Get Growing With hydroponics Gardening by Wyatt Pottoe

How does your garden grow? With fresh air, sunshine and rich, black soil? Not if you’re one of the countless gardeners who are now enjoying the benefits of hydroponics gardening.
Known as the cultivation of plants in water, hydroponics gardening has boomed in popularity. This is partly due to the scarcity of fertile farmland and shrinking supplies of fresh water.

There’s nothing new about hydroponics gardening. This method of growing has been abound for thousands of years, and can be traced to the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon. This ancient wonder of the world was created with a form of hydroponics. Since those ancient times, researchers have proven that a number of different aggregates or media could be used in place of black earth to support plant growth. Hydroponics gardening is just one of many alternatives to traditional soil growing.

Benefits of Growing with Hydroponics

Many people enjoy the space-saving benefits of hydroponics gardening. Apartment dwellers and homeowners alike can grow fresh vegetables and plants in the smallest of spaces, even on compact patios and balconies. Many commercial greenhouses have also adapted hydroponics gardening because of similar space-saving benefits.

It’s been suggested that, when properly grown, hydroponics plants may be healthier and more vigorous than their soil-bound counterparts. Without soil, nutrients are more readily absorbed by the plant. Hydroponically-grown plants mature more quickly and yield their harvest of flower and vegetable crops earlier.

The convenience of hydroponics gardening has been enhanced by using a timer to automate the entire system. With such a system in place, the home gardener invests less time in maintaining the overall plant growth requirements. Automation enables the hydroponics grower to enjoy more flexibility, such as being away for longer periods of time without having to worry about watering the plants.

Raising Healthy Plants

Plants have universal requirements, whether grown in soil or water. They all need air, water, light and nutrients. When plants are grown in traditional gardens, they absorb these essential nutrients and water from the soil. However, nutrient uptake can be a little slower, because soil can actually impede the roots’ abilities to access what they need.

Without soil, hydroponics gardening is cleaner and easier. That’s one of the simple joys of this type of gardening. There is always water and nutrients available, so your plants will never become stressed. You can build a hydroponics system outdoors to provide natural air and sunlight, or assemble it inside with artificial lighting and air circulation. Either way, your plants will enjoy optimum health.

For artificial sunlight, many hydroponics gardeners use metal halide lamps and sodium vapor lamps in conjunction with incandescent light bulbs. Fluorescent or specially designed grow lights may also be used.

Plants, like all living things, need oxygen to stay alive. The healthy, white roots of a plant are responsible for delivering all of the nutrients for the plant. When the roots die, it is impossible for the plant to survive. Even when all of the other growth requirements are in place, those elements will be useless if the plants are not able to access nutrients through the roots. Therefore, your hydroponics system requires adequate aeration by way of an air circulation supply. This technique will mix air throughout the nutrient solution, allowing the plants to draw out the carbon dioxide necessary for natural photosynthesis.

A sterile medium is the final requirement for a successful hydroponics garden. You’ll find a selection of media available on the market, from simple gravel to special formulations. Because there is no soil, there are no weeds. This is a true joy for any hydroponics gardener. Further, there are no soil-borne pests to worry about, so diseases caused by pests are minimized, if not entirely eliminated.

If you’re short on time, short on space or simply don’t like getting your hands dirty, discover the many joys of hydroponics gardening.

About the Author
Wyatt Pottoe is a columnist for several popular Internet sites, on family fun and home garden topics.

Lighting in hydroponic Gardening by Diana

Lighting plays an essential role in hydroponics gardening. Adequate indoor lighting is essential for plants to produce food and to survive. Lighting is the first thing that is taken into consideration when starting an indoor garden. The amount of light that is naturally available or that can be supplied by artificial means, determines which plants are ideal for an indoor garden.

The amount of light entering any part of the house would vary from one location to another. The surroundings of the house such as trees, roof over hangings affect the amount of light entering through a window. A light meter that provides measures of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) should be used to calculate the amount of light falling through the window. Plants require 400 and 700 nanometers of PAR for photosynthesis and chlorophyll production.

Artificial lights for plants can be provided by using a variety of sources. These include incandescent bulbs, fluorescent lamps, HID lamps, and plant growth lights. These bulbs are ideal for plants that have limited natural light.

Incandescent and halogen light bulbs are known to produce more of red spectrum light as compared with other sources. These bulbs should be placed about one foot over the plant. This is not a grow light but is ideal for plants with low light requirements. A normal incandescent bulb is considered to be inefficient in terms of energy consumed and the amount of light generated.

Fluorescent bulbs are a cost effective solution offering four times the light of an incandescent bulb per unit of electricity. Though there are a number of fluorescent bulbs available to the general public only few of them are applicable to aiding plant growth. These are plant growth, industrial, daylight, full spectrum (which imitates natural light), actinic, tri-phosphor, special purpose and High Output / Very High Output bulbs. The ideal size of bulb for plant growth is the T12 four foot length tube. However, T5 length bulbs meet all the lighting requirements of indoor plants and therefore, are most popular. These bulbs fit the gap between cost and quality.

