Hydroponics

Hydroponics, is the process of growing plants in a grow medium such as water, gravel/stone, and clay pellets etc. with added nutrients but without soil.

There are various types of Hydroponics

- Deep Water Culture (DWC) - Plant are grown in a growing medium, which is suspended in a solution of nutrient-rich, oxygenated water.

 

- Ebb and Flow -Pots are filled with an inert medium which does not function like soil or contribute nutrition to the plants but which anchors the roots and functions as a temporary reserve of water and solvent mineral nutrients. The hydroponic solution alternately floods the system and is allowed to ebb away.

 

- Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) - Is a technique wherein a very shallow stream of water containing all the dissolved nutrients required for plant growth is re-circulated past the bare roots of plants in a watertight gully, also known as channels. In an ideal system, the depth of the recirculating stream should be very shallow, little more than a film of water, hence the name 'nutrient film'. This ensures that the thick root mat, which develops in the bottom of the channel, has an upper surface, which, although moist, is in the air. Subsequent to this, an abundant supply of oxygen is provided to the roots of the plants.

 

- Aeroponics - is the process of growing plants in an air or mist environment without the use of soil or an aggregate media