Hydroponics
Since last 2 to 3 years the trend of growing vegetables using hydroponics is going on increasing in India. Hydroponics is one of the techniques of growing vegetables which one should learn and use for healthy living because these vegetables could be grown by you as a home gardener in a very small space and with very minimal amount of water without spraying pesticides or if required using very minimal herbal pesticides.
Lets us understand what is hydroponics?
Hydroponics is a technique of soil-less growing of vegetable. Soil-less means without soil that is growing vegetable only in water (not simple water but nutrient water).
Advantages of hydroponics
- Soil-less farming. In India as adequate sunlight is there. Rooftops could be used for soil-less gardening.
- Fast to grow. Time required for vegetable to grow is nearly half the time as compared to the vegetable that grow in soil.
- Less space and more quantity: Within a small space of one's gallery on can grow vegetables of daily use.
- Simple to learn. It is quite easy to learn how to grow vegetables using hydroponics.
- Easily available tools required for hydroponics, that too at very affordable rates.
- No, or minimum labor cost.
- Really healthy, pesticide-free vegetables.
- Leafy-green fresh vegetables full of nutrients.
- Very low or negligible investment for gardening.
- A novel experience of seeing seed germination and staged growth of plant at your site, for your children, making them aware of farming experience at home.
- If used on a large scale to grow, hydroponics is a human controlled technique by which profit yielding could be looked at a certainty if proper technical guidance and experience is available. This could be a reliable business.
Hydroponics, a way to survive in future
Hydroponics uses very less water, say one-tenth, as compared to normal farming, It can turn out to be one of very good techniques for growing vegetables in dry areas.
Hydroponics using tap water or well water (common water).
One can grow vegetable in common water too, but one would require to change water often (daily or in 1-2 days) as nutrients and oxygen level of water goes down as plant absorbs both nutrients and oxygen from water to grow. Common water could contain nutrients according to the place where one lives in, and it may not contain nutrients, which are desirable for plant growth and also the local groundwater may contain microorganism and harmful bacteria, which could be harmful if the common water-grown vegetables are used for ingestion without proper cooking. One can grow fenugreek, chilies etc. just in common water. This is not a reliable way to grow vegetables using hydroponics.
Nutrient water
As of now you have come to know that in hydroponics one can grow vegetables in water medium only, i.e. without soil, so let us understand what type of water is required for plant growth of vegetable growth. Common water is not recommended as we have seen earlier that it could be harmful, time taking and cumbersome as well as it may not yield as well if the vegetables are grown in common water. So they require nutrient water. Nutrient water is a well filtered water mixed with proper proportion of plant nutrient compounds such as nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, potassium, iron etc.
The nutrient water that is used to grow vegetables should have;
- Proper TDS.
- Desired pH.
Let us understand the terms TDS and pH.
TDS (Total dissolved solids)
It is essential for nutrient water on which plants grow to have a proper TDS. TDS is in fact total dissolved solids in water, and it indicates the concentration of total dissolved compounds in water, which varies depending upon locations. TDS is measured in ppm. To measure TDS of water, a TDS meter is used. TDS meter can be purchased from an Agriculture fertilizer seller or even TDS meter is available on online sites like Amazon. Groundwater of any area which may come from rivers, ponds, wells etc. can contain many minerals, chemical compounds depending on the soil of that area. So the TDS of normal water or groundwater available in that area may vary, hence groundwater should be avoided.
TDS of Ideal water should be 0. Water (H2O) in pure form has TDS 0 i.e. is to say that water has nothing dissolved in it. 0 TDS water is not easy to get. For hydroponics, water with 50 to 100 TDS is desirable. As much low the TDS better is for one to prepare good nutrient water favorable for what he/she wants to grow. Every vegetable requires specific ranges of TDS from germination of seeds to the full-grown plant bearing fruits. Initially at the time of germination the TDS required is very low and as the plant grows the TDS has to be increased. TDS ranges could be 20 ppm at germination and may go up to 1800-2000 when the plant has grown to the level of ripening of fruits. We will talk in details regarding TDS in the coming up articles.
What is pH.
The pH is a measure of acidic or basic nature of water. Is water acidic or basic can be determined by measuring the pH of water using a pH meter. The range of pH meter is 0 to 14. 0 is most acidic, 14 is most basic, and 7 stands for neutral water. Water which is not basic nor acidic is called neutral water. Water with pH 7 is neutral water. Vegetable of different types require different levels of pH. Most common range of pH for good growth of common vegetable is 5.5 to 6.5. It is often necessary to maintain proper pH level by adding a suitable acid or base. As the pH is slightly acidic for growing vegetables i.e. pH of 5.5 to 6.5, to maintain such pH one may require acid to be added in very little quantity i.e. a few drops or few milliliters. Acid required to maintain the pH could be dilute nitric acid, phosphoric acid, citric acid, acetic acid or so.
Vegetables which can be grown using Hydroponics
Many vegetables can be grown using hydroponics. Commonly grown vegetable using hydroponics are tomato, spinach, lettuce, strawberries, cucumber, chilies, Beans, bell peppers, cauliflower, etc. Lot many other small size vegetable plants can be used to grow using hydroponics.
Lessons of hydroponics:
Nowadays, a lot of sites are promoting hydroponics. If one googles or uses YouTube to search hydroponics as keywords, he/she can find many hands on tutorials on hydroponics.
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