Hydroponics And Its Benefits

Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil. Hydroponics permits the cultivator a
high degree of control over what the plant is fed and the plant can be provided with all its
nutrients in a form that makes them very easy to take up: a water-based nutrient solution is
circulated past the plant roots, recirculating the unused nutrient. Plants that are grown using
hydroponics don’t required to form extensive root systems, they developed several fibrous roots
and get food and water very well. They can dedicate more energy into foliage, flowers, and
fruits. Hydroponically grown plants do not need to form extensive root systems, they grow many
fibrous roots and take up food and water very efficiently. This means that they can devote more
energy into foliage, flowers and fruits. Yields of crops can be up to 75% larger than those of soil.

Will be explaining some benefits of hydroponics systems in a way that the reader can
understand that this system can be used by anyone. The first benefit will be talking about is

Water preservation: Irrigating plants in a garden ecosystem results in less than 10% of the water
applied being utilized bye the plants, the other evaporates or drains away. When this happens the
plant loses nutrients because the water drains them. This produces contamination and more
fertilizer is required. When you use a hydroponics system there are no losses to drainage and as
long as evaporation is regulated hydroponics utilizes as small as one tenth of the water that a
usual developed crop would need. Hydroponics can be greatly effective in areas where water
resources are restricted. In the Middle East in places like Israel and the Gulf States and desert
areas in other places in the world or in urban areas hydroponics represents the only method to
produced and developed crops. Another benefit is Natural conservation: A lot of characteristics
of traditional organic do not apply to hydroponics. For example preserving soil fertility,
arrangement and controlling weeds in an authorized method. Hydroponics farmers don’t sustain
the soil. They don’t control weeds because there is no soil. Even though, the nutrients in a
hydroponic system are typically created synthetically they are chemically the same to those the
plants would get in a soil.

Nutrient preservation: This is also a benefit of hydroponics farming. When grown on soil,
nutrients which have not yet been utilized by the plant finish up in the ground water and pollute
the rivers and lakes leading to algal blossom and deoxygenation, which eventually is lethal to
water life and other animals. In addition, salt can accumulate in the ground water reserves
creating then to saline to use for beverage or irrigation. Organic techniques of soil organization
help to diminish leaching but in a recirculating hydroponic garden, there is no loss of nutrients to
the atmosphere every nutrient placed into the system is consumed by the plants. This results in a
very effective non-polluted technique of production that needs fewer nutrients than a usual
method.The last benefit will be talking about is Maintenance: Hydroponics can supply a
sustainable answer for cultivators with hard soil and climate circumstances. Restricting intake to
strictly organically grown crops would result in having to import more food. Growing food and
crops locally with the use of hydroponics is more maintainable than to depend on imported
organic production.

]
How To Build A Hydroponics Garden
Building a hydroponic garden is not as complicated as many people believe. Not only having
a hydroponic garden in your home will bring you great benefits it will also help you save money
on groceries. It doesn’t matter if you live in a big city or in a farm, anyone can use this method of
gardening because it does not need soil and it can be done inside or indoors. Just to name some
of the benefits it will bring you; it will help your lifestyle because you know what your eating
and it will be healthy, it also helps you relax you don’t have to worried about food or the weather
affecting your crops, etc.

Now, the first thing you have to do before starting your own hydroponic garden has to be
deciding which vegetables or plants you want to produce in your garden and the quantity of
every plant you want to produce. Calculate the size of the area you will use. Uniformly, mark
and space 4 inch holes for the 4 inch pots to be placed in them. For the first 3-4 weeks and in hot
climates, shade cloth is helpful if used under these conditions. Then make up a hydroponic
solution of fertilizers and water to a strength of an average of 20-24 CF with an end Ph of 5.5 to
6.5. Plant yourself-raised or bought seeds by taking seedlings out of their pots and carefully
washing away most of the soil from the roots. Place the clean seedlings in the growing medium,
be it perlite Rockwool coir clay balls or NFT channeling and into the hydroponic solution.
Carefully control the chemical balance of nutrients to water (check daily) by adding mostly
water, since the water will mostly evaporate. Watch your plants grow for about 12 - 18 weeks.
Help them by keeping pests away and watching for root-rot (when roots go slimy, turn brown
and die). Harvest when needed. Flush the entire system after harvest, and sterilize using peroxide
and copper solutions to kill bacteria and mold.

