Hydroponics is often said to be a type of horticulture that involves growing plants without soil. However, this isn’t technically true. Soil is involved, but it doesn’t have to be high quality like you would find in traditional gardening. The reason for this is that, in hydroponics, it is the water that provides the plants with the nutrients that they need. Hydroponics is especially useful for those who want to grow their plants indoors. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at the benefits of it over traditional gardening.
1. You Only Need a Small Space
When you picture a traditional garden, you probably think of soil beds with a single layer of plant life planted there. This obviously looks pretty in your back garden, but it’s not really a good use of space if you want to grow things like vegetables. With hydroponics, you are not limited to a vertical space as you can grow horizontally as well. You can purchase connected racks from a grow store like progrow.co.uk and fit 10 times as many plants into one small space.
2. It’s Climate Controlled
You’re probably well aware that most seeds have a suggested time to plant, usually based on the seasons. This can be quite limiting, especially if you want to grow, for example, vegetables that only grow once a year. With hydroponics this is not the case. The whole environment is climate controlled so you can grow whatever you want to, whenever you want to. You won’t have to deal with digging into frozen ground, and you can plant strawberries in the middle of winter if you want to!
3. There’s No Need to Worry About Pests
If you’ve ever grown plants or vegetables outside, you know how much of a nuisance pests can be. From greenfly to caterpillars, it’s an ongoing task to keep the critters away from your garden. As hydroponics is all done indoors – and usually inside a secure tent – there’s no need to worry about pests. Not only will this save you time and effort, but it will also relinquish the need for pesticides. Organic produce for the win!
4. More Efficient Use of Water
Ok, with outdoor gardening you obviously have the rain helping you out. However, during the hot summer months, it’s vital to water your plants to give them the nutrients that they need. In traditional gardening and irrigation, a lot of water is required and then wasted. With hydroponics, the plants are grown with a nutrient based water system which uses a tenth of the amount of water used in traditional farming. Rather than draining into the soil, much of the water is captured and recycled, and then used again. It’s super efficient.
While hydroponics may be something that you think of when you picture space travel, it’s actually something that’s growing in popularity with hobby gardeners around the world. And with so many benefits, it’s not hard to understand why.
Leave A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.