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 Floating
Gardentm Kitchen Garden Kit Work?
How does the Floating
Gardentm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit work?
What are the
differences between the Floating Gardentm Kitchen Garden Kit and
the Floating Gardentm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit?
Can I grow lettuce and
herbs indoors in the Floating Gardens?
Where is the best place to
locate the Floating Garden?
What's in the Floating
Garden nutrient mixture?
For the Floating
Gardentm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden, does the nutrient solution
need to be replenished or replaced during the growing cycle?
What is the purpose of
aerating the nutrient solution?
What is aero-root
technology?
Can flowers be grown in
the Floating Gardens?
Can tomatoes or other
heavy crops be grown in the Floating Garden Hydroponic Gardening
kits?
Do the kits come with
instructions?
How do I clean the Floating
Garden 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. It is also known by the term 'soilless gardening'.
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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. And the downside of fertilizers is that
they kill soil microbes necessary to break down the organic compounds into
inorganics that the plant can utilize. Fertilizers also percolate through the
soil and contaminate our aquifers and groundwaters.
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.
In a world where water is becoming a scarce
commodity, much of the water that we use in both commercial and home gardening
percolates below the root level and carries "nutrients" into the groundwater.
From a water utilization standpoint, even drip irrigation is a poor compromise
to growing plants hydroponically.
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How does the Floating Gardentm
Kitchen Garden Kit Work?
The Kitchen Garden Kit has a square reservoir
containing a specially formulated nutrient solution and a closed-cell foam
plant bed which floats on the surface of the nutrient solution. Plant roots
extend into the nutrient solution where they absorb just the right amount of
nutrients for their growth. The roots never dry since they are constantly
bathed in the nutrient solution. As the plants respire and liquid is lost by
evaporation, the nutrient level drops. A small gap between the planting bed
tends to resist algae growth. Oxygen is transferred to the nutrient solution at
the air gap, fill port, through the plant net pots, and by periodic addition of
fresh nutrient or water. By periodically lifting the planting bed out of the
solution and by occasionally emptying the unit and replacing with fresh
nutrient, oxygen in the nutrient solution can be kept at an acceptable level.
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How does the Floating Gardentm
Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit work?
The Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic Garden
kit has a reservoir containing a specially formulated nutrient solution and our
patent-pending floating plant support platform 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. This kit
includes an air pump and aerator which maintains the roots in a high oxygen
environment.
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What are the differences between the Floating
Gardentm Kitchen Garden Kit and the Floating
GardentmVegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit?
You can see a comparison of the kits at:
Floating Garden Kit
Comparisons
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Can I grow lettuce and herbs indoors in the
Floating Gardens?
Yes, but adequate light is required. As long as
the plants are grown in a location where they can receive sunlight (say through
a window) for a portion of the day, the plants will grow. You can supplement
the available lighting with inexpensive full spectrum compact fluorescent (CFL)
lights or fluorescent "grow lights". This will markedly enhance your plants'
vitality and growth. We have successfully grown basil and other herbs
solely under CFL and fluorescent plant lights. We make a
plant light
assembly designed specifically for the Vegetable Hydroponic kit; this
lighting unit can also be used for the Kitchen Garden kit and for providing
illumination for potted plants.
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Where is the best place to locate the
Floating 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
Floating Garden 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. As a rule of thumb, if you do not have supplemental
lighting (like our
plant light
assembly), locate the Floating Garden in the location where the most window
light is available.
Outdoors, you can locate your Floating Garden on
a sunny patio or in your yard. 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 Floating Garden nutrient
mixture?
Each of our Floating Garden kits is supplied
with packets of dry nutrients which are added to water to make up a nutrient
solution. Each nutrient packet comprises the twelve macro and micro nutrients
that all plants require. The Floating Garden nutrient mixture is intended
solely for use in our Floating Gardens.
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For the Floating Gardentm
Vegetable Hydroponic Garden, does the nutrient solution need to be
replenished or 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 Vegetable Hydroponic Kit is covered, evaporation of nutrient
solution is minimized and most water loss is by plant respiration.)
