Growing plants is possible not only in the soil. Moreover, even the most fertile soil in itself, without top dressing, will not provide plants with the nutrients they need. Therefore, a new direction - hydroponics - is becoming increasingly popular.
Hydroponics allows you to get a large crop of greens when using a small area. In addition to the traditional green onions, which many grow on the principle of hydroponics on the windowsill, this method can grow almost any spicy-vegetable crop. On a water basis, in a nutrient medium, you can grow dill and parsley, cilantro and all varieties of basil, arugula and watercress, leaf and head salads, rosemary and oregano, mint and lemon balm, marjoram and other spices.
Watercress is especially good and grows fast without land. It does not even require the addition of nutrients and grows in cotton wool or a flannel rag immersed in water. But if you add micronutrient and macrocell nutrients to it, the leaf mass will be more.
Plants grown in hydroponics grow faster and remain healthy. And less time is spent on caring for them.
Principle Description
A hydroponic garden should have a system or devices that feed nutrient solutions to the roots of a plant. As the "soil" are used components: expanded clay, tree bark, vermiculite, perlite. This medium is impregnated with a nutrient aqueous solution, which consists of a mixture of nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper, zinc, iron.
Of course, with sufficient natural light, the plants turn out to be of better quality and grow faster, but you can grow greens by the hydroponic method at any time, using fluorescent lamps in winter for additional lighting.
Nutrient Technology
The essence of the method is to fill the plants with a small amount of nutrient solution, and not to feed the solution constantly. Keep the root system in the solution only for a while, and then let the solution drain. Then it can be reused as many times until the nutritional value is reduced. Then the solution is replaced with a new one.
How to start
You can buy a ready-made kit system, but it is very expensive. It is better to improvise and create your own system that is right for you. Moreover, there is nothing complicated in principle in hydroponics.
There are many different options for soilless growing plants at home, in addition to the traditional immersion of the roots in a nutrient solution and nutrient filter systems. The most interesting method involves growing plants in the air with frequent spraying of the solution on the root system. This method is called aeroponics.
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