What is hydroponics?

The word hydroponics come from the greek hydro and ponus meaing literally "water works" and true to it's name hydroponics is growing with water only, no other growth medium.

There are many hydroponic systems all of which do the same job in a different way, that job is to completely control the enviroment in which your plants grow.

So how does it work?

Plants need food and light to survive and in nature the sun provides the light and nutrients in soil provide the elements it need s to grow. In hydroponics you have a nutrient solution to provide the basic elements to grow and high intensity discharge (HID) lamps to provide light.

This allows you to control the amount of food and light a plant gets so that it can grow at it's optimum rate.

Conventionally grown plants the extract water nutrients and oxygen from soil however because of the physical characteristics of soil it is likely that one or all of these essential nutrients is in limited availability to the plant roots.

When plants are grown hydroponically, provided the system is set-up correctly the plants have access to an unlimited supply of water, containing exactly the right amount of nutrients along with a perfectly balanced pH enabling a grower to keep there plants growing at a much more vigorous rate throughout the crop and achieve maximum yield.

Contrary to some expectations, the roots of the plants grown hydroponically are not usually totally submerged in water. As having the root totaly submerged in water would be counter-productuive, the reason for this is oxygen is a key factor to all hydroponic systems.

The idea of hydroponics might still intimidate some people, most gardeners prefere and enjoy the simple, quick and eacy process of Hydroponics. It is no more complicated than traditional gardening mothods, and the same growing principles apply to the both. Althought slighty more technology is used in Hydroponics you should not be daunted by this.

Choosing the best method for you

There is often great debate about the best method of growing the truth is it depends on the grower, it is certainly true that advanced methods like aeroponics and hydroponics display rapid growth rates which astonish growers who have previously worked with soil this is due to the water having the perfect amount of oxygenated nutrients contained within it.

What the grower must understand where they previously had soil acting as a buffer as well as providing nutrient, in hydro & aeroponics it is down to the grower to ensure the pH and nutrient remain stable and accurate.

Many soil growers enjoy the low cost & low maintenance of working with soil despite the traditionally slower growth rates by adding air pumps porous air rings many growers report up to 50% increase in yield along with growth rates than can only been compared to aeroponics.

In conclusion it really depends on an individuals circumstances many growers use a combination, keeping stock or mother plants in soil, Using Aeroponics for rooting cuttings enabling rapid root and vegetative growth at very early stages and flowering in N.F.T or flood and drain.

S Dop is the webmaster of http://www.grotec.co.uk, one of the biggest hydroponics shops in the UK.