What is Hydroponics and types of Hydroponic systems?

What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponic is a soil-free plant growth technique. The word hydroponic comes from the roots "hydro", which means water, and "ponos", which means work, this method of gardening does not use the Soil. Plants rely on water and nutrients that are supplied to them.

People who are considering hydroponics for agriculture have to decide the correct system according to the type of plant they want to grow, so the growing space has to be considered. When you are looking to create or use a hydroponic system to grow plants, there are hundreds of different hydroponic systems available for you to use. Here few hydroponic systems listed below.

Types of Hydroponic systems:

1. Wick System
2.  Deep Water Culture (DWC)
3. Nutrient Film Technology (NFT)

Wick System:

• This system can also be considered as the basic hydroponic system that you can use to grow plants, which means it can be used by practically everyone.
• This is a passive system which means you do not need air or water pumps to use it. This is the only hydroponic system that does not require the use of electricity.
• The water and nutrient solution is transported to the roots of the plant using a wick attached to the growing media.
• Wick systems are suitable for smaller plants that don’t use up a lot of water or nutrients. Large plants may struggle to get enough from either through a simple wick system.
• The main disadvantage of the wick system is that it keeps Growing media too humid, which does not allow oxygen to reach the roots effectively.

Deep Water Culture:

• A water culture system is another very simple type of hydroponics system which places the roots of the plant directly in the nutrient solution.
• The roots of the plants are suspended in the nutrient solution and the air is delivered directly to the roots with a diffuser.
• When using this system, keep in mind that plants should be secured in their appropriate position with net pots. Because plants sit in nutrients and being provided with unlimited oxygen.
• The best aspect of the water culture system is that it is very easy to make and works well with any kind of plant. Especially large plants with large root systems which produce plenty of fruit.
  

Nutrient Film Technology (NFT):   

• The NFT technique is an active regenerative hydroponics system. There is a constant input of nutrients for plant roots in this system.
• The timer is not used but a submersible water pump is used to pump the nutrient solution into the plant growing tray, the solution flows horizontally meeting the plant roots.
• The water is then evacuated to the water tank through the drainage tube. Air pump is used to supply air to the air stone that provides oxygen to the water-nutrient solution.
• he plants are grown in a plastic container that has holes at the bottom so that the roots can swing into the continuously flowing water supply. It is very efficient for large hydroponics gardeners.