How to Get Started In Home Hydroponics 

Starting your first home hydroponics garden can be very easy so long as you keep some basic principles in mind and keep your garden small at the beginning. Once you begin harvesting your first fresh crops you can thin about putting together larger and more complex systems. 

Below are some of the basic hydroponic guidelines that may help you starting your first home gardens.  

What Are Hydroponic Systems?

Unlike traditional garden, hydroponic garden are not soil-based. Rather, a water-based system is used to directly deliver nutrients to the plant roots. Most home hydroponics systems use a nutrient solution created by dissolving a specially formulated fertilizer blends in water that is then delivered to the plant roots via a recirculation system. 

In most types of hydroponics systems, the initial seeding of the plants is facilitated by an inert medium whose purpose is to support the plants’ weight while helping to make the nutrient solution and oxygen available to the roots of the plants. Types of growing media include, rockwool, synthetic media and perlite.

Differences Of Hydroponics Vs Soil Gardens

Hydroponic gardening offers considerable advantages over soil gardens particularly for smaller scale cultivation. 

Because nutrients are delivered directly to the plant roots, growing conditions are ideal encourage plants to grow faster and healthier. Hydroponic systems also make more efficient use of space and water and offer better control over growing conditions. And off course you do not have to worry about weeding, tilling and taking care of the mess created by soil indoors. Finally, with controlled lighting, most plant can generally be grown year-round.

Types of Hydroponics Systems 

Wick systems

Hydroponics wick systems are the simplest systems and a cost effective place to start gardening. These systems do no contain mechanical parts or pumps to circulate water. The system basically consists of a reservoir and a hydroponic wick which could be materials such as perlite or coco coir. The nutrient solution is added to the reservoir which wets the wick which transports the nutrients to the plant the grows directly above the wick. The water solution must be maintained manually and will require changes on a regular basis.  

Water culture

In water culture hydroponic systems, the plants and the roots are suspended in the water solution directly. The water/nutrient solution generally requires continuous circulation and thus these systems are typically equipped with a pump that continuously circulates the nutrient solution in the reservoir to ensure aeration and equal nutrient distribution. Initial seeding may be done on a growth medium or pod typically composed of a growing media such as rockwool, synthetic media or perlite. More complex systems may have multiple pumps and oxygen sensors as well as control systems.  

Fully Integrated Water Culture Systems

These more recent systems are specifically designed for small home gardens. The are small water culture systems that may also integrate lighting, timers and electronic reminders to facilitate schedule management for nutrient addition. These systems are ideal for beginners and essentially require minimal effort to operate and maintain.

Drip Systems

A drip system is also an active hydroponic system which uses a pump to feed your plants with nutrients and water regularly. However, unlike water systems the plant is not immersed in water but is grown in a growing medium and the as the name suggests, the system uses small emitters to drip the nutrient solution directly onto the medium and your plants.

A variety of growing media is possible including soil which works equally well as a growing media. In soil systems, the nutrient solution is allowed to drains out of the soil and is recirculation in the drip system.  

Drip system hydroponics offer a wide range of product from simple systems which are essentially a growing pot with a recirculating pump and drip nozzle to much larger, sophisticated and complex systems involving multiple reservoirs. 

What to Grow?

If you are new to hydroponics the easiest plant to grow are non-fruiting plants that have shallow root systems, these include Salad greens and herbs. These plants are also an ideal choice small Fully Integrated Water Culture Systems.  Select from good quality seeds developed for hydroponic systems. 

It is also possible to grow larger plants including a large variety of fruiting plants hydroponically. You should select these as you develop mores experience with larger hydroponic systems. Also keep in mind that you should select varieties with similar nutrient requirements if you are growing them in the same system.

Hydroponic Nutrients

Plant nutritional requirements vary from plant type to plant type and throughout the growth lifecycle from germination, bloom, growth and fruiting phases. 

The easiest place to start are universal or complete liquid nutrients that are formulated for good balance for all phases of growth. For improved control select from two-ingredient or three-ingredient systems. With these systems the proportion of the different ingredient are varied depending on the phase of growth ands type of plant. Make sure you follow the manufacturers recommendation on concentration and frequency of application. 

The most important and basic plant nutrients are Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P) and Potassium/Potash (K). These are the N-P-K percentage values that are normally indicated on most nutrients. As you grow your expertise, you may want to begin to more closely control micronutrients such as Calcium (Ca and Manganese (Mg) as well as other aspect such as pH, conductivity and temperatures. Refer to our article on Hydroponic Nutrients for more information on this topic. 

Lighting

Indoor hydroponics require a controlled lighting environment. Intelligent or integrated hydroponic systems may already include a source of lighting, otherwise you will need to consider your own light source separately. 

As with plant nutrient, lighting requirements vary from plant to plant and phases of growth. For smaller systems LED light sources are now more common and have gradually displaced High Intensity Discharge (HID) lights. Factors in selecting a light sources include, plant type, required area coverage, intensity and color. Consult our article of Lighting Selection for more details.

During the growing stage of your plants, you should generally provide 16-18 hours of light per day. If you want to induce flowering, reduce the hours to 12 per day, simulating the shorter days of late summer. Timers to automate these lighting cycles are available as add-ons to your lighting system or may be directly integrated into some light fixtures. Finally, you may want to consider the use of Grow Tents for better control and distribution of your lighting.