Organic gardening in hydroponics – The Hydroponics “Ebb and flow” System

â??Ebb and flowâ? hydroponics system is an example of the common arrangement of the indoor garden. Such system is composed of the upper grow bed, which is a box or tray that holds containers with plants. Those individual containers may be filled with various mediums, the most frequently used ones being rockwool, coconut fiber, lava rock, perlite, vermiculite or styrofoam pellets. The best mediums are those that are porous and can accumulate some water for a long time: lava rock is said to be the best in this respect.

The other part of the hydroponic system is the lower bed â?? the reservoir with the mix of water and nutrients dissolved in it.  Aquarium pump, regularly triggered by a timer, sends water solution up into the tray with plants.

The most important thing is to keep the correct composition of water solution in the reservoir â?? this is the key factor of the hydroponic garden flourishing. Many beginners find it difficult to maintain the right pH level of the water, necessary amount of nutrients, and their correct ratio. 

Standard organic plant nutrients are available to fertilize plants; however, many people are reluctant to do that, as they think such fertilizers will quickly make the water reservoir dirty. Indeed, organic nutrients interact with the organisms in water, which leads to their decomposition. Specialized concentrated nutrients, on the other hand, keep the reservoir relatively clean, since they are synthetically made and thus they cannot interact with the organisms in water. Nonetheless, such â??cleanâ? fertilizers will severely burn the plants roots if used in access.

Being pumped into the grow bed, water with a fertilizer saturates the plants and returns to the reservoir lacking the previous amount of nutrients and ppm (parts per million). Thus, its composition is always different and changeable. That is why a gardener should always monitor water solution, controlling its pH level and plant nutrients amount.

Organic gardening in hydroponics – The root system

Plants, growing in the containers, will develop two types of the roots: the upper one, which will uptake plant nutrients from the upper part of the medium; and the lower roots, which will reach the lava rock part of the growing medium.

The upper root system is primary; it includes web-like thin roots that look similar to those that develop in the plants grown in the standard soil. They absorb multiple nutrients, thus ensuring the flourishing of a plant and its normal growth. The lower roots that are secondary will grow in the lower part of the medium (which can be lava rock, sand, gravel, perlite or pumice). These look typically to the hydroponically grown plants: long, rope-like, and stringy. These roots mainly absorb water; in addition, they receive much oxygen between watering cycles, which leads to the improved nutrients metabolism and faster growth.

These days hydroponics gardening gains more and more popularity in different parts of the world. More and more people become fascinated with this way of plants growing. Due to the constantly increasing interest in hydroponics, new methods and techniques of this gardening type appear. They are all aimed at the easing of the process of plants growing, improving the fruits, vegetables, and greens quality and taste, as well as at the making the whole process as eco-friendly as possible. Indeed, the new techniques try to solve the problem of hard-to-dispose used materials (as rockwool) and chemically-laden water and other wastes. Moreover, the primary goal of today hydroponics is to use exclusively organic materials, which offer the benefits in the crops quality and work of a gardener. 

Not so long time ago gardeners were amazed by such hydroponics methods as Nutrient Film/Flow Technique, Ebb and Flow, Aeroponics, and even Semi-Organic Hydroponics. These days the leader of this gardening is Totally Organic Hydroponics, which major benefit is the possibility to grow 100% pure organic garden plants.