Hydroponics at Home - An Alternative of Soil Gardening

General Hydroponics - Learning the Basics
The word hydroponics is being used for a great variety of growing methods that do not use soil as a growing medium.  When a general hydroponics method is used, the main concept is that nutrients and water are fed directly to the roots of the plants by different means.  This can be accomplished by a drip, spray, flood, wick and immersion in a nutrient solution which provides the necessary nutrients for the plants to grow.  An air stone may be used to pump oxygen into the water.  
Smaller Roots reduces the Growing Space
Since the roots do not have to grow in search of more nutrients to support its nutrional requirements, the roots tend to stay a very manageable size.  The plant's energy for growing its roots instead is redirected to growing other partssuch as its upper parts for flower, fruit and vegetable production.  With less space required for roots, this means that there is the ability to grow more plants in a much smaller area or an increased crop harvest in the cases of commercial growing.
The Ability to Grow Your Vegetables Outside or Indoors
Using a hydroponics system you can have a small hydroponics garden anywhere you need to have it.  Nowadays, many are transforming their balconies and garages into vegetable and flower gardens because of the little space is required for growing plants as compared to the space limitations with growing plants in soil.  Hydroponics allows you to grow flowers, herbs and vegetables on your patio or anywhere else that is suitable as a growing area provided there is sufficient light, and light can even be artificially provided.  
You are able to grow any terrestrial plant using a general hydroponics method.  The cut flowers that you buy in a store were probably grown using the hydroponics method and the same goes for many of the vegetables at the grocery store including the tomatoes, cucumbers, chili peppers and lettuce.  
Hydroponics is considered a Low Maintenance Growing System
As general hydroponics systems accomplishes many tasks such as the tasks of providing water and nutrients directly to your plants, you will find that growing plants in this manner is low maintenance and relatively low cost.  You will still have to monitor the pH levels and replenish the water every day but this is minimal work and this normally should not take more than a few minutes each day.  Every few weeks, you will have to replace the nutrient solution with a freshly made solution but even this task is quite simple and can easily be done with minimal effort.  
When using general hydroponics growing methods, you can even choose to recover the nutrient solution after it is used it and this allows you to conserve water thereby reducing impact on the nevironment.  In addition you will also have a flexible and well controlled growing condition and this greatly reduces the amount of pests and weeds in your gardens.  The result of a hydroponics system is that you will not need to use large quantities if any of the pesticides and herbicides that can be harmful to the environment.  You will be easily able to check and adjust your temperature, pH levels and nutrient solution which gives you greater control over giving your plants the best growing conditions and these tasks are considered my many as extremely easy.
Hydroponics can be a very good hobby for many people and serious gardeners or families who want a year round supply of fresh fruit and vegetables also use a general hydroponics method for their garden.  Hydroponics is also useful for teaching biology and is used widely in classroom settings for teaching and research due to the nature of it being easy to set-up and maintain. The benefits of using a general hydroponc system is primarily saving of space and time, but it will also mean reduced costs and consistent qualities of plants.

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