Hydroponics and Aeroponics Basics

Hey gang,

Hydroponics and Aeroponics interests you right?????

Well obviously it does or you wouldn't be reading this and wondering how to start up your very own hydroponics gardening system.

Well first things first. Have you read the section under the archive menu in the side bar called “ABOUT” ? If not, here is a little recap about me and my experience with horticulture and home gardening, together with why I have decided to create a hydroponics and aeroponics site.

My name is Sally Newman and I am currently working as a Hydroponics and Aeroponics consultant for agricultural and commercial use. In the beginnings when I first entered into the work force I started off working in many nurseries and landscaping supply shops gaining wide array of vital experience. As more and more people started to move into smaller homes and units, I found that a lot of people were coming to me and asking how they could enjoy gardening with very limited space. At the time people were thinking of nice simple planter boxes or pot plant style garden. The major problem people were having when they came to me was that they really didn't want to be buying and lugging around heaps of bags and pots full or dirty soil which was messing up their cars and houses.

This got me thinking………

I thought that if I suggested to people about having a hydroponics system or aeroponics system so that they could produce good quality homemade hydroponic plants that it would both save them the expense of buying bags and bags of soil, and it would be a lot cleaner too. The other benefit was that they could produce plants all year around no matter what type they were trying to grow. I thought that this was great.

Heavens behold that when I mentioned Hydroponics and aeroponics to the customers, most of their reactions were….. Isn’t hydroponics complicated and expensive???? And what the hell is aeroponics????

Once I had had a few people reacting to my comments like this I thought I better start educating people on how easy it is to set up either a hydroponics system or aeroponics system. And from there I have been continually been asked questions on all types of hydroponics so I when away and continued my education and specialized in hydroponics and aeroponics.

Now, let’s get into it……….

Hydroponics, I hear everyone saying, yes it is growing foods or plants in a water system where no soil is being use. Correct, but there is a little more to it than that to fully get a true grasp on the matter.

Now I’m hearing everyone say, well what the hell is aeroponics? In essence, it’s similar and or another form of hydroponics. Most aeroponics systems are set up in house hold home in the kitchen with lettuce and herbs growing. I will get into it further into this post. Now let’s get on with the basics of both.


Hydroponics
Hydroponics is a great way to grow nutritious health food and beautiful plants. I really don't want to bore you all with the whole textbook and dictionary side of this topic. Hydroponics is from the Greek words hydro which means water and ponos which means labour.

Hydroponic gardening is a method of such things as growing tomatoes and other foods and plants using mineral nutrient solutions without having to use soil. The plants my be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or they also can be placed in such things as sand, gravel or mineral wool.

There are two main types of hydroponics systems and they are;

1. Solution Culture
2. Medium Culture

Solution culture
Solution culture does not use any solid medium for the roots, and only uses nutrient solution to feed the plants and give the hydroponics system life. There are three main types of solution culture are;

1. Static Solution Culture
2. Continuous Flow Solution Culture
3. Aeroponics.

Medium Culture
The medium culture method has a solid medium for the roots and is named for the type of medium, e.g. sand culture, gravel culture or rockwool culture.

Throughout my career when advising people about what type of hydroponics systems they should chose, I have always recommended a solution culture system. The reason for this is because they use less equipment and are a lot cleaner and easier to maintain.

Later on in future post and articles I will post up in depth information about each of these types of hydroponics systems for growing your hydroponic gardens.

Bellow is a little introduction into each of the types of solution cultures.

Static solution culture
In static solution culture, plants are grown in containers of nutrient solution, such as glass Mason jars, plastic buckets, tubs or tanks. The solution is usually gently aerated but may be un aerated. If un aerated, the solution level is kept low enough that enough roots are above the solution so they get adequate oxygen. A hole is cut in the lid of the reservoir for each plant. There can be as many plants per reservoir as you would like to grow within reason as reservoir size can be increased as plant size increases.

Continuous flow solution culture
In continuous flow solution culture the nutrient solution constantly flows past the roots. It is much easier to automate than the static solution culture because sampling and adjustments to the temperature and nutrient concentrations can be made in a large storage tank that serves potentially thousands of plants

Aeroponics
Aeroponics systems are where roots are continuously in an environment saturated with fine drops of nutrient solution. This method requires no substrate and entails growing plants with their roots suspended in a deep air or growth chamber with the roots periodically wetted with a fine mist of atomized nutrients.

Wow wasn't that a long post… Ohh well, now you all now a little bit about my background and the very basics of hydroponics and aeroponics. Hope to hear from you all soon, and happy gardening this weekend.

Stay safe :-)

Contact

A BIG Warm Hello and Welcome to all you hydroponics and aeroponics enthusiasts,

I have created and designed this site as a blog so that if any of you have any questions regarding the content in this website, about the products that are mentioned, or just any questions at all, you can just post me a comment at the bottom of each article that I post. I will either answer the question individually to your email, or will reply to your question directly on the comments board so that everyone can benefit from the information.

I was thinking that even if you guys want to give my site (blog) some positive feedback, or you may have idea about how to improve the site in some way. I’d love to hear from you.

So go ahead and start posting your comments and queries and I will endeavor to reply to all messages as soon as possible.

Many thanks and I hope everyone benefits from the information that they get from this site.

Sally Newman
DIY Hydroponics and Aeroponics Systems

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About

My name is Sally Newman and I have decided to start up this blog called DIY Hydroponics and Aeroponics Systems. The reason behind setting up this blog is so that I could relay all my hydroponics and aeroponics industry experience with everyone on an easy and simple platform.

In the beginning of my career I started working at nurseries, gardening shops and commercial landscaping suppliers full time as an horticulturist and landscape adviser. Once I gained a lot of experience I branched off into a specialist area of hydroponics and started to advise commercial operations in how to set up the right and appropriate hydroponics systems to obtain the specific persons hydroponic growing needs.

Over the years, I have met and joined networks with a lot of amazing people in and out of the industry. One of my most passionate hobbies is home based organic hydroponic gardening. I have a lot of friends and neighbors (I don't mean to brag… jokes) that come to me and ask questions about hydroponic gardening and how to get there hydroponic gardens right to produce fresh high quality good tasting food. As I am really busy these days and can’t spend heaps of time going around to everyone’s place to advise them of what to do to start up hydroponics, or any other issues they might have with their hydroponics systems and aeroponics systems, I thought the next best thing to me going to see everyone individually would be to set up this blog so that everyone can contact me with their questions or problems.

From now on I will be posting information about hydroponics and aeroponics so that people interested in the topic can read and learn for themselves. (I am a big believer of not doing everything for people and letting them use there on initiatives to help themselves)
Feel free to contact me via the comments sections on the bottom of each post so that I can provide you with valuable feedback and information to help your hydroponic and aeroponic gardening needs.

Hope to hear from you all soon. Happy gardening and good luck with all your hydroponics and aeroponics in the future.

Sally Newman
DIY Hydroponics and Aeroponics Systems