The technique of growing in hydroponics is taking off in many places.  I encourage you to read this article and start thinking about a space in your home where you can set up an efficient, small in home garden and enjoy the nutritious benefits of home grown food.

Written by Danny O. Calleja / Correspondent

Monday, 28 December 2009 18:34

PILI, Camarines Sur—Even urban areas in the country can now produce in commercial scale high-quality vegetables and other agricultural crops through a revolutionary approach in farming called hydroponics. This newly introduced urban-farming system is a potential approach to revitalize agriculture by fundamentally altering the manner of how crop is produced. This included eliminating the dependence of plants on soil by completely changing their growing medium. The concept of hydroponics proves that soil is no longer crucial for the plant to thrive when the required mineral nutrients are artificially introduced into the plant’s water supply and plant roots absorb them, said Jose Dayao, the regional executive director for Bicol of the Department of Agriculture (DA) based here. Dayao explained that hydroponics makes use of crafty facilities, and resource-efficient and cost-effective cultures and systems to allow the effective use of land, nutrient, water and labor in a comfortable and sanitary working condition. Read more………

It is a common myth that plants can’t utilize more than 12 hours of light per day and require a dark period. It isn’t true. Try to imagine a plant’s growth cycle is similar to an animal, the more you feed it, the fatter and bigger it gets. If you never decided to switch to 12 hours of darkness your plants would continue to grow until they reached an unmanageable size!

It is recommended that you start the flowering stage, which is when you start the 12 hours of darkness, once your plants reach 10-18inches in height. During all stages of growth your light hood should be around 5 inches from the growing tips of your plants. Since the reflector stays cool to the touch there is no risk of your plants burning. Move the reflector up as your plants continue to grow taller.

Here’s another wonderful idea for adapting hydroponics to people’s needs.  Again, seniors in nursing homes are mentioned as having great knowledge about gardening and growing, which is all going to waste while they play bingo!

“When John Copp, 43, of Kettering was a student at Ohio State University, many of his friends were paraplegic and he became aware of their needs.

“One man loved gardening, but was unable to get into the soil,” said Copp. “This gave me the idea that growing things in water, hydroponics, would be the answer. I have always loved to cook and grow my own produce.”

Copp designed a unit holding cups of potting soil over recycling water enhanced with nutrients. Fluorescent lights add to the energy needed for growth. The result is a six foot high, four foot long, three feet wide wood framed unit holding 20 gallons of re-cycling water he calls Legacy Hydroponic. It’s high enough to accommodate wheelchairs on both open sides.”

Read more….

We all know that vegetables are so good for our health.  This is why we are encouraged to include them in our daily diet. Not everyone likes the bitter taste of most vegetables, so, if this applies to you, then you might want to try vegetables grown hydroponically.  Vegetables  produced with the hydroponic technique are grown without soil and in water containing dissolved mineral nutrients. Some say, compared to organic vegetables, the hydroponic greens are sweeter and more tender.

Hydroponics can be a low-cost technique allowing for the use of recycled materials and soil-free medium such as sand or stone. Vegetables grown the hydroponic way are very useful in urban agriculture. They can be grown in limited urban spaces, even in places that may not have been considered before for food production like the balconies or rooftops. It also eliminates the need for using pesticide solutions because soil-less gardening means few pests or weeds.

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….

Your garden does not have to be limited to the summer months. If you are at a point where you want fresh kitchen herbs or fresh fruits and vegetables year round, an hydroponic system may be what you need to look at.

The use of Hydroponics has been around for thousands of years, since ancient Babylon. They were the first to use soilless gardening techniques and water conserving irrigation methods. Now through the use of technology, we have even simpler hydroponic systems to use in our homes, greenhouses or yards.

You may have seen an infomercial for the Aerogarden. This little system is a great way to see first hand the benefits and potential of having a garden in your home. It will sit on a counter-top, out of the way in a dark corner, and still produce. The Aerogarden’s simple and complete instructions make sure you are successful from the moment the lights are turned on.

I like this article with a new idea for growing food for the world with hydroponics.  There are dissenters, of course, but they don’t put forth new ideas to solve the problem for us to consider.  Not very constructive, I’d say.  I’ve posted a link so you can read the whole article.  It would be very interesting to read your comments and, perhaps, alternative solutions?

Growing crops in buildings proposed as solution to world’s food woes

Is it an elegant solution to pressing problems related to the food supply, or another example of putting too much faith in technology?

That’s a tough question to answer. But what is clear right now is that vertical farming is in its infancy.

The idea is to grow food inside buildings — not conventional greenhouses, but multi-storey buildings, quite likely in cities — in closed ecosystems using hydroponics rather than soil, and without the use of pesticides.

So far it has only been tried on a very small scale. Paignton Zoo in South Devon, U.K., for example, is growing produce to feed some of its animals.

But advocates of vertical farming — notably Dickson Despommier, a Columbia University professor of public health — envision towering gardens in the heart of a city. Despommier, who is working on a book on the idea, sees vertical farming as part of the answer to global warming, water shortages and inner-city health problems.

Read more….

It just might be that an in home  garden would work very well for you as it does for me.  Do you like to see plants growing lush and healthy indoors?  Do you like the smell of them and would like to grow something that you could taste as well?

I don’t have a very big outside garden but still grow what I can in the summer.  As soon as the frosts come, that’s the end of that.  Now I concentrate on my in home garden, which grows way faster than the outdoor one, and I have fresh produce in no time.  It takes much less work and can put a small hydroponic system on my kitchen counter, in the spare room or down in the basement.  It has its own light so I don’t have to worry about have a sunny window.  The system is a clean, with no mess, low maintenance and it really works.

Once you’ve grow your herbs in your hydroponic system, you will want to dry some untill the next batch is ready.  Imagine sitting around the table with your family on a cold winter night, with the smell of your favorite herbs steaming out from your favorite dish that you so lovingly prepared. Not only that but dried herbs look very appealing hang in in your kitchen or the pantry.

Herbs that contain high moisture can be a bit more difficult to dry but herbs such as bay, dill, thyme, marjoram, summer savory, sage, basil and oregano are just a few that lend themselves to drying.

Herb plants that are going to be harvested should be harvested in the early morning, in this way they will not have extended much energy. Also you need to gather them just before they go into bloom and they will be in their best condition to produce great dried herbs.

If you are interested in starting an hydroponic garden, there are many solutions available to you.  You may be looking at a pre-made grow box or you want to design your own set-up.  Here is a little bit about how the hydroponic technique works.

At the heart of it, there are two basic methods for growing with hydroponics: solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture doesn’t use a solid medium for the plant roots to sit in, just the nutrient solution either continuously or periodically. Medium culture uses a media such as rock wool or expanded clay pellets to hold the plants and soak up or circulate the solution.

When you know which plants you want to grow, you should find out which method would suit them best.  Some are more likely to thrive in the nutrient/water situation while others will need the support of the rock wool or hydroton clay pellets.