Additional Information You Should Read Before Starting Your Garden:

 Consider buying a grower's guide, but if you are a beginner I highly recommended this
book “The Beginners Guide To Hydroponics”.
 2 items of importance are a digital Ph tester and CF meter, needed to check Ph and
nutrient strength. Guessing is not enough.
 Make sure you have plenty of time and energy.
 Hydroponic gardening can be done inside or outside.
 Just as with regular gardens, provide lots of natural light, like a greenhouse or sun room.
 Gently rinse (don't scrub) "seedlings" roots to remove and loosen the dirt before putting
into the hydroponic solution. (Plants and roots at this stage are fragile and are not needing
every speck of dirt off of them.)

Remember:
 Don't grow anything illegal.
 This can be an expensive hobby.
Growing indoor plants using a grow box is a hard task but also a very satisfying experience. It
involves a lot of time and work. In the end its a rewarding experience.

The first step in growing indoors is to make sure you have adequate space for your plants and to
make sure your using correct lights. It’s recommended to use high pressure sodium lights.

The second step is to make sure you have plenty of air circulation. You could do this several
ways; one way is with a vent type fan or a box fan. By using one of these style fans you will
circulate the air that is lowest in the room which is cooler and cleaner. If you think that the air
you get in the room is not clean you could always install a filter. You want to be able to control
the speed of the fan however so a variable speed fan works the best. It’s also a good idea to have
oscillating fans that move left and right. This will help stiffen the stems of the plants and helps
your plants grow stronger. You always want air circulation because it cools your plants and
doesn’t allow bugs to land on the plants for long period of times which keeps them from
damaging your plants.

Another way you can get air movement is by getting a carbon dioxide generator. This generator
is a pump that make spurts of air and this helps your plants feed and speeds up photosynthesis;
which is what your plant produces to make natural plant sugars. Then the plants starts to produce
more oxygen. You would need to find a way to exhaust the hot gasses that plants produce. Most
of the time you cant physically feel the heat coming off the plants, but its there. For example if
you have a 3 inch fan moving air in the room you need to exhaust 6 inches of air out of the room.
The best way to exhaust air out of your room is by finding a spot on the highest point of the
room to get rid of the air.

These are two efficient ways to provide adequate air circulation to your indoor garden.

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Circulating air in a Hydroponics room

September 9, 2009
tags: air circulation
by dealzer
 
 
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Growing indoor plants using a grow box is a hard task but also a very satisfying experience. It
involves a lot of time and work. In the end its a rewarding experience.

The first step in growing indoors is to make sure you have adequate space for your plants and to
make sure your using correct lights. It’s recommended to use high pressure sodium lights.

The second step is to make sure you have plenty of air circulation. You could do this several
ways; one way is with a vent type fan or a box fan. By using one of these style fans you will
circulate the air that is lowest in the room which is cooler and cleaner. If you think that the air
you get in the room is not clean you could always install a filter. You want to be able to control
the speed of the fan however so a variable speed fan works the best. It’s also a good idea to have
oscillating fans that move left and right. This will help stiffen the stems of the plants and helps
your plants grow stronger. You always want air circulation because it cools your plants and
doesn’t allow bugs to land on the plants for long period of times which keeps them from
damaging your plants.

Another way you can get air movement is by getting a carbon dioxide generator. This generator
is a pump that make spurts of air and this helps your plants feed and speeds up photosynthesis;
which is what your plant produces to make natural plant sugars. Then the plants starts to produce
more oxygen. You would need to find a way to exhaust the hot gasses that plants produce. Most
of the time you cant physically feel the heat coming off the plants, but its there. For example if
you have a 3 inch fan moving air in the room you need to exhaust 6 inches of air out of the room.
The best way to exhaust air out of your room is by finding a spot on the highest point of the
room to get rid of the air.

These are two efficient ways to provide adequate air circulation to your indoor garden.

