11 Reasons why you should be Gardening using Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is the advanced technique of growing greens without using soil involving minimum efforts to keep a balance in the ecosystem without the limitations of space and taking produce year-round.
In the traditional farming system of growing, plants depend on soil to obtain all nutrients needed for their growth while Hydroponic garden provides all of these nutrients indoor without involving sunlight and extra labor to reap the maximum harvest and boost farming income, ultimately.
Hydroponics is usually practiced in a controlled environment for cultivating crops as this system offers some great advantages which come installed with an ideally manufactured system that enhance the crop productivity along with the quality of the greens and herbs without caring the external factors such as temperature, light, and humidity.
The hydroponic garden often comes with the added benefits to control and manage pH, nutrients supply, water needs, manage and, temperature and lighting scheme that helps farmers to boost productions of their crops which is not otherwise easy to handle such parameters in an open space farming without using this system. Some of these systems also come with the added advantage to grow vertically combined with the facility to increase planting population as per need of the farming community for the locations where farming and soil conditions doesn’t suit to cultivate them openly.
In soil plantations, nutrients bind with the soil particles. Roots extend to such particles for obtaining food under ideal conditions and uptake becomes possible by plants only under conducive environment while using hydroponic garden the uptake of a direct nutrient takes place with the benefits of system water & nutrients supply mechanism.
Here are some reasons why should be gardening using Hydroponics;
1. Hydroponics Saves Water
Water for Agriculture is the most critical issue worldwide and it is considered that its demand would rise with an increase in world population to feed more number of masses in the coming years. Open agriculture farming in the US uses around 80% of the surface and groundwater compared to the Hydroponic garden which uses only 10% of that under controlled conditions. Water keeps circulating within the system in a way that plants absorb water necessary for active metabolism and surplus water moves to the reservoir or storage tank to be pushed again into the indoor garden. Obviously, there is no leaching down or evaporation of water due to finest and state of the art technologies that work under automated conditions so that a child can handle the entire system after knowing the basics of any hydroponic system.
The efficiency of any system may save up to 90% water so this type of system can be installed at a place where source water is not fit for growing agriculture crops or you have the limited supply of water for general farming. On the other hand, an added benefit is the enhanced production capacity of the Indoor Garden system with a limited resource.
2. Advantage of Soil-less Gardening
Every plant you put into an Agriculture field needs some space and keep on capturing that space till the maturity of the plant arrives while in a Hydroponic system you deal with the multiple options to grow your plants vertically using multiple frames to hang your plants even in the air. Crops can be grown in areas having limited soil, water-logged soils, snow-capped soil or where the soil doesn't exist at all. You can easily come over the problem of contaminated soil by using such systems to produce vegetables and herbs of your choice. It is considered that an indoor garden would take 1/5 of the space needed for the same number of plants to grow in an open field. The biggest advantage that would be taken over traditional farming is the smooth supply and superior quality of the product using no soil at all but a limited corner of your back yard or front garden. Limited space in the corner of your garden can produce a large quantity of food under control conditions otherwise unfit for growing anything green.
3. Facilitates Micro-Climate
Hydroponics system provides you complete control over the climate where you have options to regulate temperature, light, humidity, and air according to the needs of the plants. Concentrations of the nutrients needed can also be regulated and adjusted according to the needs of different planting vegetables and greens for their optimal growth. Our CGS comes with Likely options to work fully between -60F to 85F for the year-round production of garden greens for the variety of weather conditions. CGS performs excellent without caring about the external environment at such locations with the minimum expenditures.
System automation helps you to set growing parameters for different vegetables to grow successfully under these conditions to have maximum growing cycles during a calendar year.
