Grow fruits with hydroponic gardening
Growing fruits all year round is no longer a dream with hydroponic gardening. With the use of water, nutrient solutions and grow light you can now grow your own fresh fruits without have to worry about season, poor weather and soil condition. Hydroponic allows you to grow plants without using any soil at all, and this makes indoor garden possible.
However not all fruits are suitable for hydroponic growing. Certain fruits or plants will only thrive in dry condition, and this makes it impossible to grow with hydroponic gardening where plants grown mainly in the medium of water. Water-loving fruits like watermelons and cantaloupe are good choice for hydroponic growing. Melons in general are types of fruits that can grow pretty well with hydroponic method as they love water and can easily adapt to the circumstance.
Hydroponic System: Nutrient Film Technique (N.F.T)
In N.F.T hydroponic system, plants are grown in a tray separate from the nutrient reservoir. The growing tray is set up in such a way that one end is lower than the other end to aid the flow of water and nutrient.
Plants grown with N.F.T hydroponic system are supplied with constant flow of nutrient solution to the higher end of the growing tray. Therefore timer is not required to schedule for the supply of nutrient solution. The nutrient solution at the higher end of the tray will flow through the root zone of the plants and the excess of hydroponic nutrients will then be drained back to the reservoir.
The Drip Hydroponic Growing System
Drip hydroponic system is widely used in commercial growing for crops like tomatoes and peppers. In a Drip system, plants are grown in a growing tray separate from the nutrient reservoir. A pump is submerged in the nutrient reservoir to push the nutrient solution to feed the plants via small tubes from the top. Nutrient solution that is dripped onto the base of each plant will slowly seep through the growing medium and then reach to the root zone. A timer is used to control the pump for the watering cycles.
In a Recovery Drip System, overflow of the nutrients will be collected back into the reservoir for reuse. The Non-Recovery Drip System does not collect the excess of nutrient solution. Therefore it is crucial to use a more precise timer to control the watering cycles to minimize the waste of runoff while nourish the plants with adequate hydroponic nutrients.