Hydroponics is a form of gardening and cultivation of plants. The various pollutants that we are exposed to in soil often do not go away even after several years. This is one of the resaons why researchers have looked for ways to reduce the exposure of plants to mediums that carry pollutants that can contribute to the ill health of a person. Hydorponics is when plants do not need to use soil as a planting medium.

Soil Is Not Important

In hydroponic gardening, researchers have found out that soil is actually just a reservoir where nutrients are stored for the plant’s consumption. The plants food is stored in the reservoir. If a plant receives the needed nutrition some other way then it is not essential to use this reservoir. The nutrients found in soil dissolve in water to allow the plants to absorb them easier is what hydroponic research has found out. The need for soil for some plants is done away with in hydroponics.

Terrestrial plants, though usually found in soil, can actually survive without soil when they have access to the proper nutrients that are essential to their growth. For a more healthy human life hydroponics has some medium that may be more suitable. Mineral wool, gravel, and perlite are the mediums. To provide stability for the roots to hold on to is why they are there.

The important factor in hydroponics is actually the mineral solution that fills the nutritional needs of the plant. Almost all plants can grow without soil as long as the nutrient based solution is present. The solution is given to the plant in doses in order to meet the demands of the growing and thriving plant. Not all plants can tolerate their roots being exposed to water all the time so some nutritional solutions 
are given at certain intervals through hydroponics.

Hydroponics has certain advantages such as cultivation in a clean environment with the fuss and mess of soil. Another advantage of hydroponics is the absence of many soil borne disease that target plants and produce. For places that are barren such as the desert that have difficulty in cultivating plants hydroponics provides a solution. To grow most plants it is not necessary to plant them in soil therefore, greenhouses can grow better crops without soil because the nutrients needed are provided directly to the plants.