CO₂ is Carbon Dioxide. Basically it is made up of one carbon molecule and two oxygen molecules that are in a gaseous form at standard conditions for temperature and pressure. But enough of the elementary science – how is it important to hydroponics?  The role of CO₂ in your hydroponic system is not a complicated one to understand – photosynthesis is a process that all plants use to converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from light.   Now what this means to you is that your plants require CO₂ to make food for themselves, pretty simple. Not so fast.

Where is it?  In the very air you are breathing right now.  With that being said, why would you need CO₂ in your hydroponic system at amounts greater than what is in the air?  Good question.  Let’s break the explanation down. (more…)

Imagine being retired. No daily grind of the 9 to 5.  Now imagine being in a retirement home. Do you have images of a regimented, somewhat institutional environment?  Now imagine being in that type setting growing strawberries or roses or fresh herbs?  Seems impossible or contradictory? It is entirely possible with Hydroponic Gardening. (more…)

When setting up to grow with hydroponics, the pH of the water to be used should be tested before you add the plant food – nutrients. pH Testing Kits are readily available online or at your gardening store. You can also use Nitrazine paper which is very inexpensive.  It really is an important step to grow the best plants.

Apparently, an aspirin can be used to lower the pH level or even a small amount of distilled white vinegar. I’ve never tried these myself.  For raising a low pH, you can add either potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide to the water.  However, both of these chemicals are very dangerous and really to be avoided.

As you can see, there are problems with trying to use the cheapest methods for testing and you would do much better to put out an extra couple of dollars and get a proper pH adjuster kit made for hydroponic growing. You will have a better chance of accurately adjusting your pH for successful growing.

Hydroponic gardening for later years in our lives makes a lot of sense. With hydroponic gardening, you don’t have to worry about weeding around your plants or watch for insects attacking the leaves and roots because you are not growing in soil.

This may be a new technique for you to learn since you’ve always gardened the traditional way.  However, hydroponic gardening has been around for many years. There are a lot of Seniors who are using this method for growing their plants these days. Also, it’s perfect for people who can’t be around herbicides and insecticides due to breathing problems.

For Seniors and physically challenged people who are unable to get down on the ground or bend very well, the shelves that the plants sit on can be set at a comfortable level to work with. The hardest activity you would have is harvesting your fresh vegetables and picking a bouquet of flowers.

If this method of growing interests you, there is an abundance of information about hydroponics for Seniors you can look into. It may fit in with your lifestyle very well. There are many different hydroponic systems available for all budgets and available spaces.

It is wise to keep in mind the growing conditions a particular plant needs to survive and thrive. Poor choices for hydroponic-style gardening are succulents, because they will only thrive in dry conditions and you are attempting to grow plants in the medium of water.

Water-loving plants love to grow in hydroponics because they will be growing in water. Melons are a good example of a fruit that grows well in this circumstance. Watermelons, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries can all be grown successfully hydroponically because they are all water loving plants and can thrive in this sort of growing medium.

The borough of the Bronx has sprouted a hydroponic gardening shop and will soon boast a watery rooftop farm.

Hydroponics, a way to grow plants in nutrient-rich liquid rather than soil, makes sense for Bronx neighborhoods where garden plots are rare and fresh vegetables in short supply.

When Bronx Hydro & Garden opened at 39 Bruckner Blvd. in November, neighbors’ curiosity knew no bounds, said partner Frances Fabian

Some people are wary of “grow shops,” she said. Many neighbors were perplexed by the wares on display at Bronx Hydro.

When the price of a punnet of tomatoes or strawberries seems to excessively high, you can be sure that most of the cost is for fertilizer that is used to grow the plants. When growing your own food, you take back some of the power corporations have over you.

If you decide to start a vegetable garden, obviously you will have to purchase seeds.  Please make sure that the seeds are fresh or they won’t sprout and you’ll be disappointed straight off. You can get some seeds from a friend who is already growing their own produce but, again, make sure they’re no older than last year’s harvest. Most commercially grown vegetables are specifically grown to be sterile, so that the seeds cannot be used.

If the soil in your garden is not very fertile, you will have to purchase some compost and potting soil to start your garden off with. After this, dig in your kitchen scraps from peeled vegetables, rotton fruit and tea and coffee grounds (never meat or bones!).  The worms will do the rest.  It’s magic!

Place your seeds in potting trays and keep moist with a spray bottle, whenever the soil starts to dry out. Your seeds will need plenty of sun and warmth to germinate. A heat mat is very useful.  Loosely covering with a thin plastic sheet or dome will help to keep the moisture in.

When considering growing plants indoors, there are numerous advantages to growing them in an hydroponic system grow box versus converting a room in your house or apartment. The cost of converting a room can be a huge undertaking. Often there will be quite a mess associated with convertion. Often, these spare rooms do not have adequate ventilation required, so you could have temperature issues right at the beginning.

Obviously, it’s not a good idea to have water directly on your carpet or wood floor. A grow box is self-contained and, unlike the grow room, the advantages don’t stop there. A grow room cannot be moved. A hydroponics grow box, however, can simply be moved to another room or space in your house or even to another growing location with ease. It comes completely assembled, ready to use and can be broken down and cleaned in minutes. You can’t rebuild a the room that fast.

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!

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.