I’m considering growing my own hydroponic strawberries. They are delicious and I hope to make money from them. Here are some of the reasons why hydroponic strawberries beat traditional soil grown strawberries.

No matter where you live you can grow strawberries in an hydroponic system.  So even if you live in a crowded city centre apartment block, you can still grow them. Because you are not using soil, no soil borne diseases will be passed on to the plants. There will be no need to eliminate any soil loving pests. You will have no need to use any expensive or controversial pesticides.

Once you have your strawberries growing, your running costs will be around 20% lower compared to soil based gardening. You can grow more hydroponic strawberries in a smaller area. This is due to the decreased size of the roots as they do not have to spread out to find nutrients. So you will be able to grow more in your growing trays.

Maintenance time is greatly reduced from as soon as your system is set up. There is no need to water your strawberries as they will already have access to all the nutrients. There is also no weeding involved as there is no soil. All you really need to do is pick the strawberries as and when they are ready.

The strawberry yield will be year round. You control their environment and you will have everything set to their optimum growing conditions so they will continue to produce 365 days a year.

You can grow hydroponic strawberries anywhere; greenhouse, cellar, kitchen, conservatory, rooftop, window ledge, living room or in the garden. Th strawberries grow on average 40% larger than their soil born brothers. This is because you have created their ideal growing environment and they have full access to all the nutrients they need. Could be money in the bank!

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.

Fortunately, there are various types of hydroponic systems available for us to choose from. These systems can either be passive or active in nature. With a passive systems, nutrients are passed through the growing medium. With active systems, a pump is used to get the nutrients to the plants. More often than not, you see better growth with an active system, since active systems provide more oxygen to the plants.

Hydroponic systems can be based on either recovery or non-recovery methods for dealing with the nutrients. The non-recovery method does not recycle the nutrient solution. The recovery method, on the other hand, does, making if quite a bit more efficient.

This is a bit technical but good information from my favourite magazine:

by J Benton Jones, Jr.

pH is defined as the negative log of the hydrogen ion (H+) concentration on a scale from 0 to 14, 7.0 being the neutral point, with less than 7.0 being defined as “acidic” and greater than 7.0 as “alkaline.”  The optimum pH ranges for plant root function growing in a mineral soil, an organic soil, a soilless organic rooting medium, or a hydroponic nutrient solution are not the same. In addition, there is no one explanation for the pH effect on plant roots growing in these four media. A pH range of 4.5 to 8.5 is the normal encompassing range associated with these rooting media with plants functioning best in “acidic” environments.

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After the first successful application of hydroponics techniques in the 1930s, the stage was set for a shift in crop production from conventional cultivation in soil to hydroponics or soil less cultivation. Among the first crops to be commercially harvested included tomatoes and peppers, but the techniques were soon successfully extended to other crops such as lettuce, cucumbers and more. It was not long before successfull hydroponics techniques were adapted to cut flowers production. In fact, any plant can be grown hyrdroponically.

The extended growing season is not the only advantage to the soaring popularity of hydroponics production with both growers and consumers. Other advantages include the consistent vegetable quality and superior taste, plus the elimination of the use of pesticides and herbicides. Pesticides and other chemicals used in conventional agriculture have an adverse environmental impact; the run off from these chemicals contaminate groundwater supplies. Commercial hydroponics systems eliminate these toxic chemicals and contribute substantially to keeping the groundwater free from contamination.

You might be surprised to hear that such a large plant as a banana tree was being grown hydroponically on liquid feed alone, but it is entirely possible that there are people out there growing them that way. Hydroponics gardening really is not that difficult once you get the hang of the basic requirements and if you are well enough disciplined to attend to your growing plants regularly and consistently you will have great success.

The technique of hydroponics gardening might seem complicated to a person doing it for the first time, but usually novices are able to quickly get the hang of it. Just like you need gardening supplies for a regular garden, you will need hydroponics gardening supplies for hydroponics gardening. The supplies might not be available in your local supermarket but they can simply be ordered online at at very good prices.

for children is a great way to encourage growing vegetables and more.  The plants grow so fast, the children don’t have time to lose interest.  Maybe this school will discover this eventually.

Ivanhoe Junior and Infant School is growing its own vegetables with help from £5,000 from Local Food, a new programme supported by the Big Lottery Fund.

The £50 million scheme is funding food-related community projects across the country.

The Ivanhoe Gets Healthy project is a new education and growing scheme which will provide food-related activities for children, young people and adult volunteers to develop their horticulture skills.”

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Pain is a fact of life for many people.  In many cases, relief has been found using the marijuana plant.  I found this article about someone who needs it and someone who teaches how to grow it:

“Dustin Bohnett spent many years suffering from irritable bowel syndrome and hoped marijuana would give him relief from severe chronic pain.

But as the Onondaga Township man was about to receive state certification to grow and use medical marijuana, the 25-year-old realized one thing: When it came to a green thumb, he was all thumbs.

Bohnett knew he couldn’t turn to Better Homes and Gardens. So he went back to school. At HydroCollege in Lansing, he learned the craft of growing marijuana indoors and now cultivates a marijuana “garden” in his basement – under the nurturing glow of 1,000-watt lamps.

“I had never grown (a marijuana plant) on my own. I had never seen anyone grow one,” Bohnett said. “I never would have known how the hydroponics system works.”

When it comes to growing marijuana, course instructor Danny Trevino of Lansing is the answer man. He’s a self-proclaimed, self-taught guru of green, a professor of pot. Trevino, 37, teaches the three-day course at his business, HydroCollege, at 702 W. Barnes Ave. in Lansing.”

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Here’s another great story of people taking charge of their environment and food.  Hydroponics is playing a larger and larger part in the production of  food for the planet.

Jean Siracusa, Owasco Valley Audubon Society president, organized the building of three greenhouses as part of a program designed for hydroponic produce. Installation of green energy, including thermal energy and a planned windmill for renewable energy to make the project self-sustaining, is now in progress.

The town is considering being the lead agency for the windmill so the nonprofit organization can apply for a grant. The town planning board has already approved the plans. Siracusa hopes to have the 100-foot windmill in place by spring.

“We’re carbon neutral, fossil fuel free and there are no herbicides,” Siracusa said.

“Our real goal is to have local produce available to people regardless of their income,” she said. She also talked of not just growing vegetables but “growing a generation that’s more aware. We just want to teach people how to grow food.”

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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.