Hydroponics FAQ
What is
hydroponics?
What are the advantages
of hydroponic (soil-less) growing?
What are the difficulties in
growing plants in soil?
How does the Lettuce and Herbs
Hydroponic Garden work?
What are the
differences between the basic, intermediate and advanced Hydroponic Gardening
Kits?
Can I grow lettuce and
herbs indoors in the Lettuce and Herbs Hydro Garden?
Where is the best place to
locate the Lettuce & Herb Hydroponic Garden?
What's in the nutrient
solution?
Does the nutrient solution
need to be replaced during the growing cycle?
What is the purpose of
aerating the nutrient solution?
Can flowers be grown in
the Lettuce and Herbs Hydroponic Garden kits?
Can tomatoes or other
heavy crops be grown in the Lettuce & Herbs Hydroponic Garden
kits?
Do the kits come with
instructions?
How do I clean the unit
between crops?
What is Hydroponics?
Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in
a water-based liquid nutrient without soil. In translation the term hydroponic
means water work.
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What are the advantages of hydroponic
(soil-less) growing?
In addition to water and carbon dioxide in the
air, plants need nutrients, trace elements, and oxygen to be supplied to their
roots for photosynthesis to occur. This is true whether the plants are grown
hydroponically or in soil. Plants essentially "don't care" where the nutrients
are coming from as long as they are available in sufficient levels and in
proper form for uptake by the roots. If the hydroponic nutrient solution
contains the right proportion of inorganic compounds and trace minerals to
optimally support photosynthesis and plant growth, the hydroponically grown
plants will be afforded what they need for growth and at the same time their
roots will be maintained in a moist or wet root environment. In short,
hydroponics affords optimal control of plant nutrition, oxygen delivery and
root moisture - difficult to obtain when growing plants in soil.
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What are the difficulties in growing plants
in soil?
For plants grown in soil, soil conditioning and
fertilizing is crucial for healthy plants and high yields. In the home
gardening context, soil conditioning, as generally practiced, is an inexact
procedure at best. The home gardener generally doesn't know the composition of
his/her soil. Soil mixtures differ in makeup and organic content, as do soil
amendments. There are a plethora of fertilizers on the market that are intended
to be added to the soil on a regular basis; most casual gardeners apply
fertilizers irregularly, if at all. Even if optimal soil chemistry could be
concocted and maintained, the soil must also remain porous for oxygen to reach
the roots, but not so porous that regular watering will quickly leach away
plant nutrients from the root level. For nutrients to be made available to the
plant roots, the soil must also contain microbes that break down organic
compounds not directly usable by the plants. Importantly, the soil must also
remain moist for the plants to uptake nutrients and for photosynthesis to
proceed. These issues are not only important for plants grown in the ground but
are particularly challenging for plants grown in pots due to nutrient and
mineral leaching and the difficulty of keeping a uniform moisture level.
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How does the Lettuce and Herbs Hydroponic
Garden Kits work?
Each of the Lettuce and Herbs Hydroponic Garden
kits has a reservoir containing a specially formulated nutrient solution and a
floating plant support bed for holding the plants above the nutrient solution.
Plant roots extend into the nutrient solution where they absorb just the right
amount of nutrients for their optimal growth. Two of our kits include an air
pump for root and/or nutrient aeration. Our advanced kit additionally
incorporates our patent-pending aero-root technology which enhances plant
growth and vitality.
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What are the differences between the basic,
intermediate and advanced Hydroponic Gardening Kits?
You can see a comparison of the three kits
at:
http://www.plantechnics.com/products/lettuce_herbs_kit_comparisons.html
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Can I grow lettuce and herbs indoors in the
Lettuce and Herbs Hydro Garden?
Yes, but adequate light is required. As long as
the plants are grown in a location where they can receive sunlight for a
portion of the day, the plants will grow but not necessarily optimally. You can
supplement the available lighting with inexpensive full spectrum fluorescent
lights or "grow lights". This will markedly enhance your plants' well being.
However, most vegetable plants and many herbs do best when they receive full
sunlight for a significant portion of the day. This includes lettuces,
watercress, basil, thyme, and oregano and flowering plants such as tomatoes. In
order to optimally grow plants indoors you would need metal halide and/or
sodium vapor lamps and/or sufficient T5 fluorescents for the area of your
growing bed. Such lighting is expensive and probably not justified for growing
small crops of lettuce and herbs.
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Where is the best place to locate the Lettuce
& Herb Hydroponic Garden?
If indoors, locate your hydroponic garden near a
south-facing window where the plants can receive sunlight during a part of the
day. During the summer months, direct sunlight does not come in through a south
window. Early in the day, the sun comes in from an east window, and the planter
can be placed in an East window. During mid-day, the south window is best, and
late in the day, as the sun sinks toward the West, a West window has the most
sun. Outdoors, you can locate your hydroponic garden on a sunny patio or in
your yard. As mentioned before, many vegetables and herbs do best in full sun.
For summer gardening outdoors our recommendation for lettuces is to choose a
location that is relatively cool. This might mean trading off locating your
garden in full sun with locating your garden in partial or filtered sun to
reduce lettuce leaf burn.
