Reasons to Grow Plants Hydroponically
Firstly what is hydroponics? Hydroponics is the science of growing plants in a nutrient water solution whereby the roots are supported by a substance other than soil.
If you’re a gardener you will appreciate the hard work that goes into cultivating plants. Not only does this involve ensuring the right soil type but there can be a lot of raking, hoeing, tilling and other hard work that goes into maintaining the soil. Then there is the weeding and the effort that goes into keeping pests at bay.
Hydroponically grown plants solve these problems as there is no soil. The Plants are grown in an aggregate that can be anything from small rounded stones, broken tiles, perlite or vermiculite. Therefore there are no moles or cutworms to worry about, no poisonous pesticides and no weeding. You only have to worry about keeping the plants watered on a regular bases – but even this worry can be taken care of with a hydroponic pump system set to a timer. You can keep your plants watered at regular intervals and even go on holiday for a few weeks without worrying about coming home to shrivelled up dead plants.
Hydroponically grown plants thrive both inside and outside of the home. The nutrient rich water combined with less destruction by pests means you have more bountiful yields with less waste. They grow well both in natural sunlight and artificial light. A hydroponic unit can be portable making it easy to bring the plants indoors during the harsh winters. In fact because a hydroponic unit distributes nutrients evenly to each plant and the porous growing aggregate lets air circulate freely you can ensure everything grows quicker and ripens more quickly, producing many times the yield of soil-grown plants over the same time.
If you have tasted tomatoes from the supermarket you may have noticed that they have tough skins and lack the taste of home grown tomatoes. Farmers choose seeds that produce vegetables with tough skins to facilitate machine harvesting, sorting and shipping. Also they are often harvested before they are ripe to ensure a longer shelf life. Quality is sacrificed for quantity. Home grown plants, particularly those that are hydroponically grown have superior nutritional content and a fuller flavour.
Plants grown in the supermarket are often transported over a long distance reducing their freshness and adding to their cost. With the rise in oil prices and expanding cities gobbling up agricultural land the cost of food is likely to skyrocket in the future. Is it any wonder that more and more people are using hydroponics to grow their own? Hydroponically grown fruit and veg are not only healthier, tastier and more bountiful, they can save you lots of money in the long term while giving you the satisfaction of growing something yourself.
