Brief Insight about Hydroponics Farming
Most people have heard of hydroponics gardening, but most don't know how they work. Until you become familiar with this form of plant nurture, it seems complicated and too scientific. What you'll find, however, is that once you become familiar with how this system of gardening works, it's not nearly as complicated as it seems.
The word "hydroponic" comes from two Greek words: "hydro" meaning water and "ponos" meaning labor. This method of growing plants was originated in the 1600s when Sir Francis Bacon proved that plants do not require soil, but just the nutrients from the soil to grow. Hydroponics utilizes the fact that plants need only water, nutrients, and sunlight to grow. The soil is optional.
It took 200 years to figure out exactly what those nutrients were, though. It was another century before the science of hydroponics gardening had been perfected, but once it was, it was off to the races! Hydroponics is now considered the medium of choice for growing plants in situations where they would otherwise not grow well, such as underwater, in space, or in the desert. It's the supreme indoor growth method and is used by thousands of people to grow home gardens where those gardens would never be grown before.
The advantages of commercial hydroponics farming are great: higher yields (tens of times per acre), healthier plants, and a more versatile growing area and season. The down-sides to hydroponics are the relatively higher labor per plant and the often higher costs of cultivation per acre. The up-front costs are the most significant barrier for most large-scale farmers. For the home gardener, these are not issues of great concern.
Most people's introduction to Container farming is with sprouts. This is by far the easiest and fastest way to get into and learn the basics of hydroponics. Sprouts use a type of hydroponics called Ebb and Flow or Flood and Drain sub-irrigation. Basically, the roots are flooded with nutrient solution and then drained off at regular intervals. Since most of the nutrients that sprouts need to grow are contained within their seed shells, only tap water is needed to periodically flood them. When gardeners get into the deeper complexities of hydroponics, they usually go to a medium-based system in which media is used to hold solution and plants. Animal fodder system is the most common medium used this way, though there are many other options including expanded clay and even sand. Two main ways of utilizing media in growing hydroponically are static and continuous flow irrigation.