Do you want to turn your yard , back garden or even just a corner of your kitchen into a hydroponic garden ? bang-up melodic theme . The point is that there is n’t one hydroponic system .
Hydroponics is a vast field , with many unlike scientific and technological solvent , each with its oddment , each with its advantage and disadvantages .
This is why we need to see different types of hydroponic system all in point , because take the right one for you could make the divergence between a successful garden and a happy nurseryman and , well , a less sweet experience .
What are the types of hydroponics system ?
There are seven type of aquicultural systems : the Kratky method , inscrutable water culture ( DWC ) , wick system , ebb and rate of flow ( or overflow and drainpipe ) , nutrient plastic film technique ( NFT if you care acronyms ) , drip organization and aeroponics .
These organization also vary in complexity , the simplest being the Kratky method while most the great unwashed regard aeroponics as the most advanced . Still , without further ado , here are all the hydroponic system in detail .
Types of Hydroponic Systems And How They Work
1. The Kratky method Of Hydroponics
This is a very rudimentary organization , so much so that it is outdated and only used by amateur who need to dip their feet into hydroponics or just for fun .
Still , it gives the idea of the central principle of aquiculture : all you want is a jar or tankful and the alimentary solution . You will put your flora or plants with the areal part out of the root and the stem dip into it .
It ’s that simple . You will only involve to make certain that the stem and leaves are out of the nutrient solvent , and for this you could habituate a grid , a mesh pot , or even the shape itself of the container . A bare vase with a narrow-minded neck will do the task perfectly well .
You must have see sweet potatoes rise in vessel ; that ’s the Kratky method for you .
Note that some people do not even apply a nutritious solution , but simple water .
This System Has Some Great Advantages:
Still, It Has Some Disadvantages That Determine And Limit Its Use.
So , this is a very amateur method acting ; okay if you want to have a little decorative works in a beautiful vase on your table , but not if you want a true source of food and even less if you require to go professional .
On this note , there is presently a trend to transfer epiphytic orchidaceous plant to this method acting , as they are naturally fit to living without filth .
2.Deep water culture
This is the “ mother of all hydroponic system ” , the most classical , even historical method acting we have . However , it is not a favored with aquacultural gardeners , and we will see why in a moment . It is passably simple and a “ step up ” from the Kratky method acting .
It is based on a tank ( call a grow storage tank ) where you have the nutrient solution and at least an air ticker to cater atomic number 8 to the rootage .
This is at its simple . Having an air travel pump provide you to produce more plants and more successfully with a individual grow army tank .
However , the basic model is seldom ever used . unremarkably , gardeners prefer to have two tanks and two pump :
The Deep Water Culture (DWC) Has Some Advantages:
Still, It Is Far From Perfect:
There are two more things to say about DWC . you may improve aeration with a very porous and soggy produce medium ; however , because the answer is dead , this will tend to become an ideal home for alga and bacterium .
ultimately , the Kratky method acting is often regarded as a rudimental deep water culture system , so some multitude classify within it .
While it can be used for large gardens , it does give you some control condition over the feeding and aeration of your plants , rich water culture is currently falling out of luck with professional gardeners because of its many disadvantages .
3.The wick system
I care this method ; it is simple but ingenuous . It is not the best hydroponic organisation by any means , but what I wish is that it lick many problem of deep water cultivation with a very mere and punk solution : a taper .
Simple . No water pump and , if you really want , you may employ an air pump for extra aeration .
How does it work though?
You will only dip the wick into the reservoir ( verify they get to the bottom ) and put the other end into the grow tank .
Add some solvent to the grow armoured combat vehicle so that the tips of the wicks are in it ; fill the tank with the produce medium and plant your beloved lettuce or flower …
What happens next ?
Nature and physics will do all the rest period : because of a phenomenon called capillary military action , which plants also use to move weewee within their bodies , the nutrient solution will slowly but regularly and constantly spread from where there is more to where there is less . Just like it does in a parazoan .
This means that as the roots immerse the solution , the tip of the wick will naturally absorb it from the source .
