this is an essay I wrote on the extreme basics of hydroponics I wrote this for a horticultural class I'm taking. It basicaly just explains what a hydroponic system is, a tinny bit of history, and alittle about how they work.
Hydroponics chambers are a fairly new method for growing plants, there usually used for growing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, lettuces, and somehow even potatoes and carrots. Hydroponics has been around for about 50 years, but hasnt become widely used until recently because there were still a lot of problems. Hydroponics has come a long way in its relatively short existence, and have been available to the public more recently, hundreds of people start hydroponics gardens each week. With hydroponics water is the only thing that is used to give plants nutrients, they are soilless setups. Hydroponics nutrients need to be added to the water. The reason these nutrients need to be added is because water has little, if any minerals and nutrients that a plant needs to survive. There are hundreds of different brands of nutrients but they all have the same basic components which are Nitrogen or N, phosphate or P2O5, and potash or K20, each company uses different amount of each chemical, than they add there own extra chemicals in minute amounts.
Hydroponics nutrients come in either two or three parts. One is the nutrients that plants need during their vegetative growth period, plants that are veging like a nutrient mix of about 1:3:6, that means 1 part Nitrogen 4 parts Phosphates and 7 part potash, this is the order nutrients are labeled on packages N
:K. The vegetative stage of a plant is when the plant is focusing all its energy on growing new leaves and flower sights, as well as growing both up and out. During this vegetative growth some people put their plants under 24 hours of light or 16/8 14/10 or 18/4 (light On/Off), the reason for this is that most plants dont require time to rest or sleep until they begin to flower.
During the flowering stage of a plants life they like a mixture of about 1:4:7. This might not seem like a big difference from the 1:3:6 plants like during vegetative growth. But apparently it is.
The third part of the nutrient solution is a growth booster that is a ratio of about 3:0:2 this isnt necessary but useful.
The plants also need to stand upright, which is not possible in water, so to keep the plants upright a grow medium is needed, there are many different grow mediums a few are Hydroton also called expanded clay pellets, lava rocks, and rock-wool, each one is very porous and also allows a sufficient amount of air to reach the roots. A new medium that is rapidly becoming very popular is called coco-fiber, its the hairs from the outside of a coconut, its bin said that they have natural oils that help roots grow more rapidly.
There are dozens of different types of Hydroponics systems these are a few that are popular because they can be used in small scale grows and large scale grows, and also because theyre relatively easy to use.
Deep Water Culture or DWC- with a DWC system the roots of the plant are completely submerged in nutrient rich water. Because plants roots need lots of air as well as water in the bottom of one of these chambers are air stones that are hooked up to air pumps (the same ones used for fish tanks). This gives the plant the air and water that it needs to live a happy life.
Aeroponic chamber- they are becoming incredibly popular because they are said to be a low maintenance hydroponics systems.
Aeroponic setups have a water pump inside of them (same ones used for fish tanks) that pumps water through misters. Most people have these misters spray the roots 24 hours a day. Since the roots are just being sprayed they receive much more air than other kinds of hydroponic systems, while still getting as much nutrient rich water, and this makes the plants grow at a much faster rate.
Ebb and Flow- These systems are pretty different from the other two, in that the other systems can house their own reservoirs, Ebb and Flow system must have an external reservoir, a table with deep sides, is filled with Hydroton and in this lose hydroton plants can be placed pretty much anywhere on the table.
The table need to sit above its reservoir, because the reservoir hold all the water for the table, and 3 times a day a pump, pumps water into the table for an hour, watering the roots and than all the water empties out into the reservoir, acting kind of like the Ebb and Flow of the ocean.
A few other hydroponics systems that I wont get into because I dont know much about them are drip irrigation, Nutrient film transfer NFT, and others I cant thing of.