Hydroponics equipment is required to start a hydroponic garden. Unlike the traditional approach to gardening, the hydroponics which in Greek terminology means water for hydro and labor for ponic, does not use soil for planting.
The plants thrive by supplying the essential nutrients through a solution channeled through a medium.
Depending on the type of system used in hydroponics, not all equipment is necessary. Also, some equipment varies.
However, in most cases, hydroponics equipment includes the growing tray, plant pots, growing medium, support, reservoir, drains, water pump, timer, plastic tubing, and grow lights.
Growing Tray
Hydroponic trays are platforms where plants are the garden in built. They are available in different sizes and colors.
Plant Pots
Also known as containers, the pots make it easy to hold plants. The choices are wide in terms of shapes, color, size, and materials. Among others, there plant pots made of net baskets, smart pots, and grow bags. There are also those with mesh-bottom.
Growing Medium
Growing mediums or grow rocks are normally used in most hydroponics gardening, except in the ebb and flow system. Some of the growing medium, where plants are grown include the oasis cubes, coconut fiber, perlite, vermiculite, expanded clay pellets, air, rockwool, gravel, water, lava rock, saw dust, fiberglass insulation, sand, and sphagnum moss.
Support
The support system refers to the support given to the tray. It is suspended above the reservoir. The setup of hydroponics decides which support is ideal like a milk tray or customized support. In deciding the support system, it is best to consider the weight of the water and nutrients as well as the plants especially when they mature in time.
Reservoir
A reservoir is any large plastic container where the nutrient solution is stored.
Drains
In hydroponics gardening, two drains are needed?one for draining the water nutrient back into the reservoir, and another for overflowing into the growing tray. Generally, growing pipes are made of plastic to avoid rusting. They also come in varied sizes to fit the requirements of hydroponic gardening.
Water Pump
The water pump, as part of hydroponics equipment should be considered wisely. The size should be able to deliver the hydroponic system requirements. To know the appropriate size, a consideration of amount of water and distance is vital.
Timers
Depending on the needs of the grower, timers can have a single time schedule or several. For advanced level of hydroponics gardening, larger and sophisticated times are suitable as it can deliver the needed frequency.
Plastic Tubing
To prevent algae build-up, the tubing must be transparent. This enables the grower to monitor activities in hydroponics and existence of other organism.
Grow Lights
In order to synthesize foods, grow lights are the best alternative to sunlight as hydroponic gardening is generally an indoor garden system. The variety of grow lights available is to ensure efficiency in crop harvest.
Hydroponics gardening seems to be the ultimate choice in farming crops. It benefits the environment and enables the grower to have higher amount of harvested crops.
Similar Posts
_________________________________________________________________
Top of Hydroponics Equipment
Listed under Hydroponics Gardening
No comments:
Post a Comment