Do you want to learn how to build an hydroponic system at home? Then keep reading...
Hydroponics, or more correctly and in general sense cultivation without soil, is a technology aimed at growing plants in a nutrient solution (water that contains nutrients) with or without the use of an artificial medium (sand, gravel, vermiculite, perlite, rock wool, etc.). Liquid hydroponic systems have no other means to support the roots of the plants; systems in a solid medium, on the other hand, use a substrate as support. Soilless growing systems are also classified into open (when the nutrient solution draining from the roots is not reused) or closed (when the surplus solution is collected, corrected, and returned to the system).
Soilless crops are mostly grown in greenhouses, often requiring high technology and considerable capital. However, they are very productive, ergonomic, use water and space efficiently and (potentially) protect the environment. Since in such agricultural systems, the regulation of the aerial and root environment is one of the main problems, production takes place through the parallel control of air and root temperatures, light, relative air humidity, water, plant nutrition, and climatic adversities.
Hydroponics is, as we said, a method of cultivation in the absence of soil, where all the nutrients are dissolved and fed directly into the water. We can distinguish 'very' hydroponic systems, in which no substrate is used for cultivation (NFT, aeroponics) from hydroponic systems in which substrates are used (rock wool, perlite, coconut, expanded clay, peat). The type of nutrient to be fed depends on the type of system.
This book covers
- The advantages and disadvantages of hydroponic cultivation
- Fundamentals of setting up a system
- Difference between indoor or outdoor
- The use of nutrient solutions
- Diagrams and instruction for construction of the hydroponic systems
- Explanation of all the important details of the process
- "secrets" about the best cultivation methods
- Best plants for hydroponics
...And much more!
Why choose a hydroponic cultivation method, and what are the advantages of it?
The great advantage offered by hydroponic agriculture is undoubtedly the possibility to cultivate everywhere, even where there is no soil or no ideal climate to be able to start certain crops of the traditional type. In a Hydroponic system, the plants grow outside the soil in a fully regulated cultivation context and free of parasites and diseases from the soil.
Through the control of environmental parameters, such as light, nutrients, temperature, pH, and conductivity, you get much better results than traditional crops, without having to use pesticides that often produce harmful effects on the culture itself. With this system, it is possible to start a cultivation indoors or outdoors, horizontally, as in classic crops, but also vertically, a space-saving method.
The hydroponic cultivation technique maximizes the yield in terms of quality, quantity, and speed, in fact, hydroponic agriculture allows greater control of the management of water and nutritional resources and a certain saving of water thanks to the recovery and reuse of the water flow, which is collected after use and recycled for a new irrigation cycle.
All this also brings advantages for the environment: with hydroponic crops, it is possible to significantly reduce both nutrient was