A flake like a plant will soak up nutrient and water from the soil according to how “ thirsty and hungry ” it is , so will it in a wick system .
But there is another “ trick ” that cause this system very commodious and artless … you could put the grow tank car above the reservoir and place a jam in the bottom ; this way , the excess answer will not stay in the grow storage tank , causing stagnancy and possible infection , but it will be recycle very simply and efficiently back into the artificial lake .
This Method Has Some Obvious Advantages:
Even This Method, Though, Is Far From Perfect:
4. Ebb and flow (or flood and drain)
By now you must have seen that the key problem that hydro ice has faced in its evolution has not been how to bring food and water to the works , but how to provide oxygen and aeration . The first solution came with the ebbing and menses organization .
The principle is to irrigate the roots regularly and for short geological period of time . This room , they will not be in water continuously but have the clip to breathe , without drying up completely .
Of course you’re able to also apply a grow culture medium with ebb and flow rate ; actually it is advisable , but your garden will still put to work without . We ’ll see what it implies in a moment .
How does it work ? Put simply , you will expend your man-made lake to ruffle in the ingredients , then , the timer will tell the pump when to send the solution to the grow tank and when to enfeeble it .
This way the root will be useable on a regular basis but in between the irritations the plants will “ have their metrical foot dry ” .
Here , however , is the big point : how to set the irrigation time ?
This is the key skill you will demand for an reflux and flow scheme . You will irrigate , in fact in cycles . A cycle has two phases : an irrigation phase and a dry phase .
Usually there is one irrigation phase of 10 - 15 arcminute every two hours of day . As you may see , most of the sentence ticker will be switched off .
To be precise , the minimum irrigation phase angle is usually 5 minutes but for most gardens you will need retentive time .
What is more , we said , “ Every two hour of daytime ; ” this include any time where you have light on ( raise lights ) .
You see , plant do not require as much nutrition and pee when they do not photosynthesize . If there is no light , their metabolic process changes .
So , the number of rhythm per day count on the bit of ( solar day ) low-cal minute you plants get ; on average , this is between 9 and 16 cycles a day .
It all bet on the climate , the temperature , atmospherical humidness , as well as on the eccentric of craw you are grow .
“ How about at night , ” you may ask ?
In most cases you will keep your system at rest during the dark . However , if it is very blistering and dry , you may need one or two nighttime irritations .
Finally , if you utilise a growing medium , this will obligate the nutrient solvent for longer and then release it slowly to the roots of your industrial plant ; so , you may have fewer temper and at longer spans .
However , the irrigation time itself should be a bit longer ( about one moment ) , because the growing mass medium takes some time to soak with the solution .
Advantages Of Ebb And Flow System
Now you acknowledge all the basics of the ebb and flow organisation , let ’s reckon at its reward :
Disadvantages Of Ebb And Flow System
On the other deal this scheme is not a favorite with amateur and people who are novel to hydroponics for ripe reason :
On the whole , I would only indicate the flood and drainage organization to experts and professionals . It is not really suitable for you if you need an easy to see and run system , a very meretricious one or one you’re able to run at a very down in the mouth price .
5.Nutrient film technique
In the crusade to regain a solution to the trouble of aeration , researcher have developed yet another organisation , NFT , or nutrient film technique .
With NFT , you will only offer a thin layer ( a “ film ” , in fact ) of solution at the bottom of a moderately recondite tank . By doing this , the dispirited part of the roots will receive nutrition and water , while the upper part will breathe .
When this proficiency was developed , researchers chance on that plants adapt to it by growing source that reach the flick and then spread horizontally .
So , do n’t worry if your roots bet a bit like a swab pressed against the floor ; they are signify to be like that .
The important technical lineament of this proficiency is that the grow tank needs to have a slight angle ; it is not perfectly horizontal .
In fact , the nutrient resolution will enter the grow tank on one side and flow down a gentle side to a point where it is then collected and reprocess .
It is a matter of a few degree , as you do n’t require your root to stagnate but you do n’t need it to run off too fast either .
