Grow Flowers Hydroponically
Growing flowers is no longer confined to having to muck around with dirt and getting our fingernails messy with rows or mounds of soil. Many flowers that you may purchase from the store these days are grown hydroponically. Hydroponics is growing crops without soil. Like in a traditional garden, hydroponic crops are also grown in row or up a trellis, but they no longer use soil as a source of nutrients. Hydroponically-grown flowers thrive better and are actually healthier than flowers in soil as they do not need to contend with soilborne diseases and all food and water required is directly supplied to their roots.
Hydroponic gardening is a gardening method which does not use soil as its medium where the nutrients used are delivered directly to the plant roots. If you use hydroponic gardening for flowers, it will produce more flowers rather than planting it using traditional method. Some of the common flower choice panted using hydroponic method includes marigolds and petunias.
What you need:
- Flower seeds
- Flats
- Starter plugs
- Light
- Plastic dome
- Nutrient solution
Method:
- Firstly, you need to wet your starter plugs (starter plugs are an individual cork-shaped plugs that are made out of a sponge-like material with a hole in the middle) using water for creating a wet medium for your seeds to germinate. You will be inserting the seeds or seedlings into the starter plugs holes enabling them to grow while the plugs maintain its perfect air-to-water ratio and also retain water.
- By using your thumb, you can insert two to four seeds into each plug depending on the type of flower seed. Then, place the plugs into the flower flats or even trays that come with small empty indentations that can be a couple of inches deep.
- The flower flat needs to be placed in an area that has direct sunlight of at least up to eight hours per day.
- Next step is to put a clear plastic dome over your flower flats which will help retain moisture and insulate the air around the flower seeds. You must also ensure that the average temperature of the area always be between 70 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit so that the hydroponic flowers can grow properly.
- Use a half-strength hydroponic nutrient feeding solution onto each of the flower flat in order to allow the seeds to absorb the nutrients for their growth. Apart from that, you must also add at least one part of water along with the nutrient solutions but this depends on the type of nutrient used and you should always follow instructions from the nutrients manufacturer.
- If you notice any weak flower seeds, remove them. You will be able to see the root systems of each of your flower seeds within a couple of weeks. It is recommended that you keep the stronger ones that have multiple roots rather the single-rooted or scrawnier ones.
- Then, place your starter plugs directly into your standard hydroponic setup and your flower seedlings should by now have its own root systems which are growing out from the bottom of the plugs.
- If you notice that your tray\’s water level has drop, add some water onto it by pouring it down the sides of the tray.
Image Credit:
How-To Hydroponics, Fourth Edition
Grow Flower, Grow! (Originally titled: Fran\’s Flower )