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What's in the nutrient solution?
Each of our Hydroponic Garden kits are supplied
with packets of dry nutrients (hydroponic plant food) which are added to water
to make up a nutrient solution of the proper concentration for growth. The
nutrient powder contain all twelve essential nutrients (nitrogen, potassium,
potash, magnesium, calcium, sulfur, iron, manganese, boron, zinc, copper, and
molybdenum)
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Does the nutrient solution need to be
replaced during the growing cycle?
As the plants grow, the level of the nutrient
solution in the reservoir will lower primarily due to plant respiration. (Since
by design our hydroponic garden is covered, evaporation of nutrient solution is
minimized and most water loss is by plant respiration.) As the level drops, you
should periodically add plain water via the fill port to bring the floating
plant bed up until the black plastic sheet is even with the top edge of the
water reservoir. As water is used, the floating plant support bed sinks, and
when water is added it rises to the initial level in the reservoir when it was
first filled. Simply observing the level of the planting bed affords an easy
way to see when you need to add additional water/nutrient solution to your
reservoir.
As a rule of thumb, after you have added a total of three
quarts of water over time, you can empty the reservoir and replace it with
fresh nutrient solution. Generally, for plantings of lettuce and annual herbs
the nutrient solution does not have to be replaced. For plants that fruit
and/or respire heavily (i.e. tomatoes), you may have to refill the reservoir
with fresh solution several times during the growing cycle. You will find that
a vigorously growing tomato plant uses lots of water. This might explain why
many home gardeners who don't attend to their plants regularly have poor
success growing tomatoes in soil-filled planters.
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What is the purpose of aerating the nutrient
solution?
Roots need oxygen for the plant to grow. The
“bubbler” puts oxygen in the water and the roots absorb this oxygen.
Our basic hydroponic garden kit is non-aerated. As the plants respire, the
oxygen concentration in the nutrient solution slowly decreases. Without
aeration, oxygen transport into the nutrient solution can only take place at
the boundary between the still surface of the nutrient solution and the air
above it. Thus, the basic kit is not appropriate for long growth cycle plants
(such as tomatoes) unless the solution is changed periodically during the
growth and fruiting stage (which supplies your plants with a fresh aerated
solution).
Our intermediate and advance hydroponic garden kits are each
supplied with an air pump and aerator/s to help oxygenate the nutrient
solution. In these kits oxygen is transferred to the nutrient solution via 1)
the water-air interface between the myriad small air bubbles released in the
solution and 2) the water-air interface at the surface. Note that with aeration
the water surface area is greatly increased due to the bubbles breaking the
surface of the solution. This process offsets the oxygen lost due to normal
plant respiration.
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What is aero root technology?
Aero-root technology is our patent-pending
technology employed in our advanced hydroponic garden kit for delivering
nutrient to the upper region of the roots that are suspended in air above the
nutrient solution. During operation of the advanced hydroponic garden, the root
region above the water surface is maintained in a highly oxygenated environment
and is simultaneously nourished with nutrient "bubbles". This technology
substantially increases the growth rate, vitality and production of the plants.
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Can flowers be grown in the Lettuce and Herbs
Hydroponic Garden kits?
Yes. Annuals like Icelandic poppies, marigolds,
petunias, and pansies make excellent choices and can yield spectacular results
in the hydroponic garden. Furthermore, there are a number of edible flowers
that can be grown in your hydroponic garden and harvested periodically for
salads, etc. Try growing nasturtiums to add to your summer salads. Vine plants
such as snow peas also are ideal as long as you provide a support structure
above the hydroponic garden for supporting these plants. We grow snow peas in
our hydroponic garden kits and allow the vines to attach to netting hung above
the units.
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Can tomatoes or other heavy crops be grown in
the Lettuce & Herbs Hydroponic Garden kits?
Yes. As stand-alone units, the Lettuce and Herbs
Hydroponic Garden kits have been designed primarily for annual plants that
don't have heavy stems and leaf systems (i.e. lettuce, basil, thyme, oregano,
chili peppers.) For these types of plants the plant bed will quite adequately
support the plants during their growth cycle. As the kits do not come with a
superstructure for supporting vines or for supporting plants with heavy fruit
(like tomatoes), supports need to be improvised to support these crops.
There is no reason why tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and gourds (for example)
could not be grown with the intermediate and advanced kits as long as you
provide an independent support structure or trellis positioned above your
hydroponic garden. We, in fact, grow tomatoes by tieing the plants to overhead
supports using flexible plant tape. You can also make a support structure using
PVC pipe and connectors along with flexible plant tape.
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Do the kits come with instructions?
Each kit comes with complete instructions
covering setting up the hydroponic garden, starting your garden from seeds or
seedlings, routine maintenance, and starting a new crop.
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How do I clean the unit between
crops?
The hydroponic garden is extremely easy to clean
and make ready for your next crop. Since the design of the units precludes
algae buildup, you can simply empty and wash out the reservoir between crops;
remove the net cups, rockwool plugs/cubes, and ceramic beads (they are
re-usable) from the plant support bed; and wash off the floating plant bed and
the re-usables. Your garden is now ready to replant by re-following our simple
instructions.
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