Posts Tagged ‘hydroponic’
Many people choose to set up an indoor garden as an alternative to a traditional plant growing area established in the outdoors. One of the advantages of an indoor growing space is that it is possible to control external factors such as temperature, lighting, and ambiance, making it easier to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables, plants, and crops out of season. If you are interested in setting up a garden indoors, here are some tips on creating your very own hydroponic indoor garden.
1. Choosing an area to grow your plants
Although it is possible to grow plants in just about any indoor space, you will want to ensure that this space receives plenty of good ventilation, as good ventilation is fundamental to healthy plant growth. Also, make sure that your growing area is established with access to stable electricity and water.
An excellent place to create an indoor hydroponic garden is within your basement, as here the air tends to be cool and dry.
2. Preparing the area
An important part of growing plants indoors involves adequate control of external lighting. You can block your windows with thick curtains or wooden boarding where necessary. Another point to remember is that plants tend to elevate the overall humidity levels of the area in which they are placed, and if you are growing an indoor garden it is possible that mold growth could occur. Make sure to keep the area as uncluttered as possible by removing any unnecessary furniture and carpets. You can set up an appropriate ventilation system by channeling air in through a plastic duct built close to ground level (so as to avoid external sunlight) and installing a fan to blow out air brought into the room via the ceiling area.
3. Growing
This is the tricky part. Basically you will need strong lamps to stimulate optimum plant growth and photosynthesis. Some plants require a specific period of light over a 24 hour period that varies from other plants. For this reason, you will want to study the fundamentals of how to grow the plants you are going to have well in advance of setting up your hydroponic system.
4. Hydroponics
Since you will not be using soil, but rather a water-based solution of nutrients and minerals, you will likely be saving a reasonable amount of money on extra fertilization for soil. Using a hydroponic system allows you to control the exact nutrient balance necessary for your plants to grow strong and healthy, but you will need to research and find out exactly what nutrients and what quantities should be included within your nutrient solution. There are plenty of books available on this subject and a wealth of information to be found form online sources.
You can purchase all of the equipment and products necessary to building an indoor garden at a local hydroponic store or at an online retailer. Make sure that you are aware of your space requirements as on many occasions you will need a lot more room than you might have originally thought.
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Nutrient Solution
Have you ever wished you could produce home grown vegetables, fruits and flowers year round? Well you can, by using hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors techniques.
The secret to successful hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors is in finding the right well-balanced nutrient solution. It is imperative that the solution that you use to circulate around the roots of your plants is of the correct composition in order to produce healthy plants. Generally the beginning hydroponic gardener should use a commercially prepared nutrient solution rather than trying to mix their own. The key to successful hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors is the pH level of the plant as the primary determinant for the type of solution needed.
Also, to produce optimum absorption of the solution, it is necessary to make sure proper air circulation is occurring at the roots of the plant.
This is usually accomplished with the use of an air pump, hose and air stone.
The basic elements making up hydroponic nutrient solution are; potassium phosphate, potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate. These must be fully dissolved in the mixture before flowing through the vegetable plants’ root systems.
Other elements such as boric acid, zinc sulfate, manganese chloride, copper sulfate and iron sulfate are often used in the nutrient solution also. The nutrient solution can be used for a maximum of 14 days when plants are small. Once plants have matured the nutrient solution should be replaced every 7 days.
Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors – Location, Temperature and Humidity
With hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors you can locate your plants in any high traffic area of your home, a wide hall way or much used family room is ideal.
High traffic will ensure plenty of carbon dioxide in the air to nourish the plants.
Hydroponic plants may be grown in a greenhouse. The correct mixture of carbon dioxide in the air is necessary in order for these plants to flourish. This can be done a number of ways that includes:
burning hydrocarbon fuels
decomposition of organic matter
compressed bottled carbon dioxide
Maintaining a proper temperature in the environment is important for the plants to thrive. An average temperature of 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the normal temperature range within the home should be appropriate for the plants.
In addition, normal household humidity levels should promote healthy plants. Too high or too low humidity would not be healthy for the plants.
Hydroponic Vegetable Gardening Indoors – Lighting
Grow lights are normally used with a timer for hydroponic vegetable gardening indoors. The proper amount of light will create an environment the plants can thrive in. Experimentation may be necessary, but it is good to start out with the grow light being set on 8 hours daily to start.
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While this type of step up may seem complicated at first, you will soon see how simple it is to maintain your garden and you’ll love the added benefits.
About Hydroponic Indoor Gardening
The word “hydroponic” comes from the word “hydro”, meaning water, and “ponos”, meaning working. In basic terms, hydroponic gardening means to grow flowers, plants or fruits and vegetables without the use of soil, water, or weeding. Almost any plant imaginable can be grown in a hydroponic indoor garden.
