Introduction: Wow gardeners, today we learn about benefits and advantages of hydroponics. Hydroponics is modern gardening technique for growing the plants in a liquid nutrient solution with or without using the artificial grow media that’s the simple answer to question hydroponics how it works. Commonly used grow media includes expanded clay pellets, peat coir, perlite, vermiculite, brick shards, polystyrene packing peanuts and wood fiber which provides encourage or support to the growing plant in absence of soil. Hydroponics is a viable method of producing vegetables, foliage plants, flower, fruits and other crops. The demand for locally grown produce has risen dramatically with ever expanding population. Hence growing these crops hydroponically is a very efficient method of meeting that demand.
A step by step guide to Advantages of hydroponics
Different types of hydroponics offer various advantages and is now a successful alternative for conventional gardening methods. Our motive in this article is to enumerate the advantages of hydroponics so keep reading advantages of hydroponics in points.
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No soils needed
In a sense, you can grow crops in places where the arable land is limited, doesn’t exist, or is heavily contaminated. History holds a special place in history, in the 1940s; the technique was successfully used to supply fresh vegetables for troops in Wake Island, a refuelling stop for Pan American airlines. This is a distant arable area present in Pacific Ocean. Also, Hydroponics has been considered as the farming system of the future to grow foods for astronauts in the space by eminent space agencies.
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Make better use of space and location
In hydroponics, plants all requirements are provided and maintained in a system, that you can grow in your small apartment, or the spare bedrooms indoors and outdoors as well even if you don’t have proper dedicated space for gardening. Hydroponics can be done in portable setups.
Plants’ roots typically expand and spread out in search of foods, and oxygen in the soil. This is not the case in Hydroponics; here the developing roots are sunk in a tank full of oxygenated nutrient solution and directly contact with vital minerals, so the roots don’t have to dig in to fulfil their requirements. This means you can cultivate your plants much closer, and consequently huge space savings.
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Climate control
Like in greenhouses, hydroponic growers can have total regulation over the climate – temperature, humidity, light intensification, the composition of the air. In this sense, you can grow foods all year round in spite of the growing season. With this technique farmers can produce foods at the appropriate time to maximize their business profits.
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Hydroponics is water-saving
One of major environmental benefits of hydroponics. Plants grown hydroponically use only 10% of the water in comparison to the field-grown. In this method, water is recirculated means you are saving used water as well. Plants will take up the necessary water, while run-off ones will be collected and drained back to the system. Means water loss is highly minimized and may only occur in two forms – evaporation and leaks from the system (but an efficient hydroponic setup will rarely or don’t have any leaks).
While water shortage is becoming a crucial issue and food production is predicted to increase by 70% according to the reports of the FAQ, Hydroponics is considered a viable solution to large-scale food production with less water usage.
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Effective use of nutrients
In Hydroponics, you have a 100% control over the nutrients that a plant requires. Before deciding to plant, growers can enlist what plants require and the specific amounts of nutrients needed at particular stages and mix them with pure water accordingly. Nutrients are conserved in the reservoir, so there are no losses or percolation of nutrients like they are in the soil. Moreover, the required nutrient is directly poured into the plant’s root hence it causes rapid and efficient uptake.
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pH control of the solution
All of the minerals are present in the water. That means you can measure and regulate the pH levels of your water mixture much more easily than compared to the soils. That ensures the optimal nutrients uptake for plants.
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Better growth rate
You are your own boss that regulates the whole growth conditions for your plants’ growth – temperature, lights, moisture, and especially nutrient supply. Plants are placed in ideal growth conditions, while nutrients are provided at the sufficient amounts as well as time, and come into direct contacts with the root systems. Thereby, plants no longer waste valuable energy searching for diluted nutrients in the soil. Instead, they shift all of their focus on growing and producing fruits with maximum yield capacity.
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No weeds
If you have grown the crop in the soil, you will understand how troubling weeds affect your garden. It’s one of the most time-consuming tasks for gardeners to till, plow, hoe, rogue weeds and so on. Volunteer plants and weeds are mostly associated with the soil. So in hydroponics, you straight away eliminate the soils, and all bothers of weeds are gone with that.
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Fewer pests and diseases
And like weeds, getting rid of soil also helps to make your plants less vulnerable to soil-borne pests, insects like birds, gophers, groundhogs; and diseases like Fusarium, Pythium, and Rhizoctonia species. Also when growing indoors in a closed system, the gardeners can easily take controls of most surrounding factors affecting the growth. The hydroponic system is all the time under observation so if any disease or insect-pest infestation is observed it can be dealt in its initial phase causing less harm.
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Less use of insecticide, and herbicides
Since you are using no soils and while the weeds, pests, and plant diseases are heavily reduced, the use of harmful chemicals is automatically reduced. This helps you to grow chemical-free clean and healthy foods. The cut of insecticide and herbicides is a strong point of Hydroponics when the criteria for modern life and food safety are more and more placed on the priority.
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Labor and time savers
Besides spending time and labour on tilling, watering, cultivating, and fumigating weeds and pests, you can enjoy much time saved because in hydroponics there is no need of such hard work all you need is to set up the system, place seedlings and sit back and observe the growth. So when gardening is planned to be more technology-oriented, Hydroponics definitely has a room in it.
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Hydroponics is a stress-relieving hobby
This interest will bring you back in touch with nature. Tired after a long working day when you return to your small apartment corner, you will now get a chance to rejuvenate and lay back everything and enjoy with your hydroponic garden. Reasons like lack of spaces are no longer right to stop gardening. You can start fresh, tasty fresh vegetables or vital herbs in your small happy space, and enjoy the relaxing time with your little green spaces with beautifying your space.
That’s all gardners about Hydroponics advantages and beenfits. Keep growing hydroponics.
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