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…)

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.

When you lack the land to grow your vegetables, it is easy to set up an hydroponic gardening system that is simple – the water culture system. The components required are a floating platform, an air line, an air stone and an air pump.

The floating platform acts as a foundation system and holds plants in place while the roots dangle in the nutrient solution. The air pump is located outside the tank and pumps air through the line to the air stone. The air stone, in turn, aerates or “bubbles” through the nutrient solution, providing oxygen for the plant roots.

An ideal plant to grow using the water culture hydroponics system is lettuce. Lettuce grows quickly and requires a lot of water, making it a good match for this type of hydroponic system.