Things to Know Before Getting Started With Hydroponic Gardening

If you love the idea of having your own vegetable garden but don’t have the time or space, the chances are good that you will enjoy hydroponics instead. Hydroponics is a low maintenance, modern way to grow plants of all kinds and it is extremely accessible, even for those who live in apartments or have no access to a garden. The beauty of hydroponics is that it can be done entirely indoors and can be set up to be extremely compact and space saving, though there are many other benefits to explore.

First things first, not everyone is familiar with the concept of hydroponics, and if this is the case for you, you’ll be pleased to know that it is actually pretty simple. Before we get into what hydroponics you will need to know a little bit about how plants grow and their requirements to do so. There are three main things a plant needs to grow: water, light and nutrients.

You might notice that soil is missing from this list, and that’s because plants don’t actually need it to grow. While the soil a plant grows in provides nutrients and supports the plant from the roots up, you can replace the soil with something inorganic such as leca or perlite, and as long as you are supplementing the nutrients then the plants will thrive without soil. This is the main principle that hydroponics is based on. 

Instead of using soil, plants are grown directly in water which gives rise to the name hydroponics. There are loads of different types of systems that use this principle, and some are more beginner friendly than others. Similarly, some systems are more affordable than others, and hydroponics is something that can definitely be scaled up and down in terms of cost and size. 

What makes up a hydroponic system?

Though they may seem complicated at first glance, hydroponics systems are actually pretty simple. There are not many components in a system, and all of them work together to keep everything in balance and running smoothly. Firstly, there is usually a water reservoir. This is true in systems such as deep water culture (DWC) systems where the plant roots are suspended in water.

In these systems, the next thing needed is an air pump. Plants need oxygen at their roots and this is delivered via air pockets in soil. In hydroponics systems, the air pump is used to oxygenate the water and encourage the plant to grow healthy roots. Some systems such as drip feed and ebb and flow systems don’t require an air pump because the roots are not permanently submersed.

Moving on, your plants will need a grow light in order to thrive. Plants grown outdoors get their light directly from the sun, but the indoor hydroponics system will almost always need supplemental light especially if you want to grow plants all year. LED grow lights are extremely popular because they are cheap to run, last a long time and don’t waste a lot of energy as heat. 

If you choose LED lights, you may need to provide an alternative source of heat for your plants, especially if they are grown in an unheated space in the winter. Plants grown in a regular, heated home should be fine without additional heat but do your research so you can keep your plants happy. There are other options for lighting such as fluorescent lights, and these can be a good choice but they are not as cost effective and do not provide the same level of control that LED lights can.

There are many other pieces of equipment that you can add to your setup, though some are not strictly necessary depending on the plants you are growing. A good example would be buying a humidity sensor to ensure your sensitive tropical plants have all the moisture they need, or using water testing stips to keep an eye on your water parameters. The best thing to do is to spend some time researching the plants you want to grow and looking to other peoples’ experiences in growing them hydroponically and then going on to choose your kit. 

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