Posts Tagged ‘agriculture’

History of Hydroponics Gardening

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

History reveals that the Hanging Gardens of Babylon is a big evidence of a hydroponic garden. Moreover, the Aztec Indians in the now Mexico had a system of growing crops on rafts. These rafts are in shallow lakes that you can still see in floating gardens near Mexico City. Therefore, history shows the great significance of hydroponic system of growing plants even in ancient times.

Developments with hydroponics did not however take place in Europe until 1699 when Woodward discovered it. He found out that he can grow plants in a solution of water to which soil had been added.

On the other hand, Liebig, a German scientist, originated using nutrient solutions to study the nutritional requirements of plants in the 1850’s. It was then followed by Sachs in 1860. Knop also did some studies of nutrient elements in water solutions in 1861. They grew plants in nutrients-rich solutions with mineral salts. This does away with the soil as a main requirement for growing crops.

Many researches on the nutritional requirements of plants extended through even until the 1870’s. By 1925, practical applications of hydroponics were being introduced for the vast development in the greenhouse industry.

The Soil-less Hydroponics System of Gardening has Benefits

Saturday, April 18th, 2009

Hydroponics gardening will improve your lifestyle by offering you with fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers all throughout the year. One of the famous systems is the NFT system development by Dr Alan Cooper with covered plastic channels. In this system, the plants are growing through holes in the covers and their roots are suspended in the nutrient solution.

One of the major benefits of a hydroponics system is that it can greatly shorten the necessary amount of time required to produce healthy crops. Whether a vegetable, flower, shrub or even trees, it can be produced without having to cultivate, weed and mulch the garden. Other important maintenance like watering and fertilizing can be taken care of by the automated system.

With the soil-less gardening, the quality of the soil will no longer be a problem with growing your crops. Hydroponics gardens can also be based in any place, irrespective of the soil or climate.

You will eventually notice that vegetables and fruit grown with the hydroponics system have a superb flavor and texture compared to the conventionally-grown counterparts. Because the crops will not be deficient in nutrients you will notice that they develop quicker and are healthier because they have more resistance to plant diseases than crops raised in the soil.

Read This Before You Buy A Garden Tractor

Sunday, February 10th, 2008

One of the most useful inventions of its time for farming is the garden tractor. These garden tractors were capable of doing all kinds of work in a family farm. At the time of tractor pulling, it created a hub for people to get together and also a chance to visit different towns to get their farming work done.

This also created an opportunity for the people to visit new towns, enjoy food at a nice place & stay away for home in a motel. You would also get a change to enjoy the countryside and go sights seeing in the neighboring town. To make the most of the garden tractor there were attachments that were available but all had one thing on common, i.e. mowing the lawn.

However, mowing the lawn is something they were all designed to do. The lawnmower with an electric start was in a great demand as the other type had a pull start. It would be advisable to make a test drive for the lawnmower before you make a decision to buy it as it does cost a fortune to buy one.