Indoor Hydroponics: Is It Really Soilless Gardening?
Well, yes, it is soilless. But, it doesn’t look at all soilless. Consider the materials used to start an indoor hydroponics garden. Everything from pottery shards, to sand, to marbles may be used in an indoor hydroponics pot. The containers may just be the common flower pot or the ordinary vase. So from the outside it may not seem so different.
The real question is, what is soil? We think of soil as dirt, earth, that stuff underneath us. One moment we may wax poetic about the earth, the next minute we complain about the dirt or mud we are tracking into our car or our house.
More precisely, soil consists of unconsolidated materials both inorganic (minderals) and organic matter, liquid, and gases. It was created by the combined actions of weather, organisms, lay of the land, micro-organisms as well as larger plants and animals acting on rock over long periods of time.
it’s because of these actions that soil has the ability to sustain plant life. Soil contains both mineral and organic nutrients, water, carbon dioxide and oxygen.. However, not all soils are created equal. Some soils are unproductive.
Hydroponics does not require soil itself because nutrients, minerals are dissolved in water. Also the micro-organisms and animals acting upon it may also be damaging plant pests.
Looking through the materials necessary to set up an indoor hydroponics garden, there is a lot of different substances which function as support material for a plant.
Plants orient themselves with the roots and part of the stem in the earth/soil and leaves above ground to receive light. Some plants can remain “upright” in water without help. Or some may need support at the beginning before their root system develops. Many plants require some method of support replacing that of the earth. This support is called an aggregate.
Aggregates for indoor hydroponics include a broad range of materials: the most commonly used are sand, gravel, rockwool, perlite, vermiculite, shards of brick, sawdust and woodchips. Each aggregate requires a different method of water irrigation.
The fundamental principle lying behind all these methods? To successfully cultivate a plant requires:
- Necessary nutrients in water
- A way of delivering water to the roots, i.e., proper irrigation.
- Proper temperature, humidity, and light.
These principles of successful plant cultivation hold whether in a commercial setting or in an indoor hydroponics garden.