What is Hydroponic Gardening?
Hydroponic gardening is an alternative to the more traditional process of growing plants in soil. Utilizing systems that cultivate plants by using water infused with nutrients, this form of gardening is said to speed up the production of produce significantly, both by allowing fruits and vegetables to mature quickly and also due to the increased yield per plant. While the concept met with some degree of suspicion in years past, hydroponic farming is well respected today. The genius of hydroponics is the ability to directly nourish the root system quickly and often more completely than is possible with soil gardening. The water ran through various types of hydroponic systems is infused with the right balance of nutrients to stimulate rapid growth. At the same time, the ability to be exposed to more oxygen helps the root system absorb those nutrients more efficiently. This helps the plants to mature quickly and bear fruit at a rate faster than more traditional methods. Along with produci
biology research and teaching. The earliest published work that seeks to explain the method of hydroponics is the 1627 book, Sylva Sylvarum, by Sir Francis Bacon. In 1699, John Woodward published his experiments with spearmint using water cultures. His experiments showed that plants in less than pure water sources grew better than plants grown in distilled water. Terrestrial plants growing without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It is still widely used today and is considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium. Hydroponic gardening, or homegrown hydroponics, is the best method for producing the highest volume of food in the smallest amount of space. Most soilless media for container plants also contain organic materials such as peat or composted bark, which provide some nitrogen to the plant. Hydroponics has been proven practical, with definite advantages over conventional methods of horticulture. People that live in dense populations,
