Hydroponics is a method of gardening that uses no soil, but instead the plant's roots are immersed in a liquid solution of plant nutrients. Depending on the types of plants you wish to grow, you might want to select organic gardening supplies that would include organic hydroponic nutrients.
Why is is important to grow plants organically?
Plants absorb nutrients up through their roots. This is good when the nutrients include the minerals they need to grow and thrive. It becomes less attractive when you stop to consider that plant roots can also take up toxins. These toxins can be found in the soil, in the water used for adding moisture to the plant roots, and in fertilizers and pesticides used to promote plant growth and production.
If the plants you want to grow are vegetables and fruits, then you obviously do not wish to eat plants that contain toxins, because those toxins will then end up in your body and have the potential to cause health damage over time and repeated exposure. It is a safer choice, in terms of healthy options, for food crops to be grown organically. This means that no toxic chemicals will come into contact with the plants. Hydroponics offers one method of growing crops organically.
This can be a problem if you want to produce organic produce on land that has been exposed to toxic chemicals. Even if you do your part to keep your property chemical free, neighboring land can be host to toxins that can be released in water runoff that can end up on your land, contaminating it.
Plants growing indoors offer an alternative in this situation. Growing indoors allows for complete control of all environmental factors that can have an effect on the plants. When you garden using hydroponics you can choose integrated pest management techniques and use no chemical pesticides at all, yet still maintain a pest-free environment. Because the plants are grown without soil contact, you avoid all the soil-borne toxins as a matter of course.
So, too, you can use organic hydroponic nutrient solution to feed your plants, knowing that the all natural ingredients will not add toxins to the plants, and neither will there be harmful chemical residue running out of your storm water drains.
Although each different type of plant, be it a tree, flower, vegetable or shrub, will require a special hydroponics nutrient solution based on their specific needs, nevertheless all plants, regardless of where or how they are grown, require a few minimum nutrients for survival. The three major nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, followed by macronutrients and micronutrients in lesser amounts. Hydroponics allows you the greatest control over every aspect of plant growth, from chemical-free plant nutrients and pesticide-free pest prevention, so that the end result will be the freshest, healthiest vegetable and fruit crops for you to enjoy.