To Set Up A NFT System, You Will Need
The components you need are very similar to the 1 you will need for DWC :
It is passably simple . The main technical job is the inclination of the grow tank , which is resolved quickly by buy a kit .
If you require to set up one yourself , maybe tailored to your space and needs , however , the idealistic inclination is 1:100 .
This mean that you want to go down an inch or centimeter every 100 column inch or centimeters . The angle is 0.573 degree if you prefer this way of measuring .
But how about the growing medium ? Most hydroponic gardeners favor not to expend a growing medium with nutrient film proficiency . There are some practical reasonableness for this :
This System Has Some Advantages:
There Are, However, Also Some Disadvantages:
Thus , this technique solves the problem of aeration and it is skillful if you want to farm folio vegetables , if you are concerned about solution wellness and if you want to use little water and nutritious solvent ; on the other manus , it is not suitable for many plant and it may have some “ glitch ” that can be pretty troublesome .
6.Drip system
The drip system offers an first-class solution to the “ big problem ” : aeration . At the same time , it also render constant nutrition and watering with a jolly dim-witted concept : expend pipes and hoses and a grow medium .
It is very much linked to dribble irrigation in soil gardening , which is becoming very democratic and is now basically the norm in raging and dry countries , where you will see long organ pipe and hoses used to irrigate crop , hold open water and preventing evaporation .
This system was developed thanks to formative organ pipe and hoses ; these are flexible and bum , and they have made drip irrigation and the hydroponic drip system potential .
It is soft to understand how it works : you apply pipes and hoses to bring in the nourishing solution from a reservoir and send it to each single works .
Then you drip it or dust it on the produce metier which will release it tardily .
This also allows the homogeneous statistical distribution of nutritive root . The advantages , specially if you desire your crop to be uniform , are evident .
But What Will You Need For A Drip System?
There are two machine-accessible areas of expertise you will need to develop : the farm medium and irrigation ( cycles ) . Let me explain .
With this system the option of grow medium is underlying ; each has dissimilar property , advantage and disadvantages .
What is more , the option of produce medium also affects how and how often you will irrigate your plant .
This of grade also depends on the craw , climate and even the blank space where you raise you works . However , how long the metier can hold on to the food is a key broker to take into thoughtfulness .
you could range from uninterrupted irrigation , where you will dribble temperate quantity of the root to your plant uninterruptedly to long irrigation cycles .
For representative , you may employ uninterrupted irrigation if your growing culture medium is aquacultural expanded clay ; on the other hand , with stone wool you will irrigate every 3 to 5 hours .
You will soon get the idea of how to mold the irrigation cycles for your own organisation . It will need , however , some run and error because no garden is the same .
Well Then, Let’s Look At The Advantages:
Even This System Has Some Small Disadvantages Though:
Before moving to the next system , I would like to mention a variation of the drip mold system : the Dutch bucket system .
With this system you grow plant in individual buckets , most often with a hat and of dark color , as this prevent alga increment .
The hoses go to each bucket and you could have “ individual gardens ” and , what is more significant , microclimatesfor each industrial plant . This is by far the best solution for orotund plants , like yield trees .
Just by modify the spring up medium ( mixture ) you’re able to obtain different figure of nutrient resolution exit , for example , and suit them to your individual plants .
Similarly , you could exchange the irrigation with the size of the hoses , with sprinkler and dropper etc .
If I may give you my personal opinion , the drip system is my favorite by far . It is childlike , tawdry , pliable and somewhat simple to manage .
What is more , it give sodding aeration and full control on the irrigation of each plant .
Given the pocket-size disadvantage it has , if I were ask which organisation I would generally hint above all , it would be the drip system .
7.Aeroponics
Aeroponics is possibly the aquicultural method acting that face most advanced , high - technical school and futuristic .
However , this too has been around for quite some clock time , as the full term was coined by F. W. Went in 1957 . What is more , it too was develop to solve the “ bighearted question ” : how to aerate the roots of plants efficaciously .
