- It takes a green thumb to raise a thriving garden. If you don't give plants everything they need, at the right time, and in the proper proportions, they won't reach their full potential. Hydroponics has the ability to do exactly that, and with minimal effort on your part.
Hydroponics is defined as the feeding of plants through irrigation. This method of growing relies on perfectly balanced nutrient solutions that are generally delivered through a closed irrigation system. In this way, liquid loss through evaporation and runoff can be avoided.
Hydroponic growing uses gravity, or mechanical pumps, to circulate this nutrient solution around a plant's roots. Sometimes air is bubbled into the solution to deliver more oxygen to the plant. A loose and sterile growing medium, like sand, gravel, perlite, or coco fiber, supports the plants and allows nutrients and oxygen to reach their roots. - N.F.T. hydroponic systems are the easiest to build and manage because they don't use a growing medium. You'll need 5- to 6-inch PVC pipes and some plastic sheeting. Cut the pipes into lengths that suit your growing area. Split these lengths in half to create troughs, and cap the ends.
The plastic sheeting should be cut into sections that roughly match the dimensions of your PVC troughs. Lay the plastic sheeting in your troughs and put evenly spaced starter seedlings on top of the sheeting. Now fold your sheeting over the top of each seedling's roots and staple it to hold the seedlings in place.
The PVC troughs can be vertically stacked, on a rack, with one end 4 degrees lower than the other. Run plastic tubing from the low end of each trough to the high end of the one below it. Run a final section of tubing from the low end of the bottom trough to your nutrient reservoir.
Use a submerged pump, in your reservoir, to deliver the nutrient solution to the high end of your top trough. Gravity will carry the solution through each of the troughs and back to the nutrient reservoir. You can use a timer to run this irrigation cycle, four times a day, at intervals of an hour each. - Since nutrient solutions are the heart and soul of hydroponic systems, you need to learn how to make them. The constantly changing nutritional demands of your plants means you'll need to give them complete nutrition all the time and let them decide what to use. The easiest way to do this is to buy bags of fertilizer salts from an agricultural agency, nursery or garden store and dissolve them at a ratio of 8 ounces salts to 25 gallons water.
Light also influences the growth of your plants. When sunlight isn't available, high-intensity discharge lighting is the next best thing. These lights use a lamp, reflector and power supply to deliver the quantity and quality of light your plants need. When the color, intensity and duration of HID lights is matched to the needs of your plants, they won't miss the sun.