Are you into gardening? Do you want to beautify your home and at the same time develop a hobby? You definitely have heard about hydroponic herb gardening or perhaps some of your friends and neighbors have been trying it out for quite a while now. Since you find such a rewarding hobby, you too become interested in it. You begin to wonder about how you can do it and what requirements there are for you to consider.
Hydroponics Defined
As defined, hydroponics is the technique of growing plants less the use of soil. Instead, an inert medium is utilized which therefore accommodates a nutrient solution that bears all of the essential elements which are essential in the normal progression of the plant.
What You will Need for Hydroponic Gardening
For your herb garden set up using the hydroponic method, you will have to prepare the following materials:
A germination tray, closed tube, or seedbed
Either artificial or natural light
The base that may be stone, gravel, or coconut fiber
The seeds and
The nutrients
Though some gardeners prefer to make the addition of air pump oxygen into the nutrients, it doesn't actually fall as a requirement in many cases. You can start your garden as soon as you have gathered the materials.
What to do for Herb Gardening the Hydroponic Way
What are you to do so you can push through with your plans of gardening without the use of soil? Here are a couple of steps to take note of.
Think of the kind of bed that you intend to use. It is best to start out using the medium sized tray so that the roots will be sustained well.
Put in another layer of the coconut fiber that will serve as a support. Don't put any of the nutrients yet. Be sure to have some opened channels where you will place the seeds. As soon as you have them embedded therein, be sure to close the channels.
As soon as you have planted the seeds, water the tray until it is wet.
Gauge the frequency of the adding of the nutrients. Basically, you need to regulate the PH balance which will aid in the plant's proper absorption of nutrients.
Place the tray in a location where it can get enough light.
The Advantages of Hydroponic Herb Garden
Here are the following benefits that you may get out of gardening using the method of hydroponic.
It lets the roots become moisturized all the time.
It doesn't give you the problem of over-irrigation.
It lessens chances of wasting water and fertilizer.
It doesn't give you the problems with diseases as caused by pathogenic soils.
It allows more plant production despite the weather.
Furthermore, hydroponic herb gardening allows you to produce the plants though they are out of season in the greenhouses without having to worry about the use of soil, parasites, weeding, or the unpredictable weather conditions. With it, you don't need to worry much about raising the plants that you want all year round.
