If you’re interested in starting your own vegetable garden, you may not know all the options you have these days. There are far more than just the traditional kind most people put in their backyard. While those are all well and good, you should also consider the many other ways you can get amazing vegetables from your own growing operation right to the plate on your table. One very exciting method is called hydroponics. Keep reading for more information about this amazing practice.
What Is Hydroponics?
To put it simply, hydroponics is how you grow vegetables without soil. Instead of putting them into the earth, seeds are planted and grown directly from water. Gardeners who practice this method (which has actually been around for centuries) generally use trellises that are full of water instead of dirt. The benefits of this type of operation are many.
Aside from the time, money and labour it saves by not using soil, hydroponics are also advantageous because they can make plants grow a lot faster too. So you get bigger vegetables in less amount of time. Furthermore, these vegetables have also proven to be healthier in the past too.
Don’t Plants Need Soil?
No, this is actually a common misconception. What plants need are the many nutrients and other benefits that are within the soil. All the soil really does is provides structure. Unfortunately, it also comes with a number of challenges. Aside from the money, time and work we mentioned, soil can also be full of diseases and other problems that actually hurt your plants. This is one of the main reasons vegetables grow so much healthier without it: they simply don’t have to put in the same amount of work. Plus, the water keeps the nutrients plants do need delivered to them around the clock.
Most of the produce you buy at the grocery store probably comes from hydroponic installations exactly. Huge operations can produce the necessary food at a much greater level and in higher quality when soil isn’t a factor.
Starting Your Own
This doesn’t mean you need a huge operation yourself, though. Actually, another benefit of hydroponics is all the different types of gardens you can stop. As a result, you can actually grow them from a balcony, rooftop, greenhouse, etc. without ever needing much space. Many people grow more vegetables than they ever could because it takes so much less room to plant. The result is more vegetables per square foot than with traditional methods. Without soil, roots aren’t competing with one another so they can be planted much closer to one another too. Although you’ll get larger yields, the roots themselves will stay smaller because they don’t need to work as hard or travel as far for their nutrients.
All you need to begin are the plants you want to grow, water, a place to hold them and fresh air. So if you’ve been thinking about breaking ground on a garden, consider the methods available to you. Hydroponics is a really good idea for just about anyone who wants fresh veggies.