Hydroponic gardening is a mean of growing plants without using soil. Hydroponic plants are grown in water-based solutions. These water solutions contain most of the needed mineral and salts for plants to grow healthily.
Generally, you can grow hydroponic plants directly in the mineral solution alone.
Alternatively plants can also be planted in an inert growing medium such as coconut fibers, rockwool, growing rock, etc.
Hydroponic growing has become not only a popular pastime hobby; it has turned into a lucrative business. When the skills and techniques of hydroponic gardening are mastered properly, you can literally grow any plants as you wish with hydroponic method.
With the use of hydroponic system, you can easily set up a hydroponic garden or greenhouse inside your house or on the rooftop. When hydroponic gardening technique is employed on a large scale, it can become a very productive way to produce crops for commercial.
Unlike growing plants with conventional soil gardening, the roots system of hydroponic plants does not have to search for nutrients and mineral in soil. All the much-needed nutrients and mineral are provided in the nutrients solution, readily to be supplied to the root system. Therefore, the plants can focus on the top growth to produce more flowers and fruits rather than exerting energy to search for nutrients.
In hydroponic gardening, oxygen and carbon dioxide are also supplied to the nutrient solution to boost the uptake of nutrients by the root systems. This helps to promote faster growth rate and healthy growth of the plants.
Besides that, you will also have less problem with plant diseases and pest problem when growing plants with hydroponic methods. As most of the plant diseases and pest issues are associated with the use of soil.