Hydroponic Herb Garden

Is hydroponic for you or not? At first glance, it seems like a great way to produce healthy plants and avoid weather, pest and soil issues. There are, however, a few negative points that should be taken into consideration. Lets have a look at the pros and cons to weight before one commits to this method of gardening.

The Pros:

When compared to traditional methods of growing, hydroponic gardening can be more productive in two areas: First, you will save a lot of space and grow more plants since you can place the plants much closer to one another mostly because of the way nutrients are provided to the roots. The economy of space is more than considerable since you can grow up to 4 times more plants in the same area as you would if using soil.

A second positive point with hydroponics is that the method being soil-less, you eliminate the problems that are associated with it such as sick plants, damaged or even wasted crops.

The nutrient mix that is used can be customized to the grower’s needs and taste. This can be quite a strong point if, in certain conditions, the gardener has to compromise to be able to grow in the most favorable areas of the available space. Nutrient mix can be customized to the needs of any variety of herbs, with the proper ratio every time, no guessing!

Water consumption is another favorable factor to take into account. A hydroponic crop will consume 1/10th of the water needed to accommodate a similar soil-based garden. The water is also used more effectively to the exclusive needs of the plants. For instance, there is no weeds present to consume any of the water or the nutrients mixed through it.

Being grown in a contained environment, it is a very eco-friendly. It involves no pesticide or its run-off water damaging immediate and surrounding ground

Of course, with the absence of soil is also the non-existence of soil-based diseases. Based on these strong points, the hydroponic method is certainly a very efficient alternative to the traditional ways of growing healthy, flavorful herbs.

The Cons:

Sound quite good up to here, doesn’t it? Well as in all good things, comes a few quirks… Though great benefits are to be obtained with hydroponic growing, the costs can be quite hefty especially nutrient mixtures and growing mediums.

Another expense is electrical energy. Since hydroponic growing is most often done in an interior or greenhouse environment, a sizable quantity of light is needed by the growing plants.

It is a rather sad situation to consider the financial barrier that keeps this food producing marvel to be made available in areas that would it need it most. But research is addressing these problems and progress is being made, of course new technologies are eagerly awaited.

This pretty much sums up the weighting of hydroponic herb gardening, if this is right for you is up to you of course. If you would like more on hydroponic or herd gardening information in general, follow the links at the bottom of the page.

Eustache Davenport is a gardening enthusiast and author. He lives in Montreal and enjoy teaching his gardening secrets to work groups on how to setup, optimize and maintain an amazing herb garden. For more great tips and information on hydroponic herb gardening, visit http://www.herbgardeningonlineguide.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Eustache_Davenport

Growing a blueberry tree.  How cool is that?!

Sounds too intense for me but I love the idea of fresh blueberries.  In this video they start off small, I wonder how long the plant could stay indoors if its too cold outside?

From solar4you on youtube.  “This is the first part of the Education series. We are putting together a single bucket hydroponic system that we bought through www.solarhydrogencycle.com.”

I’ve been debating on buying a hyrdoponic herb garden system like AeroGarden or making a homemade hydroponic garden.

I think the system is easier. Why? All the guess work is taken out of it. Follow the instructions, plant the seeds, plug it in and you are pretty much done.

Just keep the lights on as instructed, monitor the flow of water, add nutrients and that’s it.

A homemade hyrdoponic herb garden, though simple to put together – requires putting it together. That’s a little to intensive for me. Plus I would have be really careful about mold settling in unwanted places, getting the amount of water and nutrients just right, and it being a general eyesore in my kitchen.

I just couldn’t put something together as nice as this.   This is the AeroGarden 2101-00B Classic Garden 7-Pod With Gourmet Herb Seed Kit – Black (See all Plant Germination Kits.  It’s sold on Amazon and the link above will take you there.

Ah what nutrients to give your sweet herb darlings in your hydro garden? A good organic plant tea is highly recommended.

Here’s what is in it:

Alfalfa Extract – Alfalfa is the base of the highest quality organic plant teas because it contains high amounts of Triacontanol. This compound can help stimulate rapid growth in a number of ways.

Citric acid- he same stuff you can find in oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits, is a completely organic way to decrease the pH of your nutrient solution and ensure optimal uptake of nutrients.

Kelp- Nutrients derived from kelp can help your plants grow dramatically and provide some the biggest yields you can get with hydro-organic growing

Canola Meal – functions very well in an organic plant tea because it breaks down very easily, which makes more of the nutrients available to the plant.

Here’s a good source on nutrient info: http://www.advancednutrients.com/articles.php?articleID=95

One tea that is on the market is Mother Earth Super Tea found here.

So remember to feed theherbs in your hydroponic garden their regular dose of nutrients.

Getting starting with your hydroponic herb can be incredibly easy. Like this article I read (see below), getting a garden started can be done with products you have around the house already.

Well – almost.

Here’s the list of necessities:
14 Gallon Rubbermaid Tub – make sure it’s opaque.

If light gets through, you’ll have algae problems. Something like $6.

Air stones – these are the bubblers for aquariums. I used 3 big round ones. $3 each.

A valve for the 3 air stones. About $4.

An aquarium air pump. I already had an extra one of these. However, they’re cheap too.

Air tubing. Another $4. 6 Net baskets – I ordered these from Hydro Harry’s a few weeks before I actually built this.

Rockwool – Also ordered from Hydro Harry’s

Nutrient. This stuff gets mixed 3 teaspoons per gallon to make the nutrient bath.

Basically, the plants sit in plastic baskets filled with rockwool (an inert, lightweight material that holds onto moisture). Those are suspended just barely into a solution of water and a whole pile of nutrients. At the bottom of the nutrient broth are airstones (from aquariums) that pump oxygen into the nutrient bath and the roots of the plants. This gives the plant roots all that they need: nutrients, water and oxygen.

For your own hydroponic herb garden – the hardest decision may be where to put it.

Thanks to