When you plan to build your own hydroponic system or purchase a starter's kit, you are not only just getting a container or a tray, putting your plants in it and supplying the plants with water and nutrients. It is important to bear in mind that there are basically two primary objectives that you need to achieve in hydroponic gardening.



The hydroponic system structure must be able to support the root system without soil.

1. You need to have an efficient method of supplying air, light, and nutrient to your plants.

2. When these two requirements are fully satisfied, you can then begin experimenting a more complicated and automatic system.

To meet the first requirement which can be quite easy with the help from good beginner's guides. All you need is a simple hydroponic unit that consists of a waterproof container filled with a growing medium or aggregate for root support. You will place seeds or young plants into the aggregate. Then you pour a nutrient solution over the aggregate to feed the plants, and that's it, you have your own hydroponic garden!

Unfortunately, most of the times, when the hydroponic system is in operation, beginners encountered several problems. This is mainly because the second requirement is not well planned. No matters what kind of system you select, air, light and most importantly, nutrients are vital to your success. Therefore, while you are planning for a hydroponic system, it is always a good idea to get a few good hydroponic gardening guides and put a bit of extra efforts in studying about nutrients. You won't regret.

One of the important considerations for the second requirement is the type of nutrient you want to use. When selecting a nutrient to use, keep in mind that the nutrient must be designed specifically for hydroponic application. Using common fertilizer is not advisable as these products are designed for use as a supplement to soil gardens and may not contain sufficient essential elements to suit the hydroponic condition. Of course, there are also many commercially available hydroponic nutrients that make it easy to get started in hydroponic gardening for those prefer not to make their own nutrients. However, again, these commercially ready hydroponic nutrients are usually designed to satisfy the widest range of plants, lighting conditions and stages of growth.

Hydroponic nutrients come in all flavors, powers and liquids, single part, two part, three part or even more. Selecting the best one for the plants may not be easy for beginners. Majority of the experienced growers prefer a system that is simple to use, inexpensive to own and effective at growing a wide variety of crops to their fullest potential without additional supplements. In general, two part and three part nutrient formulas are always better than the single part or general purpose formulas because they allow you to custom blend your nutrient solution for each plant and different stages of growth.

So, while you are working on your hydroponic nutrients, it is always good to learn to mix your own nutrients in different concentration and combinations to tailor for the specific growth requirements of your plants. Good hydroponic gardening guides always recommend their own recipes of self-made nutrients that have been proven successfully numerous times by the experienced authors. So beginners can always start with these recipes and slowly experiment them to get the best growth from your plants by adjusting the amount of ingredients.