To many people, hydroponic gardening conjures up images of white coated researchers poking and prodding their genetically manipulated plants, or of future space travelers harvesting zero gravity salad greens from sealed growth chambers. In reality, hydroponic technology is not as daunting as those images suggest. Growers are beginning to recognize the advantages of hydroponic gardening and the advancement of technology has been amazing.

Indoors, hydroponic gardening allows for the maximum use of space with a minimum of the mess and bother associated with dirt gardening. A properly designed and operated hydroponic system allows gardeners to grow wholesome, pesticide-free produce when others are forced to subsist on store-bought veggies and entertain themselves with the latest seed company catalogs.

Outdoors, hydroponics permits gardening in areas with poor soil, or no soil at all, such as patios and rooftops. Recirculating systems conserve precious water and expensive fertilizers. Hydroponics comes from the Greek words hydro, meaning “water,” and ponos, meaning “labor.” Hydroponics is the science of growing plants without soil, most often in a soilless medium. Unlike the soil grower, the hydroponic gardener can control two essential processes: nutrient intake and oxygen intake via the roots.

In hydroponics, the inert soilless medium that provides support for the plants’ root systems contains no nutrients of its own. Nutrition is supplied by the nutrient solution, a mixture of pure water and dissolved nutrients. With most hydroponic systems, the solution passes over the roots or floods around them at regular intervals.

Oxygen is essential to the health of roots. It is incorporated in the nutrient solution, drawn into the root area when the system is drained (in flood and drain systems), or misted on the roots (in aeroponics). Even the best soil rarely holds as much oxygen as a soilless hydroponic medium. The oxygen around the roots speeds the plants’ uptake of nutrients. Plants grow faster hydroponically because they are able to assimilate nutrients rapidly and completely. Roots are able to take in food nearly as fast as the plant is able to use it.

Hydroponic gardening is more precise than soil gardening. Soil works as a buffer for nutrients and holds them longer than the inert hydroponic medium. Hydroponically grown plants tend to grow faster with a little more lush foliage than plants grown in soil. When roots are restricted and growth slows in containerized plants, hydroponic plants are still getting the maximum amount of nutrients and growing strong.

(Above introduction taken from, The Best of the Growing Edge from New Moon Publishing and Hydroponics for the Rest of Us) b
  

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