Home » Home & Garden

Hydroponic Plans For Beginners

Ranked #4,878 in Home & Garden, #72,998 overall

Hydroponic Plans and Information for people who are interested in getting involved into the exciting world of Hydroponics

Hydroponic plans don't have to be for Agriculture Engineers only, in fact there are hydroponic plans that are simple and will allow the complete beginner to get started in the fascinated world of Hydroponics with very little money needed. The information that you need to build your own hydroponic system can be found right here.

Let's first explain a little bit about what Hydroponics are. The name "Hydroponic" comes from Latin and means "Working Water". But really hydroponics is simply the growing of plants without soil. This can be in a medium of water, lava rocks, or simply suspended in air. Actually there are hundreds of methods of growing plants hydroponically.

Contents at a Glance

Basic Hydroponic Plans and Systems
Easiest Hydroponic Plans
Table Hydroponic Plans
Drip Hydroponic Plans
Hydroponic Plans
Do You Have Experience With Hydroponic P...

Wick System

There are basically 6 different types of hydroponic plans and systems. There is the common Nutrient Film Technique, Ebb and Flow, Water Culture, Aeroponic, Drip and Wick. Now building upon these 6 basic types there are hundreds of variations of them.

By far the simplest of all of the hydroponic plans and systems is the wick. It is a passive system meaning that there is no moving parts involved and works by having the nutrient solution contained in a reservoir, drawn up to the roots of the plant with a wick.

Easiest Hydroponic Plans

Water Culture

Water Culture hydroponic plans and systems are one of the easiest hydroponics systems to set up, it works by having the roots of the plant totally immersed in a nutrient solution. A con of this system is that large amounts of water are required per plant, and the solution needs to be aerated constantly so that the roots do not suffocate.

Many people choose to suspend the plants in styrofoam and just let the styrofoam float on top of the nutrient solution, with the plants roots hanging down into the solution.

Table Hydroponic Plans

Ebb and Flow

Ebb and flow hydroponic plans work by suspending the plants in a material such as rockwool blocks or a lava rock type material, the plants sit in a table shaped reservoir. The nutrient solution is usually contained in a reservoir under the table type container.

A pump works to flood the table type container containing the plants with the nutrient solution which then drains back using gravity into the reservoir under the table. The system need s to be adjusted where the nutrient floods the table properly in the right levels and is set on a timer.

Drip Hydroponic Plans

Drip Systems

One of the most widely used hydroponic plans is a drip system. This type of system is commonly used by commercial growing facilities commonly producing peppers and tomatoes. Drip systems give plants the most aeration because the roots are never fully submerged in Nutrient solution but are not allowed to dry out.

Drip systems work by having tubing that branches off and feeds each plant, a pump sends nutrient solution through the tubing feeding each plant, which then drains through the plants container and then back into the reservoir, where it is reused.