Hydroponic Systems And Hydroponic
There are various kinds of hydroponic systems on the market. The most basic types being active and passive. Hydroponics is water-based or medium-based growing conducted without the use of soil. Highly productive, hydroponics systems are geared towards the conservation of water and land, besides being easier on the environment. Hydroponics, like all other tasks, requires that you give it some thought before setting up your personal hydroponics system.
In active hydroponics systems, nutrient solutions pass over your plant roots. This usually necessitates the use of a large-sized root zone medium, such as vermiculite or perlite. Meanwhile, a passive hydroponics system suspends plant roots into nutrient solution, but sometimes the plant needs anchorage and support as it grows.
Some basic requirements for any hydroponics system are – light, water, oxygen, temperature and nutrients. The light provided to your plants could be natural if you are growing outdoors. Growing in a greenhouse usually calls for a combination of natural and artificial light while growing indoors requires artificial lighting. It can be classified into following six types:
- Wick
- Water Culture
- Ebb & Flow
- Drip
- NFT
- Aeroponics
Ebb and Flow and Drip systems are media based systems. Systems which use water as growing medium are Nutrient Film technique and Water Culture technique.
The water you circulate through your plant systems will be much lesser than what goes into and never comes out of soil-based growing. Water used in your hydroponics systems can also be re-circulated to a certain extent. Hydroponics systems thus promote the sustainable use of priceless resources like water; doom statistics predict an earth that could dry up within our lifetimes if we are not careful enough.
Ensure that your plants are not in dearth of good air circulation. Depending on where you cultivate your hydroponic plants, you might want to rely on natural air circulation or if your water is circulating in a closed system, you might want to install pumps like submersible pumps with timers to artificially work the water and ensure that oxygen evenly reaches your matted plant roots.
In moderate climates, much temperature adjustments are usually not needed, but when you use grow rooms to grow in extreme conditions, it is necessary to make arrangements to regulate the temperature of your grow rooms. Lastly, there are nutrients to be given to your plants; they’re so important that they deserve a whole post to themselves! If you get these five basics right, you are ready to roll out your own customized hydroponics system.
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