Sunday, March 27, 2011

Growing up


Growth
The plant is now growing up. The stem has grown to the length enough to put it in the jar with the support porous brick, agian the florist can provide you with this brick. This brick is used as a tank to the plants. It provides water to the budding plants and do not allow it to dry up. For the rest of the explaination over to the pictures.





Germination

Germination
The birth of a plant is through the seed. We took 20 seeds into a jar and moistened it to begin the germination process.

The seeds were kept in the jar sealed for three days.When the jar was opened we saw tiny white roots peeping out of the seed pod. The growth has been good. However not all the 20 seeds sprouted roots.

Now we have picked a small tube in which the second stage of growth will take place. This is shown in the image. This tube can be found with the nearest florist. This tube is used with the Orchid flower stem. The tube is filled with moistened coconut husk. This helps in supporting the plant, provide oxygen to the roots and retain moisture.

Hydroponics, The Saga

Hydroponics (From the Greek hydro, water, and ponos, labour) is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil. Terrestrial plants may be grown with their roots in the mineral nutrient solution only or in an inert medium, such as perlite, gravel, mineral wool, or coconut husk.
Advantages
Some of the reasons why hydroponics is being adapted around the world for food production are the following:
  • No soil is needed
  • The water stays in the system and can be reused - thus, lower water costs
  • It is possible to control the nutrition levels in their entirety - thus, lower nutrition costs
  • No nutrition pollution is released into the environment because of the controlled system
  • Stable and high yields
  • Pests and diseases are easier to get rid of than in soil because of the container's mobility
Like in everything good and bad exist, hydroponics also has a few disadvantages.

Disadvantages

The hydroponic conditions (presence of fertilizer and high humidity) create an environment that stimulates salmonella growth.[5] Other disadvantages include pathogen attacks such as damp-off due to Verticillium wilt caused by the high moisture levels associated with hydroponics and overwatering of soil based plants.
The benefits of Hydroponic farming are far more than the disadvantages. To ease the nervous of the worried, the disadvantages affect the hydroponic plant only when there is negligence or incorrect method used.
Now lets get our hands dirty.

Currently, We are in the process of learning, understanding and at the Proof of Concept stage.