What Is Hydroponics?

In Latin, the word hydroponics means literally "water working."
Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants in either a bath or flow of highly oxygenated, nutrient enriched water.

In soil, biological decomposition breaks down organic matter into the basic nutrient salts that plants feed on. Water dissolves these salts and allows uptake by the roots. For a plant to receive a well balanced diet, everything in the soil must be in perfect balance. Rarely, if ever, can you find such ideal conditions in soil due to the lack of organic matter left behind on the surface, contamination and biological imbalances.

With hydroponics, water is enriched with these very same nutrient salts, creating a hydroponic nutrient solution that is perfectly balanced. And since this hydroponic nutrient solution is contained, it does not harm our environment as does runoff from fertilized soil. Additionally, very little water is lost to evaporation in a hydroponic system, owing to its application in drought stricken areas.

To support the plants in a hydroponic system, an inert soil-free medium like fiber, sand or stone, may be used to anchor the roots. These hydroponic mediums are designed to be very porous for excellent retention of air and water that's necessary for a healthy plant - roots need to breathe too!

In addition to a perfectly balanced diet, hydroponic plants have their food and water delivered directly to their roots. This way, the energy normally used to develop long roots can be redirected to growing more plant, which is a great benefit indeed! With the proper exposure to natural sunlight or supplemental grow lights, your hydroponic plants .
by http://www.howtohydroponics.com/

WaterFarm Hydroponic System

The WaterFarm is a traditional drip type hydroponics system. The WaterFarm is constructed of high impact plastic to assure long lasting performance indoors and out. The square design makes for efficiency when packing many WaterFarms close together, many gardeners will enjoy this optimized use of space. This system will help you save some money without sacrificing quality or performance. The WaterFarm's dimensions are 10"x10"x15" with a reservoir capacity of 2.5 gallons. The WaterFarm Complete comes with the reservoir, growing container, air pump, pumping column, grow rocks, and bottles of nutrient.



WaterFarm Hydroponic System

Multi Flow Hydroponic Systems

The original Multi Flow Hydroponic System, manufactured by Greentrees Hydroponics since 1992.

We have made many different products over the years, but nothing has come close to the success of our Multi Flow Indoor Hydroponic System.

The Multi Flow system has individual containers for each plant that can be placed close together for small plants and farther apart for larger plants. Moving plants is simple just lift out the inner pot and set it at a new site. No drippers to fool with because the Multi Flow is a bottom feed, ebb and flow system. The pumps fill and drain the pots a few times each day for even watering. Hydroponic gardening at it's best! Multi Flow 12 Pot Systems come with 2 Bags of Hydroton growing medium, Built in Timer, 55 Gallon Reservoir, Level controller, 12 Pots, Tubing and Pumps. A 1000 watt grow light is recommended for a 12 pot system.

by http://www.hydroponics.net/

Hydroponics growing media (Coconut Fiber)

Coconut fiber is rapidly becoming one of the most popular growing mediums in the world. In fact it may soon be THE most popular. It is the first totally "organic" growing medium that offers top performance in hydroponic systems. Coconut fiber is essentially a waste product of the coconut industry, it is the powdered husks of the coconut itself.
There are many advantages - it maintains a larger oxygen capacity than rockwool, yet also has superior water holding ability than rockwool which is a real advantage for hydroponic systems that have intermittent watering cycles.
Coconut fiber is also high in root stimulating hormones and offers some protection against root diseases including fungus infestation. Dutch growers have found that a mixture of 50% coconut fiber and 50% expanded clay pellets is the perfect growing medium.
One word of caution about coconut fiber, you must be careful when you purchase coconut fiber. There is a commonly available, lower grade of coconut fiber that is high in sea-salt and is very fine grained. This lower grade coconut fiber will lead to disappointing results when used in a hydroponic system.

Hydroponics growing media (Perlite)

Good old perlite! It's been around for years, mainly for use as a soil additive to increase aeration and draining of the soil. Perlite is a mined material, a form of volcanic glass that when rapidly heated to more than 1600 deg. f. it pops much like popcorn as the water vaporizes and makes countless tiny bubbles.
Perlite is one of the best hydroponic growing mediums around. Used by itself or as a mixture with other mediums. Perlite is commonly used with vermiculite ( a 50 - 50 mix is a very popular medium), and is also one of the major ingredients of soiless mix's. perlite has good wicking action which makes it a good choice for wick-type hydroponic systems. Perlite is also relatively inexpensive.
The biggest drawback to perlite is that it doesn't retain water well which means that it will dry out quickly between waterings. The dust from perlite is bad for your health so you should wear a dust mask when handling it.

Hydroponics growing media (Vermiculite)

Vermiculite is another mined material. In it's natural state it resembles mica rock, but when quickly heated it expands due to the generation of interlaminar steam.
Vermiculite is most frequently used in conjunction with perlite as the two complement each other well. Vermiculite retains moisture (about 200% - 300% by weight), and perlite doesn't so you can balance your growing medium so that it retains water and nutrients well but still supplies the roots with plenty of oxygen. A 50/50 mix of vermiculite and perlite is a very popular medium for drip type hydroponic systems as well as ebb and flow systems. Vermiculite is inexpensive.
The major drawback of vermiculite is that it retains too much water to be used by itself. It can suffocate the roots of plants if used straight.

Growing media (Rockwool)

Rockwool is a horticultural growing media made from the natural ingredients Basalt rock and Chalk. These are then melted at 1600° C into a lava which is blown into a large spinning chamber, which pulls the lava into fibers like "cotton candy." If you have ever visited a volcano you have probably seen these fibers flying around in the air surrounding the volcano. Once the fibers are spun they are then compressed into a mat which is then cut into slabs and cubes. The rockwool granulates are just bales of uncompressed fibers. The process is very efficient, producing 37 cubic foot of wool from 1 cubic foot of rocks. Since rockwool is born in fire it renders the product chemically and biologically inert and creates the ideal growing medium for hydroponics. Since its development in Denmark in the early 1970's, rockwool has become the major vegetable and flower production medium throughout Europe and North America.

Horticultural Rockwool growing media is primarily available in two general formats. First, as rigid slabs, blocks, and cubes known as "bonded" products because the fibers are held together with a "gluing" or binding agent which renders them stiff and brittle. This is the primary format for the vegetable and cut flower industries. Secondly, rockwool is available as a highly refined and consistent hydrophilic or hydrophobic granulate which is basically water absorbent or water repellent. This format can be used as a component in various peat moss based soilless media or for ground bed incorporation to improve the tilth of heavy clay or light sandy soils.