How to start a hydroponic garden in your apartment?

What is a Hydroponic Garden?

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants without soil. It is basically providing nutrients and water to the roots of your plants externally without the usage of soil.

There are six different types of Hydroponic Systems

1. Deep Water Culture Systems
2. Drip System
3. Wick System
4. Nutrient Film Technique System(NFTS)
5. Ebb and Flow System and
6. Aeroponics

Firstly, Why Hydroponic Garden?

Many people who lives in apartments and residencies in cities don't have a lot of outdoor space and sunlight but want to grow plants and have a garden for themselves. So, here comes the picture of Hydroponic garden where you can artificially provide sunlight to the plants and nutrients and water without using the soil. You can use always use any of the Hydroponic System you want. You can always build your own Hydroponic System or You can buy one. If you are a beginner, I suggest you to buy a Hydroponic System and understand how the concept works and build towards your one. 

                    I will explain you the easiest Hydroponic system which is easy to setup and affordable and effective method to grow your garden.

Deep Water Culture Systems:

                It is basically suspending the plants roots in a solution of nutrient rich, oxygenated water.

The plants are kept in a reservoir and only the plants roots are submerged in a solution and providing nutrients, water and required amount of oxygen. A proper air pump will oxygenate the solution. You can grow vegetables and herbs which are light weight by this process. You can always grow herbs and vegetables such as leafy veggies like lettuce, spinach etc. which are light weight because it cannot grow top heavy because without anchoring ,heavy plants can fall over or break at the stems.

Advantages:

• You can grow your plants 365 days irrespective of climatic changes as it is grown indoors.
• There is so much customization as to which nutrients and how much amount of nutrients are being supplied to the plant.
• Growth is faster.
• Problem of fungi is very low.
• Very little maintenance is required after your system is setup.
• Finally, it is very affordable to start up with this system and it is easy to start with for a beginner.

Disadvantages:

        It also comes with some flaws:

• It is limited to growing herbs and leafy veggies but with some extensive work by providing anchor support, you can also grow different vegetables.
• In small systems, it is difficult to maintain pH levels and the temperature of water as there is no need of changing the water regularly.

Equipment needed to setup a DWC System:

    Space:

               Depends on which type of crop you grow and how much crop you wanna grow. You have to have that space to get organized with the things.

    Nutrient Solution:

                This nutrient solution is used as a alternative for soil. These usually come in different form either in liquid or powder. There are different types for different plants and you can select your best suitable for your plant online or at local stores.

     Net Pots:

                These are used to hold the plants and allows the solution to freely past the roots of the plants providing sufficient nutrients and oxygen.

     Air Pumps and Air Stones:

                This pump makes sure your plants are getting the required amount of oxygen at all times and the Air stones eliminates the bubbles generated from the Air pumps.

    Airline Tubing: 

                It is basically acts as the middle man used to connect your Air pump to the equipment to generate the oxygenated water

    pH kit:

                You have to check pH level of the plants as the right level of pH is very important because it affects nutrient availability to your plants .Generally, it comes with the kit you buy, you have to make sure it is available before you setup. The ideal pH range for most Hydroponic plants is between 5.5 and 6.5.

    PPM meter:

                It is basically a measurement of how much amount of nutrients concentration you give to your plant. You can always check and adjust according to the amount in which the feeding schedule given for your solution. 

    Grow Lights:

                 In the absence of Sunlight, you can always provide artificial light to the plants with the help of grow lights. You can find different types of grow lights online or at your local store.

    Growing Media:

                  As a substitute for soil, these media are used to provide support for your roots and stems of plants but it doesn't contain any nutrients.

        That's all we need to setup a Hydroponic Garden with DWC System.

      Lets start with How to Setup:

                                    Connect your Air pump to the Airline Tubing which generates oxygenated water but with bubbles. Next connect this to a Air stone which eliminates the bubbles and place the Air stone in the bucket and fill it with water and provide nutrient solution and make sure to check the pH is in the range mentioned above and start your seedlings by placing in Net Pots and place it on the bucket or reservoir whatever you use, let the roots to start to hit the water and your plants start to grow. Check the concentration of your nutrients by using the PPM meter and provide required amount of time. Make sure to keep the temperatures low between 18-20 degrees celsius. As you area already planting indoors, it will be not much difficult to maintain the temperature. There you go, in no time your plants will be grown perfectly. 

If you are new to Hydroponic system, I suggest you to start with this one as it is easy to build, maintain and it is very affordable and effective one and understand how the process works and check the crop behavior.

I will be explaining the different techniques in my upcoming post. Until then, enjoy your Hydroponic Garden with Deep Water Culture System.