Getting fresh fruits and vegetables has become very difficult nowadays. You must plan for the hydroponic gardening system to get some fresh fruits at home. Hydroponic plants grown hydroponically are not planted in conventional soil, unlike many other crops. Inorganic rising medium nutrient-rich water is then applied to the origins of the plant. This is the basis for any hydroponic setup. You might wonder how a plant can survive and even thrive without soil.
What Does Organic Mean?
Let us know something about organic food first. Organic food production has been around for a very long time. Organic food production started as a symbiosis between healthy soil and plants to promote good food and holistic production. People who grow organic food tend to take it from a holistic approach to nature with the soil. To chemists, organic means a molecule or compound with carbon. But when talking about food from the grocery store, organic is a legal term for marketing purposes. In the US, organic certification requires farmers to yield crops without using chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They must rotate the crops, growing different plants on the same portion of the land round the year.
A 2012 systematic review of 250 studies found no significant difference in vitamins or minerals in food grown with organic and traditional methods, except for one. Phosphorus was higher in organic foods, but it’s unlikely that the difference would matter to us anyway. Phosphorus is in much food, and deficiencies are rare.
Best Fruits for Hydroponic System
Tomatoes
Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables, also considered fruit. They are commonplace in most veggie gardens and thanks to their general unfussiness. Tomatoes are easily cultivated in an indoor hydroponic system. You can sow tomato seeds and propagate them from cuttings or purchase seedlings from retail suppliers. Soil grow tomatoes may contain pathogens that spread quickly in a hydroponic system, so if you buy soil-growing tomatoes, ensure they are from reputable growers. Expert growers recommend carefully selecting your tomato varieties.
Tomatoes are classified as determinate and indeterminate cultivars. Determinate options are great for small spaces as they have a more compact growth habit. Indeterminate cultivars grow like vines and therefore require staking or trellising. Indeterminate cultivars can also potentially yield more throughout a growing season. Expert growers have reported that the ebb and flow system is the best hydroponic system for tomatoes.
In an indoor hydroponic system, ensure you can install grow lights for growing tomatoes. Tomatoes grow best when the day length ranges between 12 and 18 hours. Either stick to the natural growing season or consider increasing the ambient temperature during the cool season and indoor system.
Strawberries
Strawberries are summer crops and thrive in warmer weather. If you have an indoor or climate-controlled hydroponic system, you can enjoy delicious strawberries all year round. Growers recommend using the nutrient film technique, deep water culture, or drip system to grow berries hydroponically.
You can start your berries from seed runners or professionally grown seedlings using seed. You may be able to get more plantlets for a smaller investment, but these plants will reach maturity than those produced from the runners. Buy seedlings from a reputable supplier if you are looking for an almost immediately harvestable crop with a deliberate hydroponic plan.
When planting your seedlings, thoroughly clean all the soil from the root zone. As a beginner grower, you might find substrates like expanded clay pebbles, perlite, or rock that will make the process easier by keeping the plants supported and hydrated.
You may need to hand pollinate your flowers with an indoor hydroponic system. You can also transfer pollen between flowers using an earbud or gently rub two flowers together. The indoor wall hydroponic system is the most convenient and easy method of growing strawberries in a limited space.
Melons
Melons are members of the Keuka potassium family of plants and cucumbers. There are numerous varieties of melons, and it’s essential to select the correct types best suited to cultivation and hydroponic system. To choose the best variety of cultivars, consider the following points:
a. Generally, melons are best grown in warm weather with similar conditions to the heat of the African climates from which they originate. If you have an outdoor system, grow a warm season variety like cantaloupe melons in the summer and cool season varieties like honeydew melons in the winter. If you have a climate-controlled indoor system, you can grow cool and warm season varieties year-round, depending on your preference, by using hydroponics gardening kits.
b. Melons can be highly susceptible to powdery mildew as they can spread in the blink of an eye in the hydroponic system. It’s essential that the varieties you choose be resistant to mildew pathogens and choose the best hydroponic gardening kits. Make sure you don’t let your seedlings become root bound, as any root decay can encourage python root rot.
FAQs
Why are strawberries called the best organic fruit produced in the hydroponic gardening system?
In a climate-controlled system, you can grow strawberries over the years in a very short interval. It is also very cost-effective than any other fruit. Using an indoor wall hydroponic system, you can yield massive fruits in a limited space.
Can you use organic fertilizer for the indoor hydroponic system?
Hydroponics is a form of the organic hydroponic gardening system; it does not need to be, but most hydroponic gardeners grow plants organically. You can efficiently run your hydroponic garden organically; you only need to use organic fertilizers and pest control.
What is organic fertilizer hydroponics?
Organic hydroponics is a hydroponics culture system based on organic agriculture concepts that do not use synthetic inputs such as fertilizers or pesticides. In organic hydroponics, nutrient solutions are derived from organic plant and animal material or naturally mined substances.
