Simply put, hydroponic gardening is planting a garden without even using soil.
As opposed to conventional gardening, the plants are put in growth containers and are supplied the proper and needed nutrients for them to grow.
Hydroponic gardening is well practiced these days especially in Japan, where land for planting crops is extremely limited.
There were a lot of people during the early years of implementation that were quite surprised to know that plants can actually grow without the aid of soil, many people were even quite sceptical if the process actually worked.
However, hydroponic gardening has now gained popularity because of the amount of soil pollution these days, not to mention the fact that much of the former farmland has now been transformed into subdivisions, shopping malls and golf courses.
In truth, plants are able to grow up to fifty percent more when grown using hydroponics as compared to the conventional soil gardening.
This is because plants use up a lot of energy for its roots to burrow deeper into the soil to get more nutrients.
In hydroponic gardening, the nutrients are fed directly into the plant roots so the plant can put more energy toward developing the produce.
Hydroponic gardening certainly has a lot of different benefits.
One is that, since there is no soil needed, water can be conserved in great amounts, since the nutrients are fed to the roots in its concentrated form.
Another is that all the nutrients and water that is used can be recycled.
Hydroponics only uses a little over ten percent of the actual amount of water that is needed to grow a conventional garden.
In addition, with the increasing decline of farmable land where crops can be grown, hydroponics will only require one fifth of the size of the land area used in conventional gardening to produce the same amount of crops in an entire season.
Although the cost of hydroponic gardening is somewhat a concern for many farmers, growing crops this way is a great option for homeowners and even those who live in small areas.
It is possible for people to grow much of their own produce by using hydroponics techniques.
You can find great books at your local library as well as a lot of valuable information online to help set up a hydroponic garden of your own.
Growing your own produce is very rewarding.
It is a wonderful feeling to know you are in control of your food from start to finish!