High Intensity Discharge (HID) bulbs are another solution for illuminating an indoor garden. These bulbs are very large and draw a large amount of energy. These bulbs require an additional fan to cool down due to the large amount of heat that they produce. These lights are ideal for flowering plants as the light source mimics sunlight. These lights require a ballast box to regulate the amount of electricity going to the light. For vegetative growth, metal halide (MH) lamps provide the maximum energy to indoor plants. For fruiting and flowering, high-pressure sodium (HPS) is the best choice. Mixed model lamps are available to meet this demand, which allow one to switch between MH and HPS features.

Know more about lighting in hydroponic gardening and different types of lighting products visit www.hydroasis.com.

hydroponics gardening is great for anyone who wants to do some gardening but may not have the space or a lot of experience.
Hydroponics gardens are different from regular gardens in that there isn’t any soil involved, which makes them great for indoors. The word begins with hydro for a reason! Hydroponics isn’t anything new, either, as it’s been around since as early as 600 BC. The other wonderful thing about hydroponics gardens is that they can be grown anywhere. For example, NASA uses indoor hydroponics for growing produce during lengthy missions. Lettuce is also being grown on U.S. submarines.
To get started with hydroponics gardening, you will need to germinate seeds just as you would for any other type of garden. Then you choose a growing medium. The medium can be anything from composted bark to peat moss to sand to nutrient-enriched water. You can also purchase kits that have everything you need to get your hydroponics garden started–and growing. For the beginner, this is probably the best way to go, as you can get everything you need along with expert advice.
The benefits of gardens grown using the hydroponics method are many. They allow you to grow your produce organically, without harmful pesticides or fertilizers. And since water is re-circulated in a specialized system, you also conserve water. This is great news for people who live in drought-stricken areas or in places where water is scarce.
Hydroponics gardens are also very low-maintenance. Because the produce is grown in water, you don’t have to do any digging. Even better, with these gardens, there’s no weeding involved either. Plants grow faster, too. Thirty to forty days from seed to fruit or flower is average. This is 30-50% quicker than plants grown in soil.
Too, hydroponics gardening makes it possible to grow produce year-round. That means you can enjoy fresh vegetables and fruit anytime of the year without paying outrageous prices for them. Plus, since there’s really no telling just how fresh the produce is in your local market, you’ll never have to guess about freshness and purity again. You’ll know because you grew it yourself under circumstances you control.
This is an important advantage that hydroponics gardens have over traditional gardens. When you grow plants in soil, even under the best of circumstances, you don’t know for certain that your plants are truly getting the nutrients vital for them to grow. In gardens grown hydroponically, you know your plants are getting the very best nutrition right at their root system. This not only ensures the highest quality possible, but it also takes the guesswork out of your gardening. That way, you can relax and enjoy your gardening efforts while feeling secure.
Hydroponics gardening is becoming more popular with novice and expert gardeners alike. As people become more aware and concerned about the environment, this trend is sure to continue. So whether you’re looking for a hobby or a new environment-friendly way to garden, hydroponics gardening is certainly worth experimenting with–just be warned that once you begin, you’ll never want to stop. The fruits of your labor will be too good to give up!
About the Author
Growing with hydroponics has been a long-time hobby of mine. It is the way of the future for us to feed a healthy diet to the whole world. Start with your own family Indoor Hydroponics Growing Garden and see what tasty veggies and herbs you can produce and harvest.

What Is hydroponics Gardening

Hydroponics was derived from the Greek word hydro, which means “water” and ponos, which means “labor or water-working”. Hydroponics gardening involves growing plants with their roots in other nutrient solutions and without soil.

Hydroponics gardening is as simple as ordinary gardening. Both of them necessitate sufficient light, water, temperature, light, and humidity. But with hydroponics, no soil is used. Instead a soil substitute holds the roots while nutrients are carried by the water. Indoor hydroponic gardening is not that hard and plants respond well to this method of growing.

This is one of the major considerations in hydroponics gardening since it sustains the plants. One has to make sure that this nutrient solution maintains a pH level of 5 to 6 after dilution. In hydroponics gardening, the plants should be watered more than three times a day. this is usually done using a pump and timer.

If your hydroponics garden is located indoors, the most suitable temperature is between 71 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Of course, this temperature may change depending on the different types of plant you are working on, e.g. tropical plants.

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Place your plants somewhere they can receive ample amount of light. Otherwise artificial light must be used. High pressure Sodium lights or bulbs are a suitable substitute for natural light.

Humidity is good. When the room’s temperature rises, the air will be able to hold the sufficient amount of moisture your plants will need.

A hydroponics system can be fully automated. Since it is water-based, the gardener has no soil to dig or weeds to pull. Also, the water can be re-used to prevent wastage.

With hydroponics, an excellent yield of quality plants can be easily achieved. Home hydroponics systems and DIY kits are are readily available in most hardware stores.

Paul Lavakis