Hydroponic gardening is not only popular, but is growing in popularity and if you are interested in this type of gardening there are a few points of basic information that you should be aware of.  As you are here because you are interested in container gardening, we suspect that you may find this of interest as well.

Hydroponics is an interesting choice for home container gardeners. Because there is no soil, there are no weeds, no digging, no soil-borne diseases nor any need to rotate crops. For flat dwellers this is ideal, and all that carrying soil materials up in the lift etc, can be dispensed with – in hydroponic systems you simply don’t need soil.

Hydroponic gardening has been around since the days of the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the science is now well developed . Today, the techniques for growing in a soil-less environment allows anyone to create an indoor garden with ease.

This particular method of gardening is considered to be suitable for novices with some guidance,  and many teachers use this method of gardening with their students when working on science projects. It is also an easy, clean, and effective method for growing plants. This type of gardening provides a number of advantages over soil grown plants.

Soil-less gardening lets plant take up nutrient faster which means a quicker growing, more compact and more nutritious plant in a smaller space. Plants can grow in many different substances. Soil-less culture is a broader term than hydroponics; it only requires that no soils with clay or silt are used.

However, in hydroponic culture there are some things that must be prevented and the main one is that plant roots use too much of the oxygen which is dissolved in water and when the oxygen is not replaced, the root system becomes damaged to the point of killing the plant. For example, in overwatered soil-grown plants, water fills the airspaces between the soil particles and as the plant uses the available oxygen dissolved in that water, and is without access to more oxygen, the root system dies.

Plant the seeds or plug plants of your choice and watch them grow. Virtually any plant that can be grown in soil can be grown in a hydroponic culture. But, for obvious reasons large plants like trees won’t fare well.
Plants expend a great deal of energy growing root systems so they can search the soil for the water and nutrients they need to survive. By providing constant and readily available nutrition, hydroponics allows plants to grow up to 50% faster than they do in soil.

Systems vary but for example in some systems the plant nutrients are transferred from a reservoir of water using a simple candlewick that comes in contact with the root system of each plant. Although this is not the most efficient process, this approach is often a good option for a home garden where the desire is to produce a few hydroponic tomatoes and similar fruits and vegetables.

Nutrients like sulfur, magnesium, cobalt, calcium, iron, boron, zinc, manganese and copper are needed in trace concentrations in the water for maximum yield and are available commercially to be added.

Another important thing that requires consideration is the PH balance of the plants when the nutrient enriched water is provided to the roots of the plants within the fluid circulation system.

Hydroponic culture is one of the most exacting and intensive methods of crop production used in agriculture today, but the reward success are great and we do encourage you to experiment.