My last project: Hydroponics' Tomato

I started my project from 28-11-2005 with the seed of tomato. here some photo of plant. you can grow any plant in controlled environment. you have to need some component like water pump, pipes, pots, ph meter, and hydroponics nutrient. if you can make greenhouse for plant, that will be help to grow plant easily. for more information: Hydroponics.

Hydroponics is crop production with mineral nutrient solutions instead of soil containing silt and clay. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel or rockwool. A variety of techniques exist.

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Gericke originally defined hydroponics as crop growth in mineral nutrient solutions, with no solid medium for the roots. He objected in print to people who applied the term hydroponics to other types of soilless culture such as sand culture and gravel culture. The distinction between hydroponics and soilless culture of plants has often been blurred. Soilless culture is a broader term than hydroponics; it only requires that no soils with clay or silt are used. Note that sand is a type of soil yet sand culture is considered a type of soilless culture. Hydroponics is always soilless culture, but not all soilless culture is hydroponics. Many types of soilless culture do not use the mineral nutrient solutions required for hydroponics.

Billions of container plants are produced annually, including fruit, shade and ornamental trees, shrubs, forest seedlings, vegetable seedlings, bedding plants, herbaceous perennials and vines. Most container plants are produced in soilless media, representing soilless culture. However, most are not hydroponics because the soilless medium often provides some of the mineral nutrients via slow release fertilizers, cation exchange and decomposition of the organic medium itself. Most soilless media for container plants also contain organic materials such as peat or composted bark, which provide some nitrogen to the plant. Greenhouse growth of plants in peat bags is often termed hydroponics, but technically it is not because the medium provides some of the mineral nutrients. Peat has a high cation exchange capacity and must be amended with limestone to raise the pH.

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Advantages

• While removing soil-grown crops from the ground effectively kills them, hydroponically grown crops such as lettuce can be packaged and sold while still alive, greatly increasing the length of freshness once purchased.
• Solution culture hydroponics does not require disposal of a solid medium or sterilization and reuse of a solid medium.
• Solution culture hydroponics allows greater control over the rootzone environment than soil culture.
• Over and under-watering is prevented
• Hydroponics is often the best crop production method in remote areas that lack suitable soil, such as Antarctica, space stations, space colonies or atolls, such as Wake Island.
• In solution culture hydroponics, plant roots can be seen.
• Hydroponics is excellent for plant teaching and research.
• No soil is required.
• Soil borne diseases are virtually eliminated.
• Weeds are virtually eliminated.
• Fewer pesticides may be required because of the above two reasons.
• Edible crops are not contaminated with soil.
• Water use can be substantially less than with outdoor irrigation of soil-grown crops.
• Hydroponics cost 20% less than other ways for growing strawberries.
• Hydroponics let the plants receive more sunlight.
• It is easier to replant and pick the strawberries because some hydroponics are towers that can hold 5 square pots which each pot can hold to 4 plants per each pot and the towers rotate.
• Many hydroponic systems give the plants more nutrition while at the same time using less energy and space.
• when using hydroponics the plants are less at risk of getting a root disease than plants that are grown in the ground.
• Hydroponics allow for easier fertilization as it is possible to use an automatic timer to fertilize the plants.
• Maintanence for this system is very low.

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Disadvantages

Misconceptions

Hydroponics has been exaggerated as miraculous.^[1] There are many widely held misconceptions regarding hydroponics, and the following facts should be noted:

• Hydroponics will not always produce greater crop yields than with good quality soil.^[2]
• Hydroponic plants cannot always be spaced closer together than soil-grown crops (geoponics) under the same environmental conditions.^[3]
• Hydroponic produce will not necessarily be more nutritious or delicious than geoponics.^[4]
• Most hydroponic crops are grown in greenhouses or controlled environment agriculture.^[5]
• If timers or electric pumps fail or the system clogs or springs a leak, plants can die very quickly in many kinds of hydroponic systems.^[6]
• Hydroponics usually requires a greater technical knowledge than geoponics.^[7]
• For the previous three reasons, hydroponic crops are usually more expensive than soil-grown crops.^[8]
• Solution culture hydroponics requires that the plants be supported because the roots have no anchorage without a solid medium.^[9]