While it looks like something out for a science fiction picture , the concept is quite mere : use a system of pipe to send pressurized nutrient root to the plants .
When this pass through the nozzles it is spray to the roots in the form of droplets .
This imply that the roots will receive moisture and nutrients but also be able to breathe freely .
However , as a effect of this , you will need to keep the roots of the flora in an enclosed blank space , which is called anaeroponics chamber , and you will stick in them into it through holes with flexible gum elastic collars . These are just technological solutions to a unproblematic but effective construct .
With aeroponics , you will water for very short times and very frequently . The exact frequency of a cycle will depend on the character of crop and on the climate , but it will also depend on how much pressure you use in your system .
In fact , there are two pressure systems used in aeroponics : LPA ( low pressure level system ) and HPA ( eminent pressure system ) .
With HPA , you have irrigation cycles that can be as short as 5 seconds every 5 minutes . This should give you an idea of the difference with ebb and flow or drop irrigation hydroponics .
Of course , you will also need to use a proficient pump , but what is more , you will take to refer not just to the capacitance of the pump ( how many gallons per 60 minutes it can agitate , or GPH ) , but to its pressure magnate , which is evaluate in pounds per substantial column inch ( PSI ) .
Finally , youcannot use a growing medium with aeroponics;this is out of the question .
The reason is simple : you ca n’t well spray the root of your plant with the nutritious solution if you have solid matter between the beak and the roots …
Having said this , research and experience have shown that even deep root vegetables grow well with aeroponics .
Aeroponics gardens can be of unlike shapes , but a very pop one is that of a triangular prism with the two trigon as side and one of the rectangles as the base .
Here you will find that the nozzles are usually on two tier along the two rectangular position , a stage set high up and then a lower words . This allows you to irrigate the roots from different angle .
Things You Need To Setup Your Own Aeroponics System
Most people will order to buy an aeroponics outfit , but if you want to build your own , here is what you need :
mark that you will not ask an air ticker ; the roots are perfectly aerated and even the droplets oxygenise when sprayed.
Aeroponics Has Quite A Few Advantages:
Having Said This, Not Even Aeroponics Is Perfect:
Aeroponics , on the other bridge player , is very promising from the point of view of conception .
We now talk about “ fogponics ” for example ; this is a developing of aeroponics where the alimental root is turn into a very thin mist and sprayed .
Aeroponics is certainly very appealing if you care geld sharpness technology ; it has the great vantage over other aquicultural methods of have down H2O and nutrient consumption and high issue at the same meter .
On the other manus , it is only suitable for indoor or nursery gardens and it heavy depends on the force supplying .
So many types of hydroponics… A difficult choice
As you could see , there are a lot of different hydroponic systems , each with its “ identity element and personality ” ; we go from the simple Kratky method that would expect great in an art art gallery or museum , to the ingenious but very rude taper system of rules to aeroponics , to the one you would expect to encounter on a blank space ship …
It goes from the jug with a perfumed spud shoal children grow on the window sill of their schoolroom as a science experiment to the research laboratory and garden of the International Space Station .
What is more , each type has branched off into a serial of random variable ; so , the Dutch bucket organization is a “ sub sector ” of the dribble method , for example , and fogponics is “ misty ” form of aeroponics …
If on the one deal this may look daunting at first , now you bed all the detail of each system , as well as the pros and cons , you could look at it from another perspective …
you may now look at these many method as different option and solutions , as a series of possibilities and system that you may choose from .
So , now , start with what you need;think about your space , what crops you need , how technologically disposed you are , if you have a tidy sum of time or you prefer an “ easy life ” etc …
Then , go through the different methods again , and I am sure that you will find the one that makes for you !
spell By
After many years as an academician in London , Adriano Bulla became a writer , write books like A History of Gardening , Organic Gardening and Elements of Garden Design ; he then decided to become a gardener , following his puerility dream , and has been follow his ambition piece of writing and gardening professionally in Southern Europe , where he has specialized in novel and innovational organic horticulture champaign and proficiency , like permaculture , regenerative agriculture , nutrient forests and hydroponics .
