UNDERSTANDING HYDROPONICS

Simply put, hydroponics is the growing of plants without soil.  There are four basic things a plant needs to grow: water, nutrients, an anchor for the roots (i.e., “medium”), and light.  Usually, three of these four ingredients come through the soil, but actually the main function of soil is to anchor the roots; the nutrients don’t come through the soil itself, but through the water in the soil.  So if you provide a water-nutrient solution for the plant, and some light, all you really need is to find a new medium to anchor the roots, and  voila! Plants grow without soil.

Hydroponics is being developed as a new science, but it isn’t really all that new.  Historic examples of growing plants with hydroponics date back to the hanging gardens of Babylon, and there’s evidence of hydroponics in the histories of Egypt, China, and the Aztecs as well.

It might seem a bit ludicrous at first that people would want to grow food without soil, especially when there is so much soil around!  But there are some situations in which it’s beneficial to grow food hydroponically.  For one thing, this process can be used to grow food outside the time frame the normal growing season, because it isn’t reliant on the weather. Secondly, the process is not reliant on sunlight; natural lighting works well, but artificial lighting can be used.  Thirdly, in parts of the world where soil is contaminated or there is danger of disease, hydroponics can provide a clean alternate environment for food to grow.

Thus, hydroponics theoretically enable us to grow healthy food in the dead of winter, in parts of the world where the soil is dangerous, in the arctic and Antarctic regions where it is dark six months out of the year, and potentially even in space!  All we need is to provide the four elements that plants need for growth—all of which can be provided without soil.

Scientists aren’t the only ones exploring the use of hydroponics these days. Nations like Canada and Holland are now using this method extensively to grow food.  Many private citizens are now also maintaining hydroponic gardens as the new “organic” food.  In fact, increased demand has made the sale of hydroponic supplies into a large enterprise in the past few years.  It won’t necessarily replace the use of good old fashioned soil, but hydroponics definitely give us a viable alternative, enabling many possibilities for the future.