Home Hydroponics

On 09.14.09, In home hydroponics, By admin


Home Hydroponics

Welcome to Home Hydroponic Vegetables! Our aim is to educate and inform about the benefits and best ways of growing vegetables hydroponically in the home, either indoor or outdoor in a greenhouse.

Hydroponic Gardening has been used as far back as in biblical times! I’m sure you’ve heard of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Well it was a form of hydroponic gardening which was used! Now, hydroponic gardening can be used anywhere and yields are high thanks to advancements in research and technology! You can literally grow anything; fruits, vegetables, herbs or flowers and yields are year long!

Home Hydroponics has become more popular in recent years due to increases in city dwellers with limited space or no garden, increased popularity of organic farming and because of a lack of farmland and adequate rain water in many countries hydroponic gardening is and will continue to become more of a necessity!

To put it simply hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions without the use of soil. This is possible because soil is not a necessary component for plants to survive. As long as you add the required mineral nutrients into the plants water supply the plants will thrive!

There is a little more to it; having the correct mineral solution, lighting for your plants, temperature control as well as having enough carbon dioxide in the air will all play its part in having a productive home hydroponics system. However once it’s set up, it can be left all year round producing for you an abundant supply of fresh fruit, vegetables or any other kind of plant you wish!

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Hydroponic Lettuce

On 09.21.09, In Hydroponic Lettuce, By admin


Hydroponic Lettuce

Hydroponic Lettuce

If you’re thinking about growing hydroponic lettuce then you’ve chosen probably the easiest vegetable to grow hydroponically! Lettuce is extremely low maintenance, requiring little or no work after the initial effort has been put in. If you plant your crop at weekly intervals for 4 weeks, then you will have a permanent lettuce yield year round.

Have you ever eaten lettuce and noticed that it tastes of soil? Well of course you didn’t wash it properly, but this seems to happen with most lettuce that I eat, in fact you have to wash it very carefully to completely vanquish that soil taste. Growing Hydroponic Lettuce completely eliminates this problem as obviously you’re not growing them in soil.

Growing hydroponic lettuce will also give you larger yields as the roots have better access to the nutrients. There will be no need to use pesticides and no soil borne diseases will be past on. Also have you noticed that slugs and other garden pests seem drawn to lettuce more than anything else? Well this problem is also completely eliminated!

About the only realistic problem with growing hydroponic lettuce is the size! Lettuce can grow quite large, in fact they will grow around 40% larger hydroponically as opposed to traditional soil planting methods. So you will need to take this into account and give extra room between each lettuce seed in your growing trays. Because of the size, you will need to make sure you use a high intensity metal halide light so that nothing is kept in the shadow. Alternatively you can use a fluorescent light and as lettuce is a long day plant, I recommend you give them 18 hours of light a day!

Lettuce is one of the thirstiest vegetables around, I suggest you use an ebb and flow or NFT water culture system.

Your hydroponic lettuce should realistically be ready for picking at around the four week mark and as long as your initial crop was planted at 1 week intervals for a period of 4 weeks, you should have a steady supply of delicious lettuce around the year!

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Hydroponic Strawberries

On 09.21.09, In Hydroponic Strawberries, By admin


Hydroponic Strawberries

Hydroponic Strawberries

Growing your own hydroponic strawberries will carry many advantages for you over growing them in the soil in your garden!

You will have access to fresh home grown strawberries every day of the year as growing fruit and vegetables hydroponically creates year round yields! Four to six plants will be enough to feed a family all the strawberries they wish for. You could even plant a few more and maybe create a little sideline business for yourself.

As hydroponic strawberry plant roots will not need to spread out to find nutrients like soil planted strawberries do, growing time will be reduced by around 40% on average! Your strawberries will also be a lot bigger and many say tastier!

Another big benefit to growing hydroponic strawberries is that no pesticides are needed due there being no soil, this also means that no soil borne diseases will be passed on. If you want to know how to grow hydroponic strawberries then read on.

Hydroponic System

You need to decide on a specific hydroponic system for your strawberries! You can read more about DIY Hydroponics and making a Hydroponic Indoor Garden which will give you a detailed break down of the different systems! You can also read the Home Hydroponic Gardening Guide!

Nutrients

For your hydroponic nutrients I suggest you use a commercially prepared nutrient solution with a pH level of between 5.5 and 6.5. If you’re used to hydroponics then you could mix your own solution. Either way I recommend you drain and change the solution every 14 days.

Lighting

For strawberries I suggest you go for a high intensity metal halide hydroponic light.

Maintenance

Maintaining your hydroponic strawberries is easy, just as with growing all hydroponic plants! Just make sure the solution is changed once every 2 weeks and pick off any runners or ready strawberries from the plants and you should have delicious strawberries every day of the year!

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Hydroponic Tomatoes

On 09.21.09, In Hydroponic Tomatoes, By admin


Hydroponic Tomatoes

Hydroponic Tomatoes

Hydroponic Tomatoes

Hydroponic tomatoes are easy to grow once you have the set up and are delicious! They will be there for you to pick your own whenever you want them, all year round! If you haven’t already, I suggest you also read the articles on DIY Hydroponics and building a Hydroponic Indoor Garden which explain the ins and outs of Setting Up Your Own Hydroponic Garden!

Hydroponic tomatoes will on average be bigger than traditional soil grown tomatoes, they will also take around 40% less time to grow due to the roots not having to spread out and search for the nutrients (which they have to do in soil)! For 10 reasons why growing your own hydroponic tomatoes is advantageous see the article on Home Hydroponics!

Assuming you’ve read DIY Hydroponics and you have chosen a hydroponic set up or if you already have your system in place then there are a few other things you need to take into account for growing hydroponic tomatoes!

