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OILLE CULTURE

Introduction

The name "hydroponics" comes from Latin, meaning "working water". In reality,

"hydroponics" is the growing of plants without soil. The term "soil less culture" is

more appropriate since it covers all types of planting technologies without soil.

When most people think of "hydroponics"' they think of plants grown with their

roots suspended directly into water with no growing medium. This is just one type of

soil less culture known as .!.T. utrient !ilm Techni#ue$. There are several

variations of .!.T. used around the world and it is a very popular method of growing

soilessly. What most people don't reali%e is that there is literally hundreds of method

of soil less gardening. We will e&plain the most common asic methods and the pro's

and con's of each particular type elow, along with a lot of general information aout

soil less culture.

Why (oil less )ulture Works *etter

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That's simply that if you give a plant e&actly what it needs, when it needs it in the

amount that it needs it in, the plant will e as healthy as is genetically possile. With

soil less culture, this is an easy task. In the soil, it can e almost impossile.

Let me e&plain. With soil less culture, the plants are grown in an inert growingmedium where the plants do not get anything from the growing medium. The plants

receive only what you give them and nothing else. +ou have complete control over the

p, nutrients contents and the nutrient strength. In the soil, you really have no idea

what the plants are getting. (o farming ecomes a ig guessing game.

ow much nutrients does the soil contains-

What aout the essential micro nutrients-

(hould I fertili%e-

ow much di I apply-

ow much of what i applied was washed away y the last watering or

rainstorm-

The #uestions go on and on. nless you have a very e&pensive soil analysis done, you

just do not know. +ou have to guess.

What Is "/rowing 0edium"-

/rowing medium is simply what the roots of the plants are growing in. This can e a

visit variety of materials, including rockwool, perlite, vermiculite, coconut fier, gravel,

sand or any numer of other materials. 1ven air can e a growing medium.

The growing medium is an inert sustance that doesn't supply any nutrition to the

plants. 2ll the nutrition comes from the nutrient solution water and fertili%er mi&ed$.

+ou can therefore easily control everything the plants receive. The strength and the

p of the nutrient solution are easy to adjust so that the plants receive just the right

amount of nutrient and water.

The watering cycles can e simply controlled y an ine&pensive timer so that theplant gets watered when they need it.

*asic (oil less (ystem 2nd ow They Work

There are 3 asic types of soil less culture systems, namely4

5. Wick

6. Water )ulture

7. 1 and !low !lood 8 9rain$

:. 9rip recovery or non recovery$

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;. .!.T. utrient !ilm Techni#ue$

3. 2eroponic

There are hundreds of variations on these asic types of systems, ut all soil less

culture methods are a variation or comination$ of these si& asic types.