What is Hydroponic Gardening?

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, without soil. The science of hydroponics has been in existence since plant physiology researchers discovered that plants absorb essential mineral nutrients. Hydroponics is a standard technique in biology research and teaching.

The earliest published work that seeks to explain the method of hydroponics is the 1627 book, Sylva Sylvarum, by Sir Francis Bacon. In 1699, John Woodward published his experiments with spearmint using water cultures. His experiments showed that plants in less than pure water sources grew better than plants grown in distilled water.

Terrestrial plants growing without soil in mineral nutrient solutions was called solution culture. It is still widely used today and is considered a type of hydroponics where there is no inert medium.

Hydroponic gardening, or homegrown hydroponics, is the best method for producing the highest volume of food in the smallest amount of space. Most soilless media for container plants also contain organic materials such as peat or composted bark, which provide some nitrogen to the plant.

Hydroponics has been proven practical, with definite advantages over conventional methods of horticulture. People that live in dense populations, without access to gardens, can grow fresh vegetables and fruits in window-boxes or on house tops.

Besides these advantages, hydroponics is relatively free from soil diseases. Weeds are practically non-existant, with standardized methods and automatic operations equating to less labor, cost, and manual work. Hydroponics allows for growth of vegetables underground, in space, or under the oceans, allowing humanity to live where humanity chooses.

Hydroponics uses as little as 1/20 the amount as a regular farm to produce the same amount of food. Farmers claim that their hydroponic lettuce uses 90% less water than traditional soil farming.

Sources:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponic.

2. http://www.hydroponicgarden.net/.