Roma tomatoes in my hydroponic garden.
From confusion about what this growing method is has arisen unjustified suspicion. Let’s separate the fact from the fiction and take a look at what exactly hydroponics means to the world of gardening and food production.
The term hydroponics is taken from the Latin and means “working water.” Hydroponic growing is the soil-less cultivation of plants. Water delivers all of the nutrients to hydroponic plants that they need. To give the plants everything they need to thrive, hydroponic experts have developed nutrient mixes to add to the water.
Don’t you be like so many other people and see hydroponics as a new invention with more fashionable merits that anything real. However, it is not new, our forefathers in a number of civlisations did it, but the technique was fogotten for many years. Also the Egyptians used hydroponics for their food needs. Great strides have been made in the field since the 1970s, when agriculturalists began studying it in earnest as an alternate means of food production, which perhaps is the reason behind so many people thinking it is a new invention.
GMA and hydroponics are often linked in the minds of those new to the subject, but this a completely false idea. It is a fact that GM crop modification has been hailed as a solution to world hunger, in the same way as hydroponics has, it is a different point entirely though. Due to the fact that genetically modified food production is so disliked, by association, hydroponics has been getting a bad press. In fact, hydroponic food is 100% natural food, not modified in any way, and no chemicals are added to the plants to make them grow that they would not get in traditional fields. Genetic modification, as in GM crops, has no part to play in the method and it is just another way to grow things.
Some people believe hydroponics is bad for the environment and climate change. Nothing could be less a statement of the reality. The water culture grown plant consumes only about 1/10th of the water of the soil grown equivalent. All the irrigation water used is retained until consumed by the plant, unlike traditional watering of the soil. Additionally of benefit is that the hydroponic system is enclosed and there can be no loss to cause pollution in a stream etc. It is accepted that hydroponic methods do consume energy especially for lighting those crops would normally always need such power anyway.
Hydroponics also does not have to cost a fortune, despite what many people think. True, nutrient mixtures and growth mediums are expensive, but the field has come a long way in developing reusable materials to balance some of these costs. Hydroponics practised at a small scale, should be no more expensive than soil grown methods.
Nor is hydroponics an obscure gardening technique. It is used in nearly every country on earth, and in some environments, it is the most commonly used technique. For example, in British Columbia, 90% of the greenhouse cultivation that takes place is hydroponic.
One thing people consider a benefit of hydroponics is actually a myth as well. Don’t think hydroponics and organic farming are synonymous – they are not actually connected. The majority of hydroponic growers used pesticides on their crops. A big advantage is that the pesticides and fertilizers once added stay in the water culture system and do not pollute watercourses or groundwater. We have often seen organic hydroponic crops for sale, but the term does not imply whether organic methods will be used or not.
Another final misconception is that hydrponics is used almost exclusively by the drug trade for marijuana. This is just not true. A small minority do use this method for illegal substance growing, but this is a tiny group in comparison with the mainstream users.
Hydroponics can be safely predicted to expand massively over the next few years due to its ability to provide food. With better public understanding, as time goes on the hydroponics devotees will find it easier to make their case and get it listened to.