As the liquid 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, for long cycle plants such as tomatoes, after you
have added about three quarts of water over time, you can empty the reservoir
and replace it with fresh nutrient solution. You can also just alternate
between adding water and adding nutrient when the solution level appreciably
drops. For plants that fruit and/or respire heavily (i.e. tomatoes), you may
have to refill the reservoir with fresh solution (water followed by nutrient
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
aerator puts oxygen in the water and the roots absorb this oxygen. Our Floating
Garden Kitchen 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 takes place at the boundary between
the floating bed and nutrient tray, the fill port, and through the net pots.
This kit is not appropriate for long growth cycle plants such as tomatoes and
cucumbers. To help aerate the roots in the Kitchen Garden Kit, it is
recommended that you periodically raise the planting bed out of the nutrient
solution and "dunk" a few times to help aerate the roots and the nutrient
solution. We will soon offer an optional air pump and aerator for the Kitchen
Garden Kit which will increase production of lettuces and herbs such as basil.
Our Floating Gardentm Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit is
supplied with an air pump and aerator to help oxygenate the nutrient solution.
In this kit oxygen is transferred to the nutrient solution via the water-air
interface between the myriad small air bubbles released in 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 term for our
patent-pending technology imbedded in the Grass Gardentm Wheatgrass
Hydroponic Garden Kit. Using our patent-pending technology the upper portions
of the roots of the developing grasses are kept in air while the bottom
portions of the roots are maintained in nutrient. This not only enhances the
growth and vitality of the grasses but also virtually eliminates the chance of
fungal growth - which is prevalent with other methods of growing wheatgrass in
soil or coco fiber or inorganic media.
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Can flowers be grown in the Floating
Gardens?
Yes. Annuals like Icelandic poppies, marigolds,
petunias, and pansies make excellent choices and can yield spectacular results
in all of our Floating Garden kits. Furthermore, there are a number of edible
flowers that can be grown in the Floating Garden and harvested periodically for
salads, etc. Try growing nasturtiums to add to your summer salads. With the
Vegetable Hydroponic Kit, vine plants such as snow peas or sweet peas also are
ideal as long as you provide a support structure above the Floating Garden for
supporting these plants. We have grown snow peas in the Vegetable Hydroponic
Kit utilizing vine support. (See the next question for further details)
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Can tomatoes or other heavy crops be grown in
the Floating Gardens?
For the Vegetable Garden Kit the answer is
"Yes". The Floating Garden Kitchen Garden Kit doesn't have the reservoir
capacity to make tomato growing feasible. However as an experiment, we have
successfully grow dwarf determinate tomatoes in the Kitchen Garden Kit.
Without providing supplementary vine support,
the Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic Garden kit should primarily be used to
grow annual plants that don't have heavy stems and leaf systems (i.e. lettuce,
chards, basil, thyme, oregano, chili peppers, etc.). For these types of plants
the plant bed will quite adequately support the plants during their growth
cycle. We make an add-on
vine support
stand for the Vegetable Hydroponic Garden Kit which enables you to support
the vines and produce for vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers and
gourds, (for example). Before we designed our vine support stand, we grew
tomatoes by tieing the plants to an overhead patio pergola using flexible plant
tape. One of our Vegetable Hydroponic Gardens yielded many hundreds of cherry
tomatoes (Sweet 100 variety) during the summer 2008 growing season.
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Do the kits come with instructions?
Each kit comes with complete instructions
covering setting up the Floating Garden, starting your garden from seeds or
seedlings, routine maintenance, and starting a new crop.
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How do I clean the Floating Garden between
crops?
The Floating Gardens are extremely easy to clean
and make ready for your next crop. For the Floating Garden Kitchen Garden Kit,
remove the net cups and rinse the reservoir and planting bed. Then rinse the
net cups, rockwool plugs/cubes, and ceramic beads (they are re-usable).
With the Floating Garden Vegetable Hydroponic
Garden Kit the design of the units eliminates algae buildup. You can simply
empty and wash out the reservoir between crops; remove the net pots, 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.
Periodically you can sterilize the Floating
Gardens and re-useables by rinsing with a dilute bleach solution (1/2 cup
bleach to 2 quarts water). Pour the solution into the reservoir or tray, float
the planting bed in the reservoir and soak for five minutes on top and bottom.
Remove the planting bed and rinse thoroughly with fresh water. Pour the bleach
solution into a bucket and soak the net pots, rockwool, and ceramic beads in
the solution for about 5 minutes. Remove from the bucket and rinse thoroughly
with fresh water, squeezing the rockwool a few times to remove all of the
bleach solution.
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