Indoor Horticulture

Hydroponics from the Greek 'water working', is simply growing plants without soil. (Hydro=water and Ponic=working) Hydroponics is as old as the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Today this technology is widely used to grow lush, healthy indoor plants and premium grade vegetables, fruits and herbs.

The physiological requirements of plants can be met without the use of soil or natural sunlight. Plants are rooted (and thus supported) in an inert medium and nutrition is provided by water soluble mineral elements. Through years of research determining which elements and their combinations affect plant growth, scientists (inadvertently at first) discovered the first hydroponic formulas. This allowed for greater control over plant nutrition and therefore increased production.

With use of proper nutrients and the right artificial light source, today's' indoor gardener can achieve amazing results.

The plants can have an ideal environment since the gardener determines everything which is normally up to mother nature. Canada is second only to Holland, for glass house vegetable production. Hydroponics is already used extensively in Canada for commercial greenhouse vegetable production. Hydroponics may also be called 'controlled environmental agriculture'.

n the most detailed study to date on the nutritional value of hydroponic produce, Plant Research Technologies Inc., an independent analytical laboratory in San Jose, California, reports dramatic increases in both the vitamin and mineral content compared to field grown produce.

Tomatoes (Patio Pride) demonstrated a mean increase of 50 percent in vitamin and mineral content. Of the 14 values tested, the hydroponics tomatoes showed increases in five and modest decreases of 25 to 30 percent in three. Sweet peppers (Gypsy) showed a mean increase of 150 percent - increases in nine of the 14 values tested and equal to soil-grown in the remaining five. The sweet peppers tested up to 300 percent higher in vitamins B2 and B3. A literature search including USDA, EPA and FDA publications, plus reports from university and private industry sources on the nutritional content of soil-grown crops was used in the study.

Nutritional analysis included vitamins A, B1 (thiamin), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B6 (pyridoxine), C and E. The plant analysis included nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, aluminum, manganese, copper, boron and zinc.

The tomatoes were grown in an Aquafarm system and the peppers in an AeroFlo system both using hydroponic nutrients. The hydroponic produce was also tested for heavy metals and chemical residues on the EPA's priority list. None were detected.

"An atom of nitrogen is an ...