subject: Hydroponics System: Gardening Made Easy [print this page] Hydroponics is a new process of cultivating plants. It has been commercially known for at least 40 years. However, in just short period of time this system has been tested and proven to be an effective method for producing crops and other plants. What is hydroponic? It is derived from the Latin word hydro which means water. It means the act of growing plants through water. Unlike traditional gardening, hydroponics do not need soil to make the plants grow.
There are several different kinds of hydroponics system. These include the N.F.T or the nutrient film technique where the plants' roots are hanged directly onto the water. It requires no growing medium such as Rockwool, pertile, gravel, vermiculite and sand. The other fundamental hydroponic systems are wick, water culture, ebb and flow and drip system. There are also numerous variations of these systems.
The simplest known passive hydroponic system is the wick system. With the use of a wick the nutrient solution is absorbed by the growing medium. Among the most popular growing medium used for the wick system are coconut fiber and Pro-Mix. The problem with this system is that large plants may consume the nutrient solution quicker than the wick can provide. If the plants do not get sufficient amount of nutrient solution they need, they will easily dry out.
On the other hand, the water culture system holds the plants in a Styrofoam platform which sits directly on the solution. An air pump is usually used to supply air to the air stone that carries the nutrient solution and provides oxygen to the plants' roots. The disadvantage of using this system is that it may not work well with long-term and larger plants.
The ebb and flow or flood and drain system utilizes the nutrient solution to flood the plant's grow tray and then sips it back to the tank. This process is done through a pump that is submerged under water and a timer that is connected to it. This hydroponic system is known to be a versatile system since it can be used with different growing mediums. One of the problems that people encounter with this system is the power outage which may disrupt the watering cycle. When this happens, the roots may dry out quickly.
The most commonly used hydroponic system is the drip system. This also works with a timer and a submersed pump. The timer triggers the pump which allows the nutrient solution to drip into the bottom of the plant. There are two variations of the drip system, the recovery and the non-recovery. The recovery drip system gathers the used nutrient solution and then leads it back to the reservoir for another run. On the other hand, the non-recovery system doesn't gather back the used nutrient solution.
