A Brief Overview of Hydroponics

Oct 12
08:19

2011

Jonathan Watson

Jonathan Watson

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Hydroponics is a method of plant cultivation that has evolved in the last few years and is proving to be a success when yield is concerned.

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In this method plants grow hydroponically,A Brief Overview of Hydroponics Articles that is using plant nutrients and mineral nutrients solutions instead of soil. Plants growing hydroponically are based upon several factors except the use of any soil. Hydroponics is basically grown through two methods, solution and medium culture. To be precise, for a plant to grow hydroponically, either a solution enriched with essential minerals and nutrients is necessary or a medium is necessary where the hydroponic supplies are maintained according to the appropriate requirement.

Hydroponics that grows with a solution culture makes use of a nutrient solution instead of any solid medium. The solution culture can again be subdivided into three categories, static solution culture, continuous flow solution culture and aeroponics. Terrestrial plants can also grow hydroponically with simply their roots in the hydroponic nutrient solution or in any inert medium such as gravel, sand, mineral wool, coconut husk and many more. It has been proved through researches for many years that plants absorb mineral nutrients essential for their growth from soil in the form of inorganic ions that remains dissolved in water. Thus, soil actually works as a mineral nutrient reservoir that supplies the essential nutrients to the plants that are required for their growth, but the soil itself is hardly essential for the growth of the plant.

Plants that grow hydroponically in the medium culture method actually uses a solid medium for the roots and this is dependent on the medium used which may be sand, gravel, rockwool etc. There are two means of medium culture, one is called the sub-irrigation and the other is called the top-irrigation. In the hydroponics methods, reservoirs are required that can contain water and solutions. However, in most cases reservoirs made of plastic are used. There can also be reservoirs made of concrete, metal, wood and glass which can be used for growing hydroponically. The main objective behind using such containers is to exclude light so as to prevent the algae from growing in the nutrient solution.

Recently plants are growing hydroponically more often because hydroponics enjoys certain advantages over the normal process of plant cultivation. When removing the crops, hydroponics can be packaged and sold even when alive to retain its freshness for a longer time. Since there is no necessity of soil, chances of any soil borne diseases is beyond consideration. Apart from that, weeds also grow to a much lesser extent and therefore need of pesticides is also lower. With hydroponics, there is no soil contamination for edible crops and the requirement of water is also comparatively much less.