By Kelly Stevenson
Hydroponics, by definition, is a method of growing plants in a nutrient-rich water-based solution as opposed to conventional soil.
Instead, the plant’s root system is supported by an inert medium such as clay pellets, peat moss, rock wool, perlite or vermiculite. The basic premise behind hydroponics is to allow the roots of the plants to come into direct contact with the nutrient-rich water solution, while at the same time having access to oxygen, which is essential for the successful growth of the plants. A hydroponic system will also use less water than growing in soil.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
I would say that one of the biggest advantages of growing with hydroponics is an increased growth rate. With proper setup and maintenance, your plants will mature up to 25% faster and yield up to 30% more than those grown in soil. One of the reasons is the plants don’t have to work as hard to obtain nutrients. Even the smallest of root systems will provide the plant with exactly the nutrients needed which enables it to focus more on growing upstairs rather than expanding its root system below.
A hydroponic system will also use less water than those grown in soil because the system is completely enclosed resulting in less evaporation.
In spite of all the advantages of growing your plants hydroponically, there are a few disadvantages. The biggest being the amount of time it takes to set up a large scale hydroponics operation. Also, time spent keeping track of and monitoring pH levels has to be tended to on a daily basis.
The greatest risk in growing with a hydroponics system would probably be a pump failure, which could result - depending on the size of your operation - in your plants dying in a matter of hours. They can potentially die so quickly because, unlike soil, the growing medium cannot store water so depends on the pump for a continuous supply of fresh water.
THE DIFFERENT METHODS AND TECHNIQUES OF HYDROPONIC FARMING
In general, there are two techniques of hydroponic farming. These include solution culture and medium culture. Solution culture meaning just as it implies - using a liquid solution as opposed to a solid medium culture such as gravel, rock wool or sand. You generally have two choices on how to deliver your nutrient-rich solution to your plants - either by means of a pump i.e. active method or passive method which is adequate for smaller setups where you manually water the plants yourself.
NUTRITIONAL CONTROVERSY
There is opinionated conversation in our household about the nutritional value found in organic and nonorganicly grown foods. Much of the food purchased in the grocery stores as well as food bought from the farmers market is of questional nutritional quality. How does hydroponicly grown food compare? Much of the food grown by farmers in the soil looks great when it is displayed on the grocers shelve, but if you were to check it for nutritional content it would be lacking.
Commercial farms grow food that will look good, last long enough to make it market, and can turn a profit. They add the big three fertilizer components (NPK) many grow GMO varities and presto you have good looking crops. Very little attention is paid to the micro nutrients and microbiota. Organic farmers do something different but all farmers are profit motivated and keeping cost down is a big priority. So many skimp on the micro nutrients and microbiota.
How does a hydroponic farm insure that nutritional quality is maintained, Can the hydroponic farmer compete with mother nature when it comes to feeding the plants. Here is where the microbiota is very important. These little bugs insure that nutritional components are in the proper form for the plants to utilize. If materials are there but in a form not usable the plants will not incorporate these micro nutrients.
Many people believe the soil with its microbiota imparts life energy to the growing plant. The plant then inparts this energy to the animals that eat them, including us humans. Without this energy the growing plants are not complete. They are nutritionally incomplete. I do not know the answer but circumstantial evidence, the unhealthy people around, indicates we have a problem. Part of the answer lies not in the quantity of food produced but in the quality produced.