Hydroponic Basics

"Hydroponics allows for much more influence over the rooting environment than conventional practices"

Hydroponics is an agricultural technique used to grow plants without the use of soil. This is typically achieved by using a "water culture" or "media culture" method. Water culture is growing plants in only water, where the roots of a plant are either submerged in highly oxygenated nutrient solution or suspended into the air and sprayed with the nutrient solution. Media culture is growing plants while taking advantage of a hydroponic media like sphagnum, perlite, vermiculite, rockwool, expanded clay, or any other inert inorganic material in which the roots can anchor themselves. Hydroponics allows for much more influence over the rooting environment than conventional practices. Taking advantage of hydroponics allows for the direct manipulation of both nutrient concentrations and pH. This additional level of control ensures that hydroponic nutrient solutions are delivered directly to the roots and are taken up by the plant in the most efficient way possible. Excluding soil from the equation allows hydroponic growers to essentially eliminate many of the problems that plague conventional methods. For example, hydroponic growers don't need to worry about soil-borne pathogens and pests, leaving them free to focus on the other aspects of growing high-end crops to their maximum potential

"Benefits include higher yields and improved quality".

Hydroponics is often paired with Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA), which provides an optimized growing environment for crops in order to achieve the highest level of plant productivity. CEA uses hoop houses, greenhouses, growth chambers, and other structures in combination with computers and sensors to monitor the growing area and help provide ideal ranges in relative humidity, air temperature, lighting, and nutrient delivery that the plants experience. The structures keep out potentially harmful weather, providing pristine growing areas indoors.

Some of the benefits of using hydroponics include the utilization of non-arable land, isolation from diseases, pests, and weeds, high planting densities with high yields, and the improved quality of produce. Phototron has combined these agricultural success stories into an easy to use, plug-and-play system which is the ultimate growing system!