4. Efficient supply of Nutrients
In a Hydroponic system, plants require all fertilizer as is needed for the plants when growing in the soil but with more precision and accuracy. Fertilizers' need is calculated prior to plant in a system and given at regular intervals with the built-in water reservoir which keeps circulating with the water to be absorbed by the roots of the growing plants. The liquid nutrient concentrate is more effective to help boost plant germination and the growth compared to the granular or powdery forms due to their tendency to dissolve faster in the media. Granular and powdered shape fertilizers some time may block the water circulation due to deposition in nozzles and small pipes. Additional supply can be given on decreasing the concentration of needed nutrients with ease to the storage tank designed for the purpose. Plants use nutrients efficiently and no wastage takes place in the process. Constant intake of nutrients can be observed from the health and vigor of plants, in response.
5. pH control
pH determines the acidity or alkalinity of any media on the basis of concentration of hydrogen ions. All plants grow well in Neutral or acidic media. For agriculture soils, pH control needs the addition of a number of acidic fertilizers and organic matter while in the Hydroponic garden pH can easily be controlled using a pH buffer solution to the reservoir. A simple and easy test can lead you to measure and correct the pH level required for better growth of your Hydroponic garden. This correction leads to the maximum nutrients uptake by the growing greens.
6. Improved Quality of the Produce
Growing Hydroponics improves the quality and taste of the product for the reason that the system utilizes the superior quality of nutrients and clean water under controlled environment without fear of any disease or pest attack on the growing vegetables and greens. Fresh greens gained from the indoor Hydroponic will possess more taste than that brought from the grocery store in your area.
7. No limitation of location and space
The indoor garden has no restriction to space and location due to the compactness of size and controlled conditions inside. You can grow a number of plants in a Hydroponics arrangement compared to the open field sowing.
Our Generation IV containerized Growing System (CGS) gives you an option to grow 450 plants of greens including Lettuce, Kale, Thyme, mint, basil, chard, cilantro, and parsley in a single growing session and more than 23000 plants per year equivalent to 1 acre of farming in the soil. There is no cropping competition between the plants grown due to a balanced and smooth distribution of the nutrients by the system reservoir.
8. Fast Growth Rate
Hydroponic indoor gardening provides you complete control on the use of resources for the faster and trendiest growth, you can lead and command the market supply for better earning with the minimum expenditures.
By creating a feasible environment by controlling moisture, light, nutrients, and temperature, you can have the maximum number of vegetative greens compared to soil cultivation in the same period of time. Plants gain sufficient moisture and nutrients and focus on the vegetative growth instead of the cropping competition seen between the plants growing in the soil. More the vegetative growth, greater is the production under the hydroponic garden. Many greens can be opted to grow twice as fast in a quality hydroponic system.
Hydroponic plants can grow 40-50 percent faster and can produce 30 percent more than the plants growing in the soil.
9. No use of Insecticide and Herbicides
Conventional farming needs excessive use of Insecticide and herbicides for successful raring of the crops due to their exposure to multi-climatic conditions that support different pest pressures and weeds infestation. In the case of Hydroponics garden, no soil is used, so no flare-up of weeds and pest attacks on growing greens. In Result no use of such insecticides and herbicides on growing inside the system. This helps the grower to take food without pesticide residue which is otherwise injurious to the consumer health. This is the real advantage for the people who want to eat healthy and clean food without pesticide residue.
10. No pest, diseases, and weeds
Since Hydroponics doesn’t need soil to grow while a large number of diseases and pests are soil born which tend to infest your garden during the process of growing. Seeds of the weeds also remain dormant in the soil and re-grow on arrival of favorable conditions to compete with your garden plants. In soil-less condition, there is no such flare-up of weeds, Pests, and diseases which can only be made possible by using Hydroponics. Growing otherwise in the open field needs a lot of earthen up, plow and hoeing which involves continuous labor and plenty of time for management.
11. Environment-friendly
Land usage statistics are becoming more alarming due to the clearing of the forest and pastures for Agriculture farming to feed the increasing number of population worldwide which is creating a threat for the ecosystem. Hydroponics helps you growing greens without disturbing your ecosystem. It doesn't emit toxins to the nearby environment and performs better under limited space to feed the maximum of individuals compared to crops grown in the soil. No fear of land erosion, no fear of harsh climates, no use of big water reservoirs makes Hydroponic a popular farm of growing greens for the coming years.