Clean, Soil-Free
Hydroponic Gardening
Nutritional Benefits of Soil-Free Hydroponic Gardening
Plants live and grow only with the assistance of more than two dozen elements in our environment, such as oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, among many others.
Organic nutrients applied to soil in the form of manures or other organic fertilizers can't immediately be used by a plant, because the nutrients they hold are not in their elemental nutrient salt state (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, etc.), which is what a plant actually uses as food. The microbiological activity of bacteria in the soil and manure is what breaks down and frees the elemental nutrient salts and makes them available for use by the plant. Think of it like a frozen dinner... it's food, but you can't really do anything with it until it has been released from it's frozen state.
In a soil-free hydroponic garden, you provide the same pure elemental nutrient salts the plant would find in soil, with the advantage that those elements are immediately available for the plant to use as food, and the added advantage of having the ability to customize those nutrients to the specific needs of your plants.
Most people don't realize it, but the elemental nutrients that are vital to plant growth, are generally the same elements that are vital to human growth. Not surprisingly, plants that are fed a complete and balanced plant food, like those grown in a soil-free environment, are healthier and have significantly higher amounts of higher quality, natural nutrients, minerals, and hormones that research shows to be of great importance in maintaining a healthy human lifestyle.
Next section:
Hydroponics Produces Big Yields in Small Spaces
