Unless you’re growing with aeroponics, every plant needs someplace to put its roots. In an outdoor garden, you’d use soil as the growing medium, but when you’re growing with hydroponics, you have a variety of different growing mediums to choose from.
Putting your plethora of choices aside, why do hydroponic systems utilize grow mediums instead of soil? With all the downsides that growing in soil brings, it may be better to instead ask why growing mediums are essential for hydroponics and what makes them so beneficial to plants.
Retention of Water and Nutrients
Soil doesn’t do a very good job of giving water to your plants—most of the water you sprinkle on a soil-based garden will miss the roots and seep deeper into the soil. The clearest example of this wasted water happens with container gardens. Many containers have drain spouts at the bottom for water and soil to run off; you can often witness the runoff happening as you water the plant.
In a hydroponic garden, however, you’ll notice that your hydroponic growing medium retains most of the water and nutrient mixture you give it. The mixture will gradually drip out from the medium, but that’s okay, since you can reuse whatever drips out. Grow mediums are porous, meaning they’ll hold oxygen as well as the mixture, which prevents your roots from drowning as long as you allow the plants to drain completely before watering them again.
Sterility
Another important factor to remember about hydroponic growing mediums is the fact that they won’t expose your plants to diseases. This sterility isn’t something you’d find in soil—pests and bacteria love to hang out around outdoor plant roots. Disinfecting soil isn’t really possible, but you can sanitize many types of hydroponic growing mediums, especially rockwool growing medium. Because rockwool is man made at high heat, it’s free of bacteria and disease the moment you receive it.
Grow mediums also provide a healthy, porous place for your plants to stretch out their roots so that they can receive every drop of nutrient solution it can. Because the medium provides a home for your plants, prevents soil-borne diseases and pests, and retains water better than soil, it’s easy to see why growing mediums are essential for hydroponics.
At FloraFlex, we sell both coco coir and rockwool to our budding growers. Find the medium that’s best for you and create the blossoming garden of your dreams with hydroponics!
