There has been a debate as to which growth medium is most beneficial for home- or commercially-grown plants. On one end there is soil, the traditional growth medium that has been used for thousands of years to grow plants, and on the other is hydroponics, a more recent practice of growing plants with water and nutrients but no soil. So the question remains, which process is more suitable for growing things?
One of the most important advantages of hydroponics over soil growth is the absence of weeds and pests in hydroponic growth environments. Soil can play host to a variety of insect pests and plant parasites as well as competing weeds that can take away valuable nutrients or sunlight from your plants. Of course, if you are growing a small number of plants indoors in small pots, then chances are that you won’t run into too many problems with weeds or pests that you can’t handle as needed. However, if you’re planning on growing many plants that require a good deal of nutrients and live in a pest-susceptible environment, then hydroponics may be the way to go in order to avoid spending money on pesticides and herbicides.
Hydroponics also benefit the overall growth of the plant in terms of size. Root systems spread throughout soil in order to increase surface area and the chance that the plant will absorb minerals and water that percolate through the soil. However, with hydroponic plants, the nutrients are present all throughout the liquid mixture, so the root system does not have to be as extensive as with soil-based plants. This means that the plant can devote more nutrients and energy to growth above the root system, which is the kind of growth that people generally want. Furthermore, plants that are grown hydroponically do not need to be repotted in order to accommodate growing roots that might become too large for the initial pot to contain comfortably. The hydroponic plants are constantly supplied with a ready stock of water and generally reach maturity faster than soil-grown plants.
It might seem as if hydroponics require more water than soil-based plants. The contrary is actually true in this case, as hydroponic systems generally use up to one-tenth less water than irrigated soil crops.
Is there any way that soil is better than hydroponics? The answer is yes. Since hydroponics depends on adding balanced nutrient solutions at particular times during growth, it is quite possible to make mistakes when giving nutrients to the water-grown plants. With soil-grown plants, excessive nutrients can be more readily absorbed and carried away by the soil. Although hydroponics is not a particularly difficult system for growing plants, it is one that requires a good deal of attention, research, and care.
In conclusion, hydroponics carries several advantages over soil-growing and could benefit the grower in a number of ways. However, soil-growing has been tried and true for centuries and is certainly not inferior to hydroponics so long as the grower is diligent and careful.
