I enjoy building things and one of the biggest lessons I learned from my wife (who is an experienced jewellery designer) about design that is commonly overlooked is the usability of a product. Our goal at Hydro Works is informing as many people as we can about Hydroponics and its key benefits. Our situation in South Africa with water shortages, load shedding, unemployment and a growing food security issue are factors we take to heart when sourcing or designing our products to make Hydroponics accessible to more people. Here’s our list of 10 benefits of using Hydroponics for growing crops:
1. Save Water
Hydroponic Growing Systems use only 5%-10% of the water used in soil growing traditional methods. When watering plants grown in soil, most water is absorbed into the earth while very little gets to the plants’ roots. In Hydroponic Systems, nutrient-rich water is always available to the plant’s roots. This makes Hydroponic Systems ideal for areas where water is not readily available.
2. No Soil Needed
Hydroponic systems involve growing crops without the use of soil. Using only water, nutrients and a medium to keep the plants in place. Good living soil can be expensive and a substantial amount is needed to achieve a comparable yield compared to a Hydroponic system.
3. Bigger Crops
Hydroponically grown plants grow 30%-50% bigger than in traditional soil cultivation. The nutrients are readily available to the plant roots, which ensures optimum growth from nutrient uptake. When adding an air pump and air stones to the nutrient solution you can supply more oxygen to the roots.
4. Grow Space
Hydroponic Systems use 20% less space than growing in soil. The benefit of hydroponic systems is their flexibility and scalability. Being capable of growing both vertically and horizontally is the best use of growing space.
5. Fast Growth
One of the best benefits of hydroponic cultivation is the speed at which plants grow. Plants grow 30%-50% faster than in soil. This maximises the growth time for your crops. Nutrient uptake is more optimal because plants can absorb only the nutrients needed for fast growth.
6. Control
You have complete control of elements needed for plant growth. When using a hydroponic growing system you have control over the nutrients given to plants, water temperature, water Ph and Ec, moving plants around, cleaning the system, environmental conditions and lighting when growing indoors.
7. Less Pest Control
Soil is an Ecosystem that can house many unwanted pests and make it difficult to control from a reactive point. Because hydroponics does not use soil, it is much easier to control pests, and systems are easy to reset when it is designed that way. Which our systems are 🙂
8. Food Security
Food Security is becoming a growing concern in South Africa and Globally. Hydroponics is the future of growing food and people from all walks of life can be easily skilled with knowledge of how it works.
9. Community Upliftment
Hydroponics can be scaled from a single cup to multiple-hectare farms and our goal is to inform people about the benefits. We will be working with schools and community gardens to help them implement hydroponics so we plant the seeds in the minds of our youth.
10. It’s Fun 🙂
We started with hydroponic growing in 2016 using Kratky Buckets and seeing your plants grow by only using water got us hooked. We encourage all people to give hydroponic growing a go.