CRYSTAL CLEAR ADVANTAGES TO

HYDROPONIC GARDENING

Growing Without Soil - The Hydroponic Garden

covers all the essentials you need to know and gives you a complete instructions on how to build your own system at home!

The basic Principles of Setting up your own Home Hydroponic Garden.

SIZE

Nothing can ruin plans for a bountiful garden quicker than a lack of space.

There are millions of frustrated apartment dwellers that would love to have

a garden, but don't even bother thumbing through seed catalogs because

they cannot manage to make a garden fit with their living environments.

Hydroponic gardening is great because it allows us to avoid those concerns.

Even those of us living in relatively small spaces can grow fresh fruits,

vegetables and herbs without worrying about the size of our lawn.

Plants can be grown in containers in even the smallest of spaces. One can

even successfully convert a linen closet into a garden with the right

hydroponic know-how and a specialty light.

CLIMATE

In addition to saving space, hydroponics also allows gardeners to escape

one of the most frequent causes of garden failure--weather. You can grow

the plants of your choice indoors due to the space saving, this allows you

to skirt problems like early freezes, torrential downpours and other

weather-related aggravations.

CONTROL

Hydroponics also provides a degree of control that is lacking from

traditional gardening strategies.

Although soil preparation does allow one to control the nature of the

garden somewhat, pinpoint control with soil is not possible. The medium is

10

not adequately responsive due to drainage or lack there of, and so soil

adjustments are usually rather uncontrolled, to a large extent.

That is not the case with the hydroponic garden. When soil is out of the

picture, one can directly and easily control the nutrient intake of plants,

allowing for maximum efficiency and incredible results.

Why arduously tinker with the pH balance of soil, finally getting it just right

only to throw it completely out of whack by adding a bag of fertilizer?

When instead, you could make sure your growing conditions are optimal

with hydroponics.

GROWTH

The efficiency of the hydroponic approach is not limited to the ways it

makes life easier for the grower. The plants themselves catch a break.

The roots of hydroponically grown plants do not have to engage in an

endless struggle through soil in pursuit of sufficient nutrition. That saves a

great deal of energy for the plant, allowing it to focus on its actual growth

instead of survival.

Those pampered plants produce larger blooms and more produce than

their soil-bound brethren!

CONSERVATION

There's another advantage to hydroponics that does not even seem

possible. You can actually conserve water by switching to a liquid garden.

How?

Most Hydroponic gardens are designed to re-circulate only the water the

plant needs. The small containers usually used in these systems often hold

less water than a traditional gardener may use on a single plant on a single

day. In addition, when you consider the amount of water waste due to

11

over saturation, evaporation and other issues endemic to traditional

gardening, you can begin to see why going with a hydroponic methodology

defiantly encourages water conservations.

Many hydroponic systems use what is known as an "Ebb and Flow" system.

This system uses the same water in a cycling manner, limiting the amount

of water being used to an even greater extent.

This is not only great for gardeners, but it is also beneficial to the

environment. Conserving water should be a priority of all people, and

saving water while growing organic and nutritious foods is an advantage all

growers should seek.

Along with water conservation, there are additional environmental benefits.

Hydroponics prevents the depletion of valuable nutrients and minerals in

soil. The efficiency of the hydroponic approach allows us to get more food

with less expenditure of natural resources.

Many scientists consider hydroponics huge part of the potential solutions

needed for meeting the growing demands for food in our hungry world.

Hydroponics provides a realistic and tangible option in areas where poor

soil, limited resources and climate difficulties make traditional gardening

and planting difficult.

12

NUTRITION

Oh, and the food grown hydroponically do not just come out bigger and

tastier. It is more nutritious, as well. When hydroponic gardeners grow

their vegetables with just the right mix of nutrients, it translates not only

into bigger fruits and vegetables, but also into ones that pack more

vitamins and minerals into every bite.

When one begins to consider the long list of advantages associated with

hydroponic gardening, it becomes clear that thinking past soil makes

perfect sense.

A short list of Hydroponic benefits includes:

.Gardening in any location

.Growing your own healthy fruits, vegetables and medicinal

herbs

.Limiting pests and diseases from invading your plants

.Fine tune control of nutrients in your crops

.Conserving water

. Producing larger crops

.Providing food to meet community needs

.Practicing a viable solution to world hunger

. Growing food locally eliminating the need for transporting food

long distances

. Creating Vitamin and Mineral rich foods which fortify the body

against sickness and disease.

. Control or elimination of pesticides used in food for your

consumption.

For More information on The Hydroponic Garden Also available in Audio.