Why Grow Hydroponically? | hydroponics

hydroponic gardeningWhy should you grow your plants with hydroponics?  Well, the simple answer is: You can grow almost anywhere.

Why you want to grow is your own business.  I grow a lot of my own produce with hydroponic systems; I can control what I put into my plants and know what I’m getting at harvest.  It’s a labor of love, quite honestly.  I’m not some random liberal hippie, or a right wing extremist.  I’m just Gary, the guy who likes food.  By the way, if you are a random liberal hippie or right-wing extremist…no disrespect intended; to each their own.

Anyway, like I said, I’m Gary, the guy who likes food.  When I first started out growing my own tomatoes about 10 years ago, it was outside.  I had some awesome organic tomatoes that just tasted so much better than store-bought that it made me really want my own garden.  I didn’t have a lot of space but I planted in the back yard anyway.

Apparently I did it all wrong.  Tomato seeds need to be prepared a certain way.  I just took a bunch of seeds from the tomatoes and planted them.  I watered  the soil and waited.  And waited.  And watered.  And waited. *sigh*

I’ll tell you how to cultivate tomatoes later.  Suffice-it-to-say, I did it wrong.  Anyway.  Then I went out and bought a bunch of other seeds and planted those.  I ended up overcrowding my garden, (my eyes were bigger than my small patch of land).

After a couple of crops I decided I needed a bar-b-cue pit more than a garden so after the last harvest, I gave up on my garden.

A couple years went by and I saw a clip on the Web about hydroponic gardening.  Since I had an extra room in the house I decided to give it another go.

I didn’t make a lot of mistakes this time, because it was pretty straight forward.  I wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but I did manage to eek out a nice harvest of peppers.

I was hooked.  The benefits of hydroponics are:

  1. Grow almost anywhere
  2. Plants grow quicker than in soil
  3. Greater control of what your plants are made of
  4. Higher yielding harvests
  5. Less water used
  6. Year round harvests
Here’s down-side:
  1. Higher electric bills if you’re using artificial lighting
  2. Hydro systems can get expensive
  3. Typically more work involved, (but not that much more).
The bottom line is, by learning hydroponic gardening, you’ll always have a way to grow food for you and your family even in limited space.
I’ll see you inside!

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