Hydroponics is a way of growing plants without soil, instead using mineral nutrient solutions (the word is derived from the Greek hydro meaning water and ponos meaning labour). Plants absorb their essential nutrients as inorganic ions in water, which in nature is held in soil. However the soil itself isn’t an essential factor for plant growth, as all the minerals are held in the water, hence the ability to develop the technique to grow plants without soil.

Hydroponics is a very effective and efficient way of growing plants, because there is a constant supply of water available to the plants they can take what they want when they want which eliminates the risk of over or under-watering. Depending on the type of hydroponic system being used the water will either be static meaning it will be changed on a regular basis, say once a week or it will be continuous, meaning the water flows constantly over the roots of the plants, and the management of the nutrients in the water is done centrally in a tank. Continuous water systems are a lot less time consuming than static systems, but are more expensive and complicated to set up. Hydroponic growing is actually very water efficient as there is no unnecessary wastage, unlike traditional growing methods.

The use of lights to assist the plants growth is also a popular aspect of hydroponic growing. The lights are used to either lengthen the day by giving the plants extra hours of light or they are used because sunlight is scarce. There are different spectrums of light to make sure the plants are getting the right light to optimise their growth. Lighting systems use a large amount of electricity and can therefore be expensive to run.

The use of hydroponics is wide-spread on a commercial level thanks to the large crops that can be yielded, tomatoes are grown very successfully using hydroponic systems, and various other fruits and vegetables are grown using hydroponics and can be grown pesticide free which is becoming very important to many people these days. A lot of “container plants” that fill our garden centres are also grown hydroponically before being potted up and sold.