It will depend on which crops you intend to grow but the space must be large enough for the plants, reservoir, high intensity lights, ventilation fans, exhaust fans, electrical wiring and more. Certainly,there are very efficient hydroponics systems that fit on a counter-top but realistically, the smallest practical hydroponics garden will be the size of a clothes closet.

Hudro Huts, or grow tents, are about the size of a clothes closet. They are lightproof enclosures designed specifically for an indoor hydroponics garden. A Hydro Hut grow tentg can be erected anywhere there is sufficient space.   Made from 100% lightproof material, it will normally have a highly reflective lining with access holes for intake, exhaust fans and lightproof vents for good air circulation.

In influencing the yield of your hydroponic garden, one of the biggest factors is how many nutrients your plant is receiving. It’s not as simple to increase the amount of nutrients your plants receives by merely increasing them in your nutrient solution, because nutrient uptake may hit a plateau if the conditions of your root zone are not optimized.

Quality plant enhancers usually have several elements that help improve uptake and therefore increase your yield. For instance, some plant enhancers might contain specially designed enzymes that will stimulate root growth, enabling your plant to soak up more moisture and nutrients. Some others might have beneficial fungi that can break down the nutrients in your solution so they are more useful to your plants