Hydroponics was known to people in Babylon. Now it has become incredibly popular all over the world. This area of agricultural technology not only allows you to get harvests of environmentally friendly vegetables and berries on an industrial scale, but is also available for lovers to engage in crop production on the windowsill or loggia.
Hydroponics at home is an opportunity to grow greens, vegetables and berries to the table as soon as possible without traditional work with the soil, as well as the fight against diseases and pests. Using this technology, the plant receives all the nutrients it needs for development in the right proportions from the solution.
How hydroponics works
Many of us grow green onions on the windowsill. In winter and spring it is an excellent source of nutrients, so necessary for the human body. The technology is simple: the bulbs must be placed in jars filled with water. This is the most primitive way, but it is also based on the principles of hydroponics. What is this, for example, onions understandable to everyone.
Speaking in the language of scientists, this is creating conditions for plant growth in a soilless environment by regulating the amount of water in which oxygen and mineral salts are dissolved. Using hydroponic methods, growing vegetables and herbs at home is becoming increasingly important every year. Now every family can provide itself with the necessary amount of natural vitamins.
Let's get acquainted with how hydroponics works. We have already mentioned above that with this technology there is no need to use earthen soil. It turns out that plants can perfectly develop in water, but for this it must be specially prepared, that is, be “alive”.
For the normal growth of any plants in soil or water, they need nutrients for life, which they absorb in the form of ions in oxygen.
The gardener can only make sure that the amount of water, nutrients and oxygen are always in the optimal amount, meet the needs of the green pet, and also observe the necessary temperature conditions, humidity and room lighting.
The advantage of the hydroponic method
Today, few will dispute the fact that traditional agriculture is gradually losing ground to hydroponics. To grow any crop at home without using the usual earthen soil is not difficult.
This method has many advantages over the usual methods of gardening. We list some of them:
- The use of hydroponics at home in the cultivation of various crops avoids labor-intensive processes such as loosening the soil, removing weeds, controlling various pests and more.
- Large areas are not required for harvesting. For example, to cultivate vegetables using a loggia, you do not need large containers with soil.
- For growing vegetables and greens at home, hydroponics is the best way to harvest several times larger crops in small areas by forming a powerful upper part rather than roots.
What substrates are needed
When growing plants by hydroponics, it is necessary to use materials that have the following characteristics: friability and the ability to absorb moisture well. The following granular materials are most often used as suitable compositions:
- Expanded clay.
- Perlite.
- Granite crushed stone.
- Gravel.
- Peat.
- Coarse sand.
- Moss.
- Slag and others.
Before using the substrate, it must be cleaned of impurities and disinfected with a solution of potassium permanganate. This will get rid of the presence of various pathogens. Also, the substrate can be calcined in the oven.
Nutrient solutions
Using hydroponic technology at home to grow various plants, you can use both ready-made concentrated mixtures (nutrient solutions) and make them yourself. To do this, in stores that sell goods for the garden, it is necessary to purchase all the necessary components.
Storage rules for such products require all of them to be in tightly closed glass containers. To prepare the nutrient liquid, it is necessary to filter the tap water well. In extreme cases, you can use the defended for two days.
It is very important to adjust the pH of the solution prepared at home. The value should not be lower than 5.5 and above 6.5. In addition, you will have to measure electrical conductivity with a special EC meter. There is no exact figure for this indicator. It is necessary to taste the fruit and leave the conductivity one that gives the best taste characteristics.
To prepare the solution, it is necessary to add mineral fertilizers to the water. Each plant has its own content of nitrate, potassium, calcium, zinc and other elements. You can familiarize yourself with the norms by studying the characteristics of the planted variety. In order not to complicate your life, you can buy ready-made drugs, for example, a mixture of Knopp or Ellis. They are universal and can be used when growing any crops.
About 2 times a week, the solution needs to be changed.
DIY equipment manufacturing
To start growing plants without soil, you must have the appropriate equipment for the hydroponic method. For the home, you can use improvised materials to build a simple installation. To do this, it is enough to have:
- Styrofoam sheet.
