Every day, we are introduced to new techniques and discoveries that before seems to be alien to us like Hydroponics and in the process of studying it, we would like to know what benefits would it give us and what disadvantages we must expect if we shift to this new process and forget our conventional way of doing our gardening activities. There are pros and cons and we would be discussing some of them below.
The Pros
1. In Hydroponics, the use of soil is eliminated and therefore we do not need soil as medium in our planting activities either as garden beds or for potting material as the soil we need in our conventional practice was replaced with rock wool or other medium. Imagine the benefit of turning a piece of unproductive stony ground into a productive area with Hydroponics?
2. There is lower cost of water use since the water stays which can be reused unlike with the traditional way of gardening in soil where the use of water is costly and intractable.
3. The cost of providing nutrients to the plants is controllable and lower as it is computed in total for the whole batch and there are no weeds to compete with the plant as compared when the plant is directly planted on the soil and the cost of nutrient application is higher since there are other factors that results to less consumption for the plant.
4. The environment is not exposed to the effects of pollution coming from the application of nutrition since the area of application is contained unlike in the traditional way in the soil where nutrition could dissipate and might contaminate the entire area.
5. It has been observed that yields in Hydroponics are high and stable as proven in various researches. This is the most welcome news as we do gardening for the purpose of yield and stability and if Hydroponics meets our objective, that's it.
6. In Hydroponics, the plants are contained in a medium where mobility is frequent as we attend to the plants and these movements prevent the pest and diseases to attack the plants as compared when our plants are static on the soil where pest and diseases can come and go as our plants cannot move.
The Cons
1. Variable fertilizer and container requirements is one of the disadvantages of Hydroponics since different plants have different needs for their nutrients and how to contain them.
2. Because of the presence of fertilizer and high levels of humidity, this situation induces the growth of salmonella on the plants and therefore the entire product would be prone to this kind of problem which would expose consumers to the product and its effect is devastating as they could cause diseases like typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever and other illness carried by food.
3. Since Hydroponics is using considerable amounts of water, its presence in the area usually cause too much moisture and contributes to make a damp-off environmental situation that invites pathogen attacks in plants.
As we try to experiment Hydroponics in our own small spaces, be on the lookout of these advantages and disadvantages for a fun-laden and exciting day of a gardener.
