Hydroculture: Growing Plants Without Soil at Home

There are other ways to grow plants than with soils. In fact, there have been advances in the ways people can grow plants and flowers using mediums other than soil and standard growing mediums.

These methods use less water because they use substances other than standard water and growing mediums.

One of the methods that people know about is hydroponics, which grows plants in a liquid solution without the use of soil. The other is called hydroculture, and that is similar but also very different at a fundamental level.

Hydroculture is a form of passive hydroponics and a way of growing plants without soil. Passive hydroponics systems often use an inert growing medium such as clay pebbles instead of soil. If you haven’t experimented with hydroponics before, then passive hydroponics and hydroculture is a great way to get started.
A hydroculture system is often made up of five simple parts – clay pebbles (or a similar inert growing medium), culture pots, water level indicator, pot liners, and fertiliser.

Clay pebbles
Clay pebbles are the primary growing medium used in hydroculture systems. These expanded clay pellets take the place of soil. They are highly porous which means they are great for growing plants. Clay pebbles are effective at retaining moisture and nutrients, are fully inert, free from soil-borne pests and diseases, provide plenty of oxygenation at the root zone, and give your plants a sturdy support structure to grow and thrive.

It is worth noting that although clay pebbles are the most common growing media used in hydroculture; other inert mediums such as perlite can also be used.

Fertilizer
Unlike growing plants in soil, the growing medium used in hydroculture is inert and lacking any plant nutrition. Therefore, plant fertilisation products have been developed specifically for hydroculture and hydroponic applications. There are various fertilisers developed for use during different stages of the growth cycle and they all contain the essential and beneficial elements and nutrients plants need for healthy, vigorous growth.

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