- Air compressor for the aquarium.
- Ordinary plastic container.
Pour the nutrient solution into a plastic container, then cover it with a foam sheet, in which we cut holes in advance for the size of hydroponic pots with the cultivated culture. For a container with a nutrient mixture, it is best to use a container of dark opaque material. In this case, the solution will be protected from the penetration of light, which can cause the appearance of algae in it.
If you do not have such a container, you can use any container, having previously painted it outside with black paint. The video below details how to make your own hydroponic installation.
How to grow
After you have made the necessary equipment, you can begin to plant plants in pots. For this, it is necessary to fill the containers with a suitable substrate and place the seedlings there. Here, special attention should be paid to the roots of the plant, try to carefully straighten them to avoid any damage.
If you plant a crop with seeds, you should be aware that they should not be placed in gravel or perlite, since it is too large for them. Seeds are best poured on rockwool or moss, before moisturizing them well. If you follow all these simple rules, then growing hydroponics at home is not at all difficult.
Suitable plants
Hydroponics can grow a lot of plants. These are those for which seeds are used for planting, and crops grown by the cuttings method.
But best of all, this method is suitable for greens, which include: dill, parsley, lettuce, mint, basil, sage and other similar crops.
In addition, eggplant, beans, broccoli, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic, strawberries, strawberries and even bananas are also perfectly grown using this unique technology.
The hydroponic system for the home is also great for growing indoor ornamental plants. These include ivy, hoya, ficus, asparagus, philodendron, common ivy and many others.
All of the above plants are easily cultivated using the hydroponic method not only at home, but also on an industrial scale.
Transplant Rules
If your green pet grew in an earthen environment, and you want to transplant it into a nutrient solution, then you need to follow some rules. Otherwise, the culture may not take root and die. Firstly, it concerns the cleansing of the soil of its root system.
The plant, taken out of the pot, is placed in a container of water at room temperature and kept for several hours. Then, the earth is carefully removed from the roots and finally washed under a warm stream.
The following procedure involves placing the plant in a specially selected basis for it, where it will continue to develop. For this, the roots are straightened down and covered with a substrate, holding on to the stem.
Then they begin to pour it with water, filling the container with liquid. An important nuance: the roots of the plant should not reach the liquid. She herself will climb the substrate and nourish the roots. So that the plant can adapt to a new environment for it, it is kept in water for about a week. Only after that it can be replaced with a solution, not earlier.
If you do everything right, following the rules listed above, then plants grown by this method will bring a bountiful harvest.
Tomatoes on a room bed
A lot of people love tomatoes and dream of seeing them in their daily menu all year round. This culture is considered unpretentious. Even a person who is not quite experienced in gardening can grow it.
Although many would like to cultivate this tasty and healthy vegetable with their own hands, not everyone has a garden plot for this purpose. Even if there is one, harvesting from it all year round will still fail.
Today, using the hydroponic method, everyone can grow tomatoes at home. In order for your work to be rewarded according to your deserts, you must decide on the variety of tomatoes.
At first glance, it seems that any type of crop is suitable for this purpose, but almost all experts say that preference should be given to those varieties that are bred specifically for growing in greenhouses, as they are self-pollinated. Also, for this purpose, it is best to choose precocious tomatoes.
Strawberry
Several methods can be used to grow strawberries in hydroponics at home, although the method is the same. Let's look at the following three, the most famous:
1. The method in which drip irrigation is used. It implies that strawberry bushes planted in the substrate are watered with a nutrient liquid using an ordinary dropper, which falls into the zone located below the root system. The substrate most often acts as a mixture prepared on the basis of peat or mineral wool.
2. The basis of the second method of growing strawberries is the so-called NFT nutrient layer. Here, the enriched liquid covers the bottom of the container with a thin layer. It is constantly fed there with the help of hoses connected to the solution tank.
3. Another method used in the hydroponic method of growing strawberries is called "water". This is the least used method, since strawberries are not plants that need moisture in large quantities.
When using this method, the growth of the bushes will be the same as in the previous two, but the yield will be much lower.