Roma tomatoes in my hydroponic garden.

Growing soil-less is often seen by the public as something it is not, and underservedly so. Let’s separate the fact from the fiction and take a look at what exactly hydroponics means to the world of gardening and food production.

The term hydroponics is taken from the Latin and means “working water.” Hydroponic growing is the soil-less cultivation of plants. All of the nutrients plants normally get from soil are instead delivered to the plants through water. To give the plants everything they need to thrive, hydroponic experts have developed nutrient mixes to add to the water.

Don’t you be like so many other people and see hydroponics as a new invention with more fashionable merits that anything real. Actually, it has been practiced for centuries. One of the first to use hydroponics was the Egyptians. Big advances have been achieved in the subject in the last thirty years since agriculturalists began studying teh idea as an alternate means of food cultivation, which potentially is why such a lot of people think it is a new technique.

GMA and hydroponics are often linked in the minds of those new to the subject, but this a completely false idea. It is a fact that GM crop modification has been declared a solution to starvation among the world’s poor, in the same way as hydroponics has, that is where all similarity ceases. Because genetically modified food is so controversial, hydroponics sometimes gets a bad rap. In fact, hydroponic food is 100% natural food, not modified in any way, and no chemicals are added to the plants to make them grow that they would not get in traditional fields. It is just a different way to cultivate and there is no genetic modification or “GM” element to this method of growing.

Some people believe hydroponics is bad for the environment and climate change. Nothing could be further from the truth. Plants in water culture use less water by a long way than soil grown plants. Usually the hydroponics usage is no more than 1/10th. No water is wasted on weeds; it all goes to the growhth of the plants. In additionally, no discharge of pesticides into the surroundings can take place. Energy is used for lighting hydroponic greenhouse, particularly for lighting, but no more than a soil based crop.

If you take care, hydroponics start ups can be achieved cheaply although most of the public would not accept that overall. True, nutrient mixtures and growth mediums are expensive, but the field has come a long way in developing reusable materials to balance some of these costs. Hydroponics practised at a small scale, should be no more expensive than soil grown methods.

Nor is hydroponics some little used or understood obscure gardening technique. It is utilized throughout the globe, and in some parts of the world, it is the most often used system. For instance, in British Columbia, 90% of the plants grown in greenhouses are hydroponic plants.

One thing people consider a benefit of hydroponics is actually a myth as well. Hydroponics and organic farming are not synonymous. Most hydroponic growers used pesticides on their crops. A big advantage is that the pesticides and fertilizers once added stay in the water culture system and do not pollute watercourses or groundwater. We have often seen organic hydroponic crops for sale, but the term does not imply whether organic methods will be used or not.

One last misconception about hydroponics is that is it used exclusively by the drug trade to grow marijuana. This is a misconception. A small minority do use this method for illegal substance growing, but this is a tiny group in comparison with the mainstream users. 

Hydroponics can be safely predicted to expand massively over the next few years due to its ability to provide food. With more understanding of the field, hydroponic growers will find it easier to convince the public about the viability of their crops.

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