What Are The Benefits Of Growing Plants Using Hydroponics?

Plants grown hydroponically , which means they are grown in nutrient enriched water rather than soil, can generate up to three times the crop of plants grown conventionally. Automatic systems can make the gardening input to a fruit or vegetable crop minimal and, of course, there are no weeds when the crops are grown in a controlled environment. The system can also save water. Watring the vegetable patch usually results in only about 10% of the water poured on to the ground becoming available to the plants. The rest runs off. This is not only inefficient, when the run off contains large quantities of fertilizer it can be damaging to the environment. Hydroponics can help extend the season fro growing fruits and vegetables. For example, a simple polytunnel and hydroponics system can allow strawberries to grow in Northern Scotland as early as April and as late as September. However, the use of hydroponic systems indoors in combination with pumps to circulate the nutrient rich water and growing lights to replace the sun is very wasteful of energy and therefore damaging to the environment.