Understanding General Hydroponics
For many people, the concept of general hydroponics is tad baffling. It sounds like a super-scientific term having to do with laboratories, something that alters a natural process like the growing of plants and turns it into a complex, unnatural process. So let us take the concept of hydroponics down to its basic elements.
The term “hydroponics” comes from two Greek words that mean “working water.” In this sense, the significance of water in plant health is highlighted, because in truth, it’s through water, and not soil, that nutrients are fed to the plants. Hydroponics at its most basic is simply the growing of plants without soil applying the nutrients directly to the plant roots in a water-based formula.
Let it be known that there’s nothing artificial about this process. No genetic manipulations and chemical enhancements are involved. Hydroponics just takes the natural process of plant growth and breaks it down into the basic building blocks. Plants need 4 elements for growth: light, water, nutrients, as well as an anchor for the roots. With the exclusion of light, the other three elements usually occur through the soil – but then again, soil isn’t the one responsible for feeding the plant roots, but water. The only real purpose soil has in the process is an anchor for the roots, and a medium through which water feeds them.
In general hydroponics, these four elements are still present, but these are taken care of by the grower. Indeed, one can say that the natural process is not distorted, it is just broken down into segments. The roots are anchored by a different medium other than soil (like vermiculite or coconut are utilized), and the roots are washed with a water-nutrient solution tailored for the optimum growth and health of the plant. Lighting can either be natural or artificial – grow lights as they’re referred to, tailored to maximize the parts of the light spectrum.
With hydroponic growing, the grower is given more “influence” over plant growth because he can manipulate the natural elements in order to maximize growth rate. This is not to say that hydroponics is a simple process, because the reverse is true – but when done properly, this alternative can actually produce healthier plants and food. General hydroponics isn’t about growing plants in an artificial manner; rather, it is about having more control of the natural processes of plant growth. But all that’s grown by a basic hydroponic process will be natural.
