Hydro (Hydroponics)

What is Hydroponic?

Hydroponically grown plants are plants grown without the use of soil.  It is instead; the careful creation of a perfect environment, into which the optimum levels of food, light, pH & all that is required, can be easily applied.

Though there are many different methods, the principal is always the same; a plant has simple needs. Provide it with what it needs and it will grow.

Provide it with its perfect needs and conditions and it will grow the very best it possibly can.

Soil simply can’t compete, for growing annuals.  It is just so much more difficult to provide those perfect conditions in a traditional soil based medium. 

Hydroponics systems

A hydro set up will make life allot easier and increase yields.  It has particular advantages, for growing crops under glass, as watering becomes ‘no longer an issue’, as each individual plant is easily rigged up to the system.

Basically a tray of plants sits above a tank of water and this water is pumped up from the tank onto the slightly higher end of the tray and trickles evenly down the tray, guided by the specialised way that the tray had been made to send equal amounts of water to all parts of the tray.  The water runs back into the tank and forms a cycle.

Various instruments are required, such as;

• A conductivity metre – to measure the nutrient content of the water.
• A pH tester to measure the pH level of your tank water.

Needed also;

• Plant food
• pH upper or downer, depending on what you’re growing and what the pH level of you local water supply is.
• A medium – A small blob of something like rock-wool, gravel or coconut fibre, for the plants to hold onto with their roots and to give them stability and support.
• A covering of plastic sheeting, to stop any light getting to the roots.  Small holes can be cut into this when positioning the plants.

The tank water should be changed about every two weeks, to avoid build up of any harmful chemicals.

NFT (Nutrient Film Technique) 

This refers to the thin film of nutrient enriched water, into which the plant roots are growing.

Hydroponics + Aquaculture = Aquaponics

Hydroponic systems have been used for quite some time now and Aquaculture for very much longer.  Both are efficient and scientific ways of growing food, but put together, they produce a hybrid system, with is far more efficient, than both its parent industries; Aquaponics.

Hydroponics produces plants, in an efficient system, but one that needs a lot of maintenance, of the conditions in the tank.  Also the water needs to be changed at regular intervals, to prevent problems caused by build ups of certain unused chemical based nutrients from the plant food or other contaminant.

Likewise aquaculture gets through allot of water.  Ammonia from the fish urine would make the water intolerable for most species of fish, if allowed to build up & stagnate.  So fresh water needs to be added continually and often these set ups attach great ponds to natural springs or use river water, as with your average Trout farm.

With Aquaponics the water is purified by the plants and returned to the fish and the fish feed the plants in a complete natural balance and the water in the tanks seldom needs to be completely changed.  Saving much time, water and money, whilst allowing diversity and essentially getting much more out of your space.