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Who Invented Hydroponics?

July 1, 2011 By tshydrom Leave a Comment

Article by Great Stuff Hydroponics

Many people mistakenly believe that the art of growing plants successfully without using soil, known as hydroponics, is a new technology. Leading Hydroponics experts and suppliers, Great Stuff Hydroponics, aim to throw some light on the origins of this ancient technique.

It is commonly thought, amongst gardening experts that the famous hanging gardens of Babylon could be the earliest example of a complex use of hydroponic techniques. Fresh water containing plenty of oxygen and nutrients were used to keep plants alive without having any soil surrounding their root structures. Other possible uses of hydroponics in the ancient world have also been suggested within Aztec culture.

However, it was not until the middle ages when scientific knowledge about the workings of plant life began to develop. In 1600, Jan Van Helmont deduced that plants take their nutrients only from the rainwater, rather than from the soil itself. He realized this because plant mass rises according to plant growth over time however soil mass stays much the same. This paved the way amongst scientists and chemists to find out more about exactly which nutrients need to be present in water to promote healthy plant growth.

Then the English scientist, Joseph Priestly, discovered that plants photosynthesize, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, and that this process is speeded up when the plant is exposed to bright sunlight. This was also an important development regarding the lighting techniques which are now used for commercial hydroponic growth.

By the mid 1800′s as a result of much interest in the subject and many experiments, a definitive list of minerals and nutrients needed by plants in order to thrive had been developed, with nutrient solutions created by the German botanist Wilhelm Knop.

The techniques of hydroponic growth, such as controlling the amount of light, water and nutrients available to the plant, are ideally suited to growing plants indoors. For this reason, in the early half of the twentieth century, commercial greenhouse growers began to realize the potential of hydroponics. Hydroponic plant growth uses only 1/20th of the water which traditional (soil based) agriculture demands. Also, soil borne diseases and virtually all pests are eliminated. These growth techniques are not only environmentally friendly, using less water and reducing agricultural ‘run off’ which would normally find its way into the water table, but it is also ideally suited to arid climates. This was proven brilliantly during the war, when American troops stationed on barren Wake Island in the Pacific, were able to survive by growing fresh food hydroponically.

Dr. William Gericke perfected hydroponic techniques during the 1940′s, and even decided upon the name for them, amalgamating the Greek ‘hydros’ (meaning ‘water’) and ‘ponos’ (which means ‘working’) into one word.

Since then, hydroponic growth techniques have diversified into a variety of ways to grow plants in ‘soil-less cultures’, although they use other media instead of soil which means that not all soil-less cultures can strictly be defined as hydroponic any more. Not only that, but there is now also a plethora of different growth promoters, nutrient solutions and hydroponic lighting designed for different aspects of plant growth on the market.

No single person or culture developed hydroponics, however the broad depth of modern scientific knowledge on the subject, drawn from many developments and experiments over time, mean that it is a viable commercial agricultural method and is also well suited to researchers, hobbyists and enthusiasts alike. Amazingly, this ancient technique can be practiced at home, using one of the hydroponic kits available online from Great Stuff Hydroponics. Kits can be supplied to beginners and advanced growers in addition to all other hydroponic equipment and specialist supplies.

To find out more about Hydroponics and to purchase online, visit Great Stuff Hydroponics at http://www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com.

About Great Stuff Hydroponics

Great Stuff Hydroponics is based in Middlesborough (UK) and supplies a vast array of hydroponic equipment for all your hydroponic plant cultivation needs. The Great Stuff Hydroponics showroom is open Monday to Friday 9am-5pm and Saturday10am-2pm. Sales can also be placed online at http://www.hydroponics-hydroponics.com.

Please direct all media queries, requests for press information and editorial details, to Anna Waters. Tel: 0208 123 5178 or email: marketing@topposition.co.uk

Please direct all media queries, requests for press information and editorial details, to Anna Waters. Tel: 0208 123 5178 or email: marketing@topposition.co.uk

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Hydroponics

July 1, 2011 By tshydrom 1 Comment

Hydroponics has evolved as a tremendously successful breakthrough for plant growers, who can cultivate food, grain, fruits, plants, and flowers with much more ease and much less expense!

The term Hydroponics comes from the Greek language, where hydro means water and ponos means labor. Researchers that plants take in the essential mineral nutrients for their growth in the form of inorganic ion in water, and that soil merely serves as a reservoir for the mineral nutrition solution realized it long ago. Hence was born the idea of hydroponics, which is a means of growing plants through mineral nutrient solutions and there is no use of soil. The mineral nutrition is dissolved in water and supplied to the plants roots through artificial means instead of soil. Examples of such ‘grow media’ used in hydroponics include gravel, mineral wool, prelate, and coconut husk. It may be noted that in some of the various methods of hydroponics, growing media is not even required, and the mineral solution is provided directly to the roots of the plants.

Hydroponics, as indicated above can be conducted using several different methods. The simplest of these is what is known as Passive Hydroponics, in which a plant is placed in container with growing medium that stands in the tray of the nutrient solution. The water and nutrients are supplied to the plant roots through capillary action.

Other prominent hydroponics systems include the Flood and Drain (also known as Ebb and Flow), drip feeding, wick feeding, raft cultivation, Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), Deep Water Culture, and Aeroponics.

As stated at the beginning of this article, Hydroponics has proven to be a magnificent breakthrough in the world of gardening and plant growing. In fact, the ease and efficiency of the various hydroponics processes has lured even those people to pursue it as a hobby, something, which perhaps would not have been interested in with conventional soil, based gardening.

But as with anything, it would be worthwhile to take stock both the merits and demerits of this rather radical way of plant cultivation. Discussed below are the advantages and disadvantages associated with hydroponics.

Advantages:

With hydroponics, plant cultivation entails much less space and time, compared to the traditional ways of soil based cultivation
There is an increased efficiency in the use of labor and garden maintenance
Cost efficiency is a prominent feature of hydroponics since there is significant water conservation and the plant nutrients are reusable or recyclable.
Owing to the fact in hydroponics, no soil is used, there is a significant decrease in pests, weeds, and plant borne disease
Hydroponics also enables a plant grower to exercise greater control over the growing environment, since temperature, humidity, and lights can be easily adjusted to provide adequate benefits
Finally, it has been proven that with hydroponics, there are considerably higher and richer plant yields, than there are in a soil based plant cultivation method.

Disadvantages

Although once the hydroponics systems have been set up for plant cultivation, the actual equipment used can be rather expensive
If hydroponics is used for commercial purposes, it is imperative that plant growers are adequately adept and knowledgeable as how to use the system
Although there is generally a reduced risk of pests and diseases with hydroponics, there is still a risk that these can spread from one plant to another owing to the fact that they share the same nutrient solution
Should the plant cultivation environment be at all adverse, plants grown through hydroponics can wither easily
Similarly, excess humidity or limited presence of oxygen in the cultivation environment can also result in decreased plants yields or crop loss

If the above mentioned factors are appropriately considered, plant growers would be able to decide more easily as to whether they should use this method at all, and if so, they would be in better position to decide upon the appropriate hydroponics system for plant cultivation.

James Smith is a columnist in fashion magazine such as Fashion Times, Casual Wears and more and writes about topics such as flower girl dressesand wedding dresses

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