WHAT IS HYDROPONICS AND WHY SHOULD WE USE IT?

Hydroponics is the growing of plants in water instead of soil. To do this successfully, the water must be enriched with nutrients and sometimes oxygenated. Also, the plants must be placed in some type of inert medium like sand or gravel to anchor the roots. Hydroponics is not New. It is believed that one of the historic Seventh Wonders of the World, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, was actually a hydroponics garden. Other ancient civilizations besides the Babylonians that made use of the hydroponics growing method included Egyptians and Aztec Indians. Advance scientific methods of hydroponics started in the 1930’s. With hydroponics we can measure exactly how much nutrient the plant is getting and can give the plant a deficiency or overabundance of a certain macro or micronutrient and determine precisely how it affects the plant's growth.

Hydroponics can be very important to farmers and gardeners who want complete control over their plants. Many factors can affect plants that are grown in soil out in the fields. For a plant to receive a well balanced diet, everything in the soil must be in perfect balance. Rarely, if ever, can you find such ideal conditions in soil due to contamination and biological imbalances. But with hydroponics, water is enriched with these very same nutrient salts, creating a hydroponic nutrient solution that is perfectly balanced. And since this hydroponic nutrient solution is contained, it does not harm our environment as does runoff from fertilized soil. Also, very little water is lost to evaporation in a hydroponic system, making hydroponics very useful in drought stricken areas. Additionally, plants can be grown hydroponically inside greenhouses to protect them from pests; this makes harmful pesticides unnecessary.

Even if you are neither a scientist nor a gardener, hydroponics can be important to you. There are so many benefits to hydroponics that it will probably become the agriculture of the future. Each day, more facts are learned about this type of farming, and soon we will know enough to make it the most efficient and effective way to grow plants. You, too, can benefit from the knowledge of hydroponics and could even start an amateur flower garden or vegetable garden from the information in our web page. Someday the fruits and vegetables you buy at the supermarket may come from a hydroponic garden!

The Ebb & Gro (from 12 to 48 plants) is the most versatile ebb & flow system on the market. With many growers going from large numbers of small plants to fewer, larger ones, the Ebb & Gro fits the bill! It is a simple system that uses 2 pumps and gravity to flood and drain the planters about 3 or 4 times per day. The fill drain cycles are controlled by the controller unit (the square black container) to control the feeding schedule that you set on it’s built-in timer. This system can be set up in many different sizes and shapes to fit your exact growing needs. You can add more grow pots as necessary. It is completely expandable..