LET’S TALK HYDROPONICS: PROS AND CONS

Recently, I’ve found myself in the possession of  a small hydroponics kit. I thought it was a dud, but it recently started growing a small mint plant.

That led me to wonder: What exactly makes hydroponics so important?

So, first of all, hydroponics is basically growing plants in anything but soil (sand, gravel, water, etc.). The main thing about this is that nutrients are added to the water and obtained through that as opposed to the traditional way of planting.

There are actually quite a lot of benefits that make this technique worth while, and I will speak about them below:

The biggest benefit is that plants can be grown virtually anywhere. So much so, in fact, that there are ongoing experiments of maintaining a garden on the International Space Station through hydroponics.

A few other benefits are that it doesn’t take up as much space, eliminates the possibility of plants getting “sick” due to bad soil, and actually uses less water than soil based gardening because you can reuse it.

Now, you may be wondering, “Well that’s great, but are there any cons?”

Unfortunately yes, but none that will be felt on the environment’s end.

The most glaring con is the fact that going hydro usually costs more than just keeping your plants with soil.

While I would suggest at least trying to make your own hydroponics station (considering you can if you start with $20-$50), the cost of maintaining it may be a bit more than soil in the long run.

Another important con is that waterborne diseases or “poisons” spread way quicker in a hydroponics garden than it would if soil were used, which means that these gardens would require more supervision.

Though, I do agree that the pros outweigh the cons in this situation, as there is usually more reward than risk if you know what you’re doing.

Either way, I encourage you to either indulge in hydroponics for yourself, or check out other gardens near you (there are surprisingly many). It gives a whole cool, futuristic vibe I think a lot of you would enjoy.