These days, there are less and less fertile farm lands to grow crops in. But contrary to what you may think, this doesn’t pose such a huge dilemma for our growers. Why? You might ask. The answer lies in hydroponic grow systems.
Ever since the Biblical times - the time of Babylon to be precise - we have already come up with a means to grow plants without need of soil. How else do you think the Hanging Gardens of Babylon remained hanging up there and still managed to wow people all over the ancient world? Simple: The Babylonians used a form of hydroponic grow system to keep the plants’ nutrient and water supply running.
Today, we don’t have the Hanging Gardens anymore. But what we do have are miniature gardens that survive even indoors in a small apartment space. These “gardens” are no more than water tanks powered with an aeration system and a steady supply of nutrients through a formulaic solution. This is hydroponics for you, more popular known as “soilless gardening.”
Below are the different types of hydroponic grow systems currently in use:
The Wick Hydroponic Grow System
The Wick system is by far the simplest of hydroponic grow systems. Its main components are:
* Grow tray
* Growing medium
* Wick
* Air pump
* Air stone
* Reservoir
The wick system is a passive system, which means that there are no moving parts. The nutrient solution is placed inside a reservoir, which is really nothing more than a water tank or an old aquarium you no longer use. The growing medium can be anything from perlite, vermiculite, pro-mix or even coconut fiber.
In order to draw the nutrient solution into the growing medium where the plants are, a piece of straw or tube called a wick is used. The air pump is placed just outside the water tank and is used to pump air into the air stone, which produces bubbles containing oxygen necessary for the plant roots to survive.
Because of its inherent simplicity, this hydroponic grow system is the commonest type of system used by home gardeners. You can even fashion your own wick system from old containers and aquarium devices so you don’t need to purchase anything besides the nutrient solution.
The biggest drawback of this hydroponic grow system, however, is that large plants or those that use large amounts of water may use up the nutrient solution faster than the wick can supply it.
Nutrient Film Technique Hydroponic Grow System
Often abbreviated to N.F.T., this hydroponic grow system is the kind of system most people think of when they think about hydroponics. N.F.T. systems are typically composed of the following:
* Grow tray (tube)
* Nutrient pump
* Reservoir
* Air stone
* Air pump
This hydroponic grow system has a constant flow of nutrient solution so no timer for the submersible pump is required. The growing tray, usually a tube, is pumped full of nutrient solution, which flows over the roots of the plants, and then drains back into the reservoir.
Usually, this hydroponic grow system does not use growing medium other than air. This thus saves you the expense of replacing the growing medium after every crop. Normally, the plant is supported in a small plastic basket with the roots dangling into the nutrient solution.
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... One advantage of indoor hydroponic systems is that they do not use standard fertilizers. Instead, what is used is the nutrient solution, which is really just a specially designed fertilizer. Because of the concentration of nutrients in these solutions, the essential growth elements needed by plants are more readily available to them. Indoor hydroponic systems can be very simple to build. In fact, you may not even need to purchase a lot of materials for you to start building your own system. Depending on the size of your planned indoor hydroponic system and the interior space you have available, you can even use that old aquarium tank you have as a tank to contain the nutrient solution. Besides the tank or the reservoir, most indoor hydroponic systems consist of a growing tray or tube, a timer, and a pump. It is also...
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... traced back to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, known as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. However, it was only in the 1890s, when a group of German scientists developed nutrient formulas, that the technique gained popular modern appeal. Now, the method has even gone beyond mere gardening with the use of water, to gardening with the use of media other than soil. There are six basic types of hydroponic systems: Wick, Water Culture, Ebb and Flow (Flood and Drain), Drip (Recovery or Non-Recovery), N.F.T. (Nutrient Film Technique), and Aeroponic. You may have heard of techniques other than these mentioned, but most of these are probably just variations of these six basic types. Wick Hydroponic System Considered as the simplest hydroponic system, the Wick system is a passive system. This is because it has no moving parts. All that you have to do is place a wick unto the nutrient solution contained in the reservoir. The wick draws the solution into the growing medium,...
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... grown, need the same essential elements to stay healthy - light, water, temperature, and nutrients. The only difference is that since hydroponics requires no water, you may need hydroponic equipment to provide the plants with its needed nutrients. Below are some great places where you can find hydroponic equipment. HydroponicEquipment.com From its name alone, Hydroponic Equipment is a specialist when it comes to equipment, systems, and devices used in hydroponic gardening. They offer plant nutrients, grow lights, hydroponic systems, environmental controls, literature, soil and soilless media, garden insects, odor control, light movers, test and measure, greenhouses, and more. Hydroponic Equipment has been in the hydroponics business for seven years with headquarters in the Rocky Mountain region of Colorado. Their current product listing includes Blue Air Big Blue, an Hydroponic Grow Systems aeration hydroponic equipment with ozonator capabilities to...
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