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Hydroponic Gardening In Your Garden
Hydroponic gardening is a way of growing you plants in another medium instead of soil. Researchers have found out that soil is not necessary in the growth of plants. It is the nutrients in soil that make plants grow not sol itself. These nutrients can be dissolved in a liquid mixture where the plant roots can be immersed in. Another medium for the nutrients can be gravel. Not all plants adapt well to hydroponic gardening.
Benefits of Hydroponic Gardening
Hydroponic gardening can benefit us in several ways. Hydroponic plants like lettuce can be fresher than their land based counterparts because these can be packed immediately and delivered compared to those that need to be uprooted. The uprooted plants will wilt immediately without soil, whereas the ones from hydroponic gardening will still be fresh and crispy as they reach their markets.
This soil less way of gardening also leaves us with less soil waste because the plants do not need soil to be replaced every time the nutrients run out. Fertilizer does not need to be supplied to the soil when it shows that the soil needs a fresh supply. In hydroponic gardening, you just add nutrients to the solution and it is already refreshed. You do not need to watch out for weeds because only the desired plants are grown in the solution and there are virtually no diseases or plant sickness to deal with.
There is also less water used since only the water added to the solution is utilized and maintenance for the structures are relatively low. We can save a lot of man power and resources with these kinds of gardens.
Disadvantages of Hydroponic Gardening
The disadvantages of raising plants through hydroponic gardening are that the fruits or vegetables will be more expensive than those grown n soil. This is because the hydroponic garden must have a stand by electricity generator unit for fertilizer timers and pumps to work in case of power outage. The knowledge of the technology used in hydroponic gardening also needs expertise which will cost more than ordinary gardeners.
People can build hydroponic gardens in a small scale and even tend to the plants themselves with the right background, research and resources. In larger scale gardens, the structures that hold the plants above the solution or medium, and the buildings themselves used to house the plants will cost a lot of money. This way of gardening is not as easy as it looks and is not as feasible to take the place of land based gardening. |