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Hydroponics – How effective is Co2

September 9, 2009
tags: co2, effectiveness, hydropnics
by dealzer
 
 
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Hydroponics – How effective is Co2

Co2 is indispensably one of the prime requirements for increasing the crop productivity. Many
researches have successfully proved the positive role played by the Co2 in catalyzing the growth
of the plants. Careful knowledge regarding the quantity of Co2 that has to be used during various
phases of the plant growth will help in maximizing the benefits derived from using extra level of
the Co2. A successful gardener will be aware of the significance of using extra dosage of Co2 for
obtaining great quality crops. While implementing this technique, it is essential that the gardener
controls the other parameters such as the heat generated, light levels and the water vapor level to
get the best results.

The crop which is cultivated using the hydroponics method has to pass through various phases
such as the seedling stage, transplant stage, green growth stage and the production stage. Each of
the levels requires different levels of the Co2. Good understanding and the knowledge concerned
with the level of Co2 requirement will greatly magnify the crop output. Various researches
conducted in this field reveal that the amount of Co2 required is large in the seedling stage than
the amount that is essential for the established crop or the plant.

There are two methods of applying Co2 to the crops. The first one is by the usage of the Co2
tanks and the other one is generating the Co2 by burning the mixture of propane and the natural
gas. The usage of the compressed tanks is more suitable for meeting the Co2 in small scale level.
For meeting the demands of Co2 in large scale gardening, the usage of Co2 that is being
generated by burning the mixture of propane and the natural gas is well recommended. Careful
measures should be taken while using the second method to provide accommodations for the
escape of heat that is being developed. Usage of the exhaust fans will solve this problem. For a
large garden usage of 2 or 3 generators will enable even distribution of the Co2 that using a
single large Co2 generator.

When the crop reaches the established growth stage, the level of the Co2 required gets lower and
lesser supply of Co2 will be good enough. Hence undoubtedly, increasing the level of the Co2
effectively maximizes the growth of the plant in the seedling and growth stage. The extra level of
the Co2 used in the initial phases has a major impact in increasing the quality of the crops in the
future stages.

dvantages
Some of the reasons why hydroponics is being adapted around the world for food production are
the following:

 No soil is needed
 The water stays in the system and can be reused- thus, lower water costs
 It is possible to control the nutrition levels in their entirety- thus, lower nutrition costs
 No nutrition pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system
 Stable and high yields
 Pests and diseases are easier to get rid of than in soil because of the container's mobility

Today, hydroponics is an established branch of agronomy. Progress has been rapid, and results
obtained in various countries have proved it to be thoroughly practical and to have very definite
advantages over conventional methods of horticulture. The two chief merits of the soil-less
cultivation of plants are, first, much higher crop yields, and second, hydroponics can be used in
places where in-ground agriculture or gardening is not possible.

[edit] Disadvantages
The hydroponic conditions (presence of fertilizer and high humidity) create an environment that
stimulates salmonella growth.[6] Other disadvantages include pathogen attacks such as damp-off
due to Verticillium wilt caused by the high moisture levels associated with hydroponics and
overwatering of soil based plants. Also, many hydroponic plants require different fertilizers and
containment systems[7]

Nutrient solutions
Plant nutrients used in hydroponics are dissolved in the water and are mostly in inorganic and
ionic form. Primary among the dissolved cations (positively charged ions) are Ca2+ (calcium),
Mg2+ (magnesium), and K+ (potassium); the major nutrient anions in nutrient solutions are NO−3
(nitrate), SO2−4 (sulfate), and H2PO−4 (dihydrogen phosphate).

Numerous 'recipes' for hydroponic solutions are available. Many use different combinations of
chemicals to reach similar total final compositions. Commonly used chemicals for the
macronutrients include potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and magnesium
sulfate. Various micronutrients are typically added to hydroponic solutions to supply essential
elements; among them are Fe (iron), Mn (manganese), Cu (copper), Zn (zinc), B (boron), Cl
(chlorine), and Ni (nickel). Chelating agents are sometimes used to keep Fe soluble. Many
variations of the nutrient solutions used by Arnon and Hoagland (see above) have been styled
'modified Hoagland solutions' and are widely used. Variation of different mixes throughout the
plant life cycle, further optimizes its nutritional value.[16] Plants will change the composition of
the nutrient solutions upon contact by depleting specific nutrients more rapidly than others,
removing water from the solution, and altering the pH by excretion of either acidity or
alkalinity[17]. Care is required not to allow salt concentrations to become too high, nutrients to
become too depleted, or pH to wander far from the desired value.