Don't Have A Garden To Grow Organic Vegetables? - Try Hydroponics
By Julie Williams
So what does "hydroponics" mean? Essentially it means the cultivation of plants, by placing the roots in liquid nutrient solutions rather than in soil - so, soil-less growth of plants.
Plants are grown in a bed or pots of sterile material such as perlite, vermiculite, rock-wool, or even lava rocks. This growing medium provides the physical support for the plants root system. Plant nutrients are fed into the water mix at set intervals so that the roots can absorb all the nutrients which they would normally find from soil.
For those of us who don't have access to the wondrous mother earth, we can still grow some (or most) of our own vegetables using an organic hydroponic system. Now this may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it is possible to provide all the organic nutrients that our vegetables need via their water/food uptake, without having to resort to harsh chemicals.
It is a far more precise way of gardening and has to be monitored fairly closely or you can expect failures, but it is an interesting and alternative method to gardening with the soil. Some things you must be particularly mindful of when growing hydroponically are pH levels, right nutrients for the right part of the growth cycle and hygiene.
Now you don't need a fancy glasshouse. Some people don't have any space outside at all, so they use a dedicated indoors room. But this means they must use powerful lights to emulate the sun which is expensive to run, harmful to the environment and adds many hundreds of dollars to your set-up costs.
If you live in a temperate climate you can grow all year round in a glasshouse. If you live in a tropical or sub-tropical climate you don't even need a glasshouse.
Hydroponic gardening is a great way to grow some of your own food if you only have a balcony, rooftop space, or you live in an apartment with a bit of space. It is also ideal if you are renting, as you can just dismantle your system and take it with you.
It also has the benefit of being lightweight, so you're not having to bring home vast amounts of heavy potting mix. There's no soil to turn over and no weeding to do. You can also design a big or small a system - depending on your own needs. Then you can add to it later if you want to. So all in all, there are quite a few advantages to growing hydroponically.
Growing vegetables hydroponically is a great alternative if you don't have access to garden beds, or even if you want to prolong your growing season or even grow out of season.
Hi, I am an avid organic gardener and am known by my friends as the recycling queen. I live on a small country property in South Australia. It is my mission to encourage as many people as possible to start organic gardening. This will improve both our individual lives and the wellbeing of our personal and global environments.
Beginners to Organic Gardening take a look here. For more organic gardening info click here.
Happy gardening, healthy living...Julie Williamshttp://www.1stoporganicgardening.com/
Grow Organic Vegetables
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