What can hydroponics do for you?

 Want to grow your own and don't have alot of space? Want to grow the best tasting tomatoes like this?

What about great tasting and healthy lettuce like this.

If yes was your answer to any of the above questions then hydroponics may be the answer for you.

What is Hydroponics?

 It's simple really, hydroponics is the use of water and nutrients to grow plants, there are several different hydroponic systems used to grow things, Dutch buckets, nutrient film technique(nft), ebb and flow as well as a few others.

Most of these systems can be scaled up or down depending on your space requirements and your skill level.

Is growing with hydroponics difficult?

Not any more than growing in a conventional style, just different operations involved.

 Instead of using dirt, a neutral medium such as perlite or porous clay pebbles are used to hold the roots depending on the system you are using, in an NFT system the roots sit in a trough or pipe and the nutrients flow over the roots.

 It does take a little more skill in the fertilizing arena since you are the sole provider of nutrients for the plant, since the plant isn't in the ground and can't take nutrients up from the soil.

My Background in Hydroponics.

 I started growing tomatoes in 2012 in a 12,000 sq ft greenhouse using the dutch bucket system, we added a NFT lettuce setup the next year. 

 I had grown some field crops before and I wanted a way to have a more consistent crop that would be less dependent on weather condition, so i looked into a greenhouse. During my research, hydro looked like the way to go, so we took the leap and started big.

 The learning curve was present, but not to bad, the fertilizer adjustments being probably the most troublesome, but as time goes on it gets easier and the rewards greater.

 I grow around 45oo plants during our season which runs September to June, we sell the tomatoes and the lettuce from the NFT system at farmers markets in our area and make a decent living. 

 So there you go, a brief look into hydroponics, fun, lots of work, very rewarding and I guess to answer the question, What can hydroponics do for you?  

 It can keep you busy, pay some bills, make you cuss like a sailor and it can reward you with the knowledge that you can make your own food!

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