Why Hydroponics?

How is Hydroponics better than traditional growing methods

Scott responds;

Several reasons.

• Weeding reduced or eliminated
• can work at bench height eliminating bending
• disease is highly unlikely
• nutrition simple to control
• healthier plants through more oxygenated growing root environment
• faster (lettuce in soil 3-5 crops/year; Hydroponics 10-14 crops a year) and therefore can produce in small areas what would take a much larger traditional area to grow.
• planting can be close together as plants don’t compete for nutrition
• Anyone can grow Hydroponically with little ability required
• Can be grown in areas which are arid (bad soils) or islands, in isolated communities where fresh produce is unavailable, non-farmable locations such as NASA’s space missions, or rooftops or any space available
• cleaner produce – no e-coli and bacteria from animal manures (lets face it Organics is likely to take a life one day if it hasn’t already as the plants absorb the bacteria)
• increased pest resistance
• water usage reduced (3litres for same amount of produce compared to 80 litres traditional method)
• It annoys horticulturalists like my family, who took 4 years to learn soil and still have no control, and I can explain Hydroponics in 10 minutes.
• It has little to no environmental impact when used properly.
• It conserves fertilizer/mineral reserves in the earth
• NASA, CSIRO, scientific bodies around the globe use it to produce crops in laboratories because it is the easiest method to get top results that are reproducible time after time.
• Lots of reasons relating to nutrient uptake and soil rotation, and no ground water contamination and support systems, and so on…..
• It is REALLY COOL!

One Day I'll write a 30 page essay on it, but hope this will do till then. Any of the above needs elaborating, let me know with a response or a personal email scott@hydrocentre.com.au

Scott