What Is Hydroponic Gardening?
Thanks to COVID-19 and the stay-at-home orders in many states and countries, more and more people are looking into ways to begin gardening. As a hobby, gardening is something that can provide purpose, the opportunity to relax, and even save you money on groceries if you choose to plant vegetables or herbs!
If you live in a city, however, you may not be able to find space outdoors for you to use as a gardening plot. That being said, you still have options if you want to garden indoors, thanks to hydroponic gardening. Here's a quick primer in hydroponics, including some tips and tricks on how to get started with your own hydroponic garden.
What are the various approaches to hydroponic gardening?
Growing plants in mineral-enriched water is actually a much more efficient way of gardening than using soil. That being said, there's more than one way to go about growing plants using a hydroponic approach. One of the most common approaches is the wick system, which uses a wick to transfer nutrients from the source to the plant which is in a growing medium like coconut fiber. Because of how simple it is, a wick system is a great option for anyone new to hydroponic gardening.
Another easy approach to hydroponic gardening for beginners is the water culture system. In a water culture system, a platform floats with plants on it and a separate pump delivers oxygen to the plants. While this is a relatively simple system to set up, it does use a lot of water and can ultimately be less suitable for growing plants long-term.
Perhaps the most popular and widely adopted hydroponic gardening option is the drip system. In the drip system, a pump gets the nutrients needed to grow to each of your plants, and can also feature a recovery system that helps you reuse any runoff from gardening this way. That being said, if you'd prefer not to recycle your runoff since you don't want to have to maintain such a system, you can still use the drip system without including runoff features.
Which plants are best-suited to hydroponic gardening?
Vegetables and fruits are all well-suited to growing in hydroponic systems, partially because of the kind of vertical space you can achieve when creating a hydroponic garden. From tomatoes and lettuce to spinach, berries, and herbs, you'll have a lot of different options when shopping for plants for your hydroponic garden. Especially for plants that love lots of water, such as lettuce, hydroponics are a natural fit.
Is it best to buy your hydroponics system or build your own setup?
With so many different systems to choose from, you may be wondering if it's best to build your own setup or purchase a kit. While it's true that it's completely possible to create your own hydroponics garden from scratch, if you're a beginner to the world of hydroponics, it may be a better idea to buy a system first. Having something that you know is built to work can help you master the basics of gardening in this way, as opposed to running the risk of failing due to setting things up improperly.
If you're interested in more information about hydroponic gardening, a website like Hydro Blossom is an invaluable resource. Complete with guides for beginners, as well as more in-depth product reviews for grow lights and grow tents, you're bound to find the in-depth information you need from a website like Hydro Blossom. Finding more information online can be the perfect way to go about determining how you want to decide which system is right for you and the plants you're passionate about growing indoors.
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