What is the difference between growing in soil (i.e. conventional gardening or farming) and growing hydroponically?
The most notable difference is of course that all nutrients for plant development are provided via the watering system rather than via the soil. The roots of the plant in a hydroponics system do not need to search for food as they would in a soil/conventional garden. Because the nutrients are provided directly to the root system, plants grown hydroponically will grow faster and also stronger than plants grown in soil. The direct application of nutrient to the root-zone also means that the root systems of hydroponically grown plants are smaller than soil grown plants. This has the added benefit of being able to grow more plants in smaller area than conventional farming.
