The Pros and Cons of Going Hydroponic
Hydroponics is a Latin term, which literally means “working water.” What it means to horticulture is the growing of plants without soil. Hydroponic gardening is an exciting field that offers solutions to several problems faced in the world of food production. For impoverished people who live in a terrain or climate inhospitable to agriculture, hydroponics offers a means of growing food. In areas where food is traditionally produced, but where fields are over crowded or stripped of their nutrients, hydroponics is a way food can be produced using a minimum of space and resources.
Hydroponic growth leads to an increase in production over traditional farming in two ways. For one, hydroponic gardening just plain saves space. Plants can be placed much more closely together than in traditional fields; as many as four times as many plants can be grown in the space using hydroponic techniques as opposed to traditional methods. Secondly, hydroponics eliminates many of the problems associated with traditional farming that leads to sickly, damaged, or wasted crops.
