Tag: indoor hydroponic garden

Do I need a Nursery or Hydroponics Shop?

A common confusion can arise about the difference between a nursery and hydroponics shop.  A nursery will sell things geared mostly towards outdoor gardening and flowers or trees and shrubs.  These shops usually will carry things like simple trays, drip pans, some pest control, moisture meters, shovels and gardening tools.  Nurseries will also have things like trellis, trimmers, stakes, gloves, soil, and usually low quality fertilizers.  Although some nurseries carry very high quality nutrients for outdoor gardening.

A hydroponic shop carries the most advanced gardening tools available.  A hobby indoor gardener would get most of their supplies at a hydro store.  Hydroponic stores carry the best tools for indoor gardening and hydroponic setups.  Hydroponic stores will have high quality hydroponic nutrients, water pumps, air pumps, carbon filters, inline fans, circulation fans, cloning supplies, Co2 enrichment supplies, grow lights, timers, and full hydroponic systems.  A lot of this stuff is usually on display so you can see how it works before you buy.  Never be shy to ask questions.  The clerks at the shop should be happy to explain the products to you to make sure you get the most efficiency out of your indoor garden.

The possibilities at hydro shops are endless.  If you have no intentions of setting up a hydroponic garden there are still things at the shop you may find interest in that you could not get a nursery.  For instance if you know you are going on vacation for a week or more but don’t want to lose your beautiful hard work  to a drought – your solution may be a hydroponic based solution.  At the store you may want to buy a water pump and tubing to set up a hydroponic drip system for your outdoor garden, indoor garden or even your window garden! The folks at the hydro shop should be able to point you to what you need to set up an automated watering system.  An automated watering system means less time needed by you for the care of your plants.  That allows you to free up time for more plants or less time per day in the garden.  I’ll be posting some articles about hydroponic drip systems in the future.

Hydroponic Systems as Scientifically Perfected Nature

Hydroponic systems are able to increase plant yield and in some cases plant quality because the plant’s growing conditions can be controlled closer to the plants optimum growing conditions. A few of the conditions that benefit from hydroponic systems are:

Roots – Roots can not only be seen in some hydro systems but they are able to grow in a high humidity conditions.

Water – The plants water needs are met more often and systematically than hand watering or outdoor growing with the rain and good ol hose!  Hand watering a large container garden can be very time consuming.  Attention to detail may be beneficial during watering because drowning the plants feeder roots with too much water at once could be harmful to the plant.  Hydroponic systems usually are characterized by automated waterings and feedings which could reduce the stress of constant human handling not to mention the convenience factor.  It’s not always convenient to water your whole garden by hand when your plants need it, humans have lives to fulfill and water as well!

Nutrient content – Nutrient content is one of the best features of hydroponic systems because of the precise control the grower can manipulate.  However, nutrient control is an art form that must be tailored to every hydroponic set up and plant selection.

The goal of hydroponic gardening is to increase yield and plant vitality.  Hydroponic growing can be very simple or very complicated, the beauty is in the versatility of hydroponics.  Look for more to come on how hydro can outgrow soil.