This article talks about Hydroponics, an interesting method of cultivating plants without using soil. The article starts by giving a description of Hydroponics, a brief historical background and past usage, and ends on discussing the advantages and disadvantages of using the Hyroponics way of growing plants.

1. Hydroponics
Abstract: This article introduces the concept of hydroponics, starting with a description, going
to it various methods, and finally stating its advantages and draw backs.
Hydroponics has evolved as a tremendously successful breakthrough for plant growers, who can
cultivate food, grain, fruits, plants, and flowers with much more ease and much less expense!
The term Hydroponics comes from the Greek language, where hydro means water and ponos
means labor. It was realized long ago by researchers that plants take in the essential mineral
nutrients for their growth in the form of inorganic ion in water, and that soil merely serves as a
reservoir for the mineral nutrition solution. Hence was born the idea of hydroponics, which is a
means of growing plants through mineral nutrient solutions and there is no use of soil. The
mineral nutrition is dissolved in water and supplied to the plants roots through artificial means
instead of soil. Examples of such ‘grow media’ used in hydroponics include gravel, mineral
wool, perlite, and coconut husk. It may be noted that in some of the various methods of
hydroponics, growing media is not even required, and the mineral solution is provided directly
to the roots of the plants.
Hydroponics, as indicated above can be conducted using several different methods. The
simplest of these is what is known as Passive Hydroponics, in which a plant is placed in
container with growing medium that stands in the tray of the nutrient solution. The water and
nutrients are supplied to the plant roots through capillary action.
Other prominent hydroponics systems include the Flood and Drain (also known as Ebb and
Flow), drip feeding, wick feeding, raft cultivation, Nutrient Film Technique (NFT), Deep Water
Culture, and Aeroponics.
As stated at the beginning of this article, Hydroponics has proven to be a magnificent
breakthrough in the world of gardening and plant growing. In fact, the ease and efficiency of the
various hydroponics processes has lured even those people to pursue it as a hobby, something
which perhaps would not have been interested in with conventional soil based gardening.
But as with anything, it would be worthwhile to take stock both the merits and demerits of this
rather radical way of plant cultivation. Discussed below are the advantages and disadvantages
associated with hydroponics.
Advantages:
• With hydroponics, plant cultivation entails much less space and time, compared to the
traditional ways of soil based cultivation
• There is an increased efficiency in the use of labor and garden maintenance
• Cost efficiency is a prominent feature of hydroponics since there is significant water
conservation and the plant nutrients are reusable or recyclable.
• Owing to the fact in hydroponics, no soil is used, there is a significant decrease in pests,
weeds, and plant borne disease

2. • Hydroponics also enables a plant grower to exercise greater control over the growing
environment, since temperature, humidity, and lights can be easily adjusted to provide
adequate benefits
• Finally, it has been proven that with hydroponics, there are considerably higher and
richer plant yields, than there are in a soil based plant cultivation method.
Disadvantages
• Although once the hydroponics systems have been set up for plant cultivation, the actual
equipment used can be rather expensive
• If hydroponics is used for commercial purposes, it is imperative that plant growers are
adequately adept and knowledgeable as how to use the system
• Although there is generally a reduced risk of pests and diseases with hydroponics, there
is still a risk that these can spread from one plant to another owing to the fact that they
share the same nutrient solution
• Should the plant cultivation environment be at all adverse, plants grown through
hydroponics can wither easily
• Similarly, excess humidity or limited presence of oxygen in the cultivation environment
can also result in decreased plants yields or crop loss
If the above mentioned factors are appropriately considered, plant growers would be able to
decide more easily as to whether they should use this method at all, and if so, they would be in
better position to decide upon the appropriate hydroponics system for plant cultivation.