Benefits of Hydroponic Indoor Gardening
There are many benefits that indoor gardening has verses basic outdoor gardening. Maintaining a hydroponic indoor garden takes very little maintenance as they do no need to ever be watered or weeded. The gardener has full control over their plants and they are able to grow year round. During the off seasons, owners will be able to sell their plants at higher prices.
Hydroponic plants are able to grow and thrive anywhere including a living room, greenhouse, bedroom, garage, rooftop, basement or window ledge. Plants tend to grow about 50 percent faster than a normal garden and product an average of 40 percent larger crop.
Fruits and vegetables that are produced in a hydroponic indoor garden tend to taste better than produce grown in soil. Produce grown indoors also contain more vitamins and are typically healthier to consume. Since no water is needed to grow hydroponic gardens, you can avoid under or over watering your plants and cut down on overall water usage.
Indoor gardens can be placed in small or large areas and will fit in any form to adapt to oddly shaped areas. A large number of hydroponic plants are able to grow efficiently in smaller places. Overall, hydroponic indoor plants are more economical efficient than soil gardens and have many more benefits.
Best Plants for Hydroponic Indoor Gardening
Although you can grow almost any plant effectively in a hydroponic indoor garden, some work exceptionally well. Some vegetables such as lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers are all great choices for indoor gardening as they take little space and result in a large amount of produce. Herb gardens are also very popular as they can placed in small areas such as a window sill.
If you are a gardening fanatic and would like to maintain your favorite plants all throughout the year, consider creating your own hydroponic indoor garden. Whether it be great smelling flowers or delicious fruits and veggies, you’ll love having your personal garden to maintain indoors.
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Growing medium is any medium, in which a plant can grow. Generally, hundreds of multiple types of growing medium exist: some are manmade and some are organic. Sometimes, even old AIR can work as a good growing medium for roots.
Defining the best growing medium is pretty challenging and disputable. It is a matter of personal likes, preferences and exact growing needs or requirements in most cases. It is like choosing a car: everyone picks the one, which suits his/her personal likes and requirements: someone chooses a small economic car for city traffic, and someone prefers powerful SUV to conquer sand and morass. Just like choosing a car depends on many factors, while choosing a growing medium it is also necessary to consider many variables, for example, what type of system is used, what plants you are going to grow and under what environmental conditions. Though there are a great variety of factors to consider while choosing a particular growing medium, it often comes to price, availability and personal preferences.
The most common types of growing mediums as well the description of their key advantages, disadvantages, their basic characteristics and tips on general use are specified below.
Oasis cubes
Expanded Clay Pellets
Rockwool
Coconut Fiber
Sand
Gravel
Perlite
Sphagnum Moss
Water
Vermiculite
Fiberglass Insulation
Saw Dust
Soilless Mix(s)
Air
Lava Rock
Oasis cubes
Oasis cubes are lightweight cubes, which serves the best for plants propagation from seeds or cuttings. Pre-formed oasis cubes are commonly used by hydroponic gardeners. This type of growing medium features neutral pH level and can hold water very well.
Since oasis cubes are usually used at the first stages of plant growth, they are usually not larger than 2” x 2” inches in size. It is very easy to transplant such cubes into any type of hydroponic system, growing medium or even into the soil.
By : The urban gardener
How to preparing hydroponic Nutrient Solution
Nutrient solution is made of water with dissolved fertilizer. It is preferable to have good quality water to be mixed with the fertilizer, the amount of which is always indicated by the manufacturer. It is very important to check and adjust if necessary pH level of nutrient solution with liquid pH adjusters. Usually, pH level of the nutrient solution depends on the plant; however, most often it is between 6. 0 and 6. 5 for the majority of the starter cubes, with the exception being Rockwool, which needs pH level of 5. 5 to 5. 8. Fertilizing young plants, a gardener should use a nutrient solution as weak as ¼ to ½ of the full strength suggested by the manufacturer. Only plants older than two weeks can be fertilized by the full strength nutrient solutions. It is recommended to keep the growing medium moist, but not too wet or soaked with the hydroponics nutrient solution.
How to Transplant Seedlings
The seedlings should be transplanted when the roots have grown out of the starter cubes. It is just necessary to place the seedling along with the starter cube on top or into the permanent growing medium, which can be any hydroponic growing medium or just soil.
Notes in taking cutting for clones
Cutting, as a method of plants propagation, works well only if every step of the procedure is done correctly. Otherwise, experiments may result in devastating consequences. Though, when done properly, up to 95-100% of all cuttings grow successfully, it is still may be a good idea to take twice as many cuttings as needed, if you are making first steps in growing cuttings.
One of the hints to increase chances in successful outcome is to use distilled water, while growing cuttings. Generally speaking, this is one of the most reliable and proven methods of plants propagation, suitable for most of the plants. Other examples of propagation techniques are dividing, air layering, and tissue culture. It is even possible to root cuttings without the use of any growing media in specific hydroponic systems. After forming the first roots, such cuttings are usually transplanted into any type of preferred growing media.
By : The urban gardener