Did you know that you can use hydroponics in your vegetable garden? This term often gets a bad rap, but it is in fact, one of the best ways to really get your garden started no matter what climate you live in. We have some great hydroponic gardening tips to for starting your vegetable plants to share with you. These tips will help you to get started on a thriving vegetable garden this season.
Hydroponic Gardening Tips For Starting Vegetable Plants
Before you begin, you need to understand what hydroponic gardening actually is. Hydroponics is a method of growth that is done without soil. These hydroponic gardening tips for starting vegetable plants will assist you in giving your plant seeds an early start.
Your plants are instead suspended or hanging into a nutrient rich water or other material for growth. There are many reasons why this is a good option for any plant growth, but especially for starting or maturing vegetable plants.
For some this is a method to help them grow for prepping or storing for the future. There are still yet, some individuals who want to grow a vegetable garden but just don’t have the right soil or location to do so. While this isn’t conventional, and often has illicit uses, hydroponic gardening is a fun topic and a great new way to build your vegetable garden in no time.
Invest in the Right Tools-You’ll need a system to begin, but you don’t have to go for pricey setups to make this work. You simply need a few things. You need containers, a method of suspending your plants, and nutrient pellets or liquid to feed your plants. Sometimes this means you will suspend your plants in water. For others, it may be using clay pellets, or a mixture of perlite and sand. You’ll also need a good light source.
There are many ready made hydroponics kits online to choose from. For your first time you may want to invest in one to make things easier, but you can truly use any kind of tray and a simple frame to suspend your plants. You can research frames and systems, or buy a kit already made and set up in your home. The most important thing to remember is you’ll need those nutrient pellets or liquids to give your plants the proper nutrition they need to thrive.
Understanding the Nutrients Needed– Plants need nutrients to thrive. Obviously they need water, but they also get a lot of nutrients form soil. Since you are replacing the soil with water or other products, you need to make sure they have the right blend of nutrients. A scientist or botanist could easily give you the formulas. For the sake of being a home gardener, the best gardening tips I have regarding hydroponics is to trust others and buy ready made nutrients then follow the directions on the packaging. Not only will you have more consistent results, you won’t have to worry about creating the wrong mix and killing a plant instead of helping it grow.
Plants Need Basics Like Oxygen and Sunlight– Most hydroponics systems are done indoors, so artificial lighting is a necessity. Metal halide lighting is popular among those who use hydroponics. Look for the lights that will work with your frame, and invest wisely. LED’s and compact fluorescents can also work well for indoor hydroponics gardens.
If you are able to have your setup with direct sunlight, it will work even easier, and much less expensive in the long run. Of course, a hydroponics garden doesn’t have to be indoors. Many have great success with growing outdoors just like a traditional garden. Their reasons for choosing hydroponics can be many, but most often have to do with soil issues in their area.
Learn About the Systems for Nutrition– You learned a bit about needing specific nutrients, and that it is more likely to your benefit to buy them already mad and with directions. However, you need to figure out a proper delivery method that won’t drown your roots. While hydroponics is set up to put your plant roots into water, they do not always stay saturated all the time. There are a few different methods to choose from.
The ebb and flow method takes more work, and requires more hands on diligence on your part. It is basically a method where you flood the roots with water and nutrients then quickly drain them off. This means you’ll have more chances of a literal mess as well as a messed up yield if done incorrectly.
The bubble method is where you use an air filter and keep your roots saturated all the time. The air filter provides the plants with oxygen. This is a cheap, easy, and basically fool proof method that is used by most home gardeners that have chosen hydroponics over traditional gardening methods.
There are many studies on hydroponic gardening that include tons of gardening tips and even unique home designs for setups. Whether you buy a kit already made, or you grab some PVC pipe, old pallets, buckets, and your tools to create your own doesn’t matter. Hydroponic gardening can be a fun way to grow flowers, fruits, or vegetables indoors or outdoors. It’s also a great educational tool that any parent can use to teach their kids more about plant life and plant nutrition.
Try these hydroponic gardening tips for starting vegetable plants and see if you can be successful at it!
Have you ever tried hydroponic gardening? Were you successful?
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