Temperature

This should be set at between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit during the day and 10 degrees lower at night! This is the typical temperature that tomatoes will thrive in! If you get this balance wrong by 10 degrees either side, you’ll end up with discoloured, stunted or even dead tomatoes!

Lighting

Tomatoes are long day plants, so use the blue part of the light spectrum! They should ideally have 18 hours of light per day! I would recommend you use a metal halide high intensity discharge lamp!

Humidity

Hydroponic tomatoes need the correct humidity levels, a little too much and they’ll end up with calcium deficiencies! They will also struggle to take in other nutrients from your nutrient solution! The ideal setting for hydroponic tomatoes would be a 70% humidity level however you could go as high as 80% and they should be fine.

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Hydroponic Indoor Garden

On 09.14.09, In hydroponic indoor garden, By admin


Hydroponic Indoor Garden

Hydroponic Indoor Garden

If you’ve read the article on DIY Hydroponics then everything else you need to create a hydroponic indoor garden is included here!

CO2

Depending on where exactly you intend to keep your hydroponic plants, you may or may not need some extra CO2!

You can quite easily keep them inside your house around your family! This will be easy as the plants will feed from the CO2 produced! So if you keep them in one of your family rooms or a corridor, then you don’t need to worry about anything! You could keep them on a balcony or on the rooftop and the plants will feed off the CO2 in the atmosphere!

However if you keep your plants in a garage or greenhouse, then you may need to consider giving them a boost in CO2 in order for them to flourish! This can be done in a number of ways! You can either leave some compost lying around in pots for your plants to lap up the odour, you can burn some hydrocarbon fuels or get some compressed bottled carbon dioxide for your Hydroponic Indoor Garden. Using compost is by far the simplest method, the most natural and probably most effective!

Temperature

Your hydroponic indoor garden ideally needs to be maintained at temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily this is the normal temperature range in the average home!

Lighting

You can use grow lights to aid growth and experimentation may be necessary! Lights may typically be used for between 8 and 16 hours per day but this varies greatly depending on what you’re growing!

That is basically it! Anybody can grow a Hydroponic Indoor Garden!

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DIY Hydroponics

On 09.14.09, In diy hydroponics, By admin


DIY Hydroponics

DIY Hydroponics

Home Hydroponics has many advantages over traditional soil based gardening! Three of these being increased crop yields, shorter growing periods and the ability to grow plants anywhere! Another advantage is the lack of maintenance and cost once the system is set up! So if you decide to make a DIY hydroponics system, here is what you need to know!

There are three types of solution culture typically used in hydroponics; static solution culture, continuous solution culture and aeroponics.

1. Static Solution Culture

The plants are placed in a tray within a larger container filled with the nutrient solution. The solution is usually oxygenated using an aquarium aerator. This cuts down the root rot!

2. Continuous Flow Solution Culture

This involves the nutrient solution continuously flowing past the roots as a very shallow stream. This means that the roots are constantly getting the nutrients they need while the solution remains oxygenated. The roots also have better access to CO2 this way!

3. Aeroponics

The plants are suspended and a fine mist of nutrient solution is either continuously or intermittently sprayed directly to the plant roots. The main advantages are its simplicity and the amount of aeration received.

Nutrient Solution

The nutrient solution is the life blood of plants being grown hydroponically. It is important that you maintain the correct pH level specific to the plant you’re growing (usually between pH 5.5 and 6.5)! You can mix your own nutrient solution however it is recommended that beginner hydroponic gardeners use a commercially prepared solution to minimize the risk of getting the wrong balance.

When you do decide to create your own solution, the basic elements are potassium phosphate, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate. Mixing your own will severely cut down on cost and this is something you’ll be very happy to do anyway.

For small plants the nutrient solution can be used for up to 14 days. For larger plants, you’ll want to drain and replace every 7 days.

Find out what else you need for your Hydroponic Indoor Garden!

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Hydroponic Vegetables – 10 Advantages

On 09.14.09, In hydroponic vegetables, By admin


Hydroponic Vegetables

Hydroponic Vegetables

Growing hydroponic vegetables carries the following advantages over traditional soil based gardening.

1. The big problem of knowing exactly how much to water your vegetables is eliminated! Your Hydroponic Vegetables will never have too much water which will cause the roots to rot or have too little causing them to die of thirst! This is the main problem with traditional gardening!

2. Your plants will grow much faster as the roots do not need to spread out and look for nutrients in the soil. Instead it is applied directly to the roots! Research has suggested that growing lengths have been cut by as much as 50%!

3. No soil is required! This is ideal if you live in the city and have no garden or you live somewhere where the soil is of terrible quality. You don’t have to pay to have soil brought in! If you live in the desert or Antarctica…problem solved!

4. Due to no soil being needed there are no soil borne diseases being passed on to the plants! Your hydroponic vegetables will be far healthier as a consequence!

5. As you’re not using soil, the use of pesticides is greatly reduced if not eliminated!

6. The cost of growing hydroponic vegetables is estimated to be 20% less than traditional growing methods! Once it’s set up, the cost is miniscule!

7. Hydroponic Vegetables take up less space as the root size is reduced. This is because the roots don’t need to spread out in order to find water and nutrients.

8. Maintenance is practically non existent! Once set up there is nothing for you to do other than to pick the vegetables once they are ready! Weeding doesn’t exist when growing hydroponically and there’s no need to water them as it’s readily available.

9. Your yield is year round so you’ll never run out of fresh vegetables for your family.

10. You can grow your plants anywhere; in the garden, greenhouse, conservatory or bedroom.

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