Shocking Way To Grow Vegetables In Containers
Article by M Wilson
The ability to grow vegetables in containers opens up a lot of possibilities for growing your own food. With containers you can grow food where you might not otherwise be able to. You can grow food where there are not fertile ground conditions or take advantage of patio space or even a sunny indoor space. But you haven’t seen the ultimate in container gardening until you have seen this.
Most of us have learned to grow plants in some kind of soil, whether it be the ground or potting soil. People have been planting this way for thousands of years. But there really are better ways to grow plants. Plants don’t really need soil. It is the nutrients and water that are in the soil that the plants need.
For thousands of years people have worked hard and put a lot of time and expense putting water and nutrients into the soil, just so plants can work to get the water and nutrients back out of the soil. So why not bypass all of this and just give the plants what they want?
This is what people are starting to do and it is creating spectacular results. Hydroponics is one way to do this but it comes with a few problems that most people don’t want to deal with. That is until someone solved those problems with aquaponics. With both hydroponics and aquaponics, the plants are grown in containers without soil. they are given a constant supply of nutrient rich water, sometimes with a growing medium like gravel, and sometimes without.
With hydroponics, you have to add fertilizer and monitor fertilizer levels in the system. With aquaponics you put fish and natural bacteria to work doing this for you. Aquaponics is a system where fish and plants are grown together. The fish produce wastes that naturally occurring bacteria turn into an excellent source of organic nutrients for the plants. At the same time, the plants filter the water to keep the fish healthy.
This is really no more difficult than maintaining a common aquarium. Actually it is easier since the plants clean the water for you and there is no need for a mechanical filter to maintain. It is also easier to grow plants with this system since you don’t have to fertilize or water the plants.
In this kind of system, the plants can be planted directly in the tank with floating pots or a raft, or the water can be circulated into a container or grow bed where the roots are. This is a system where you are working with a complete system and working with nature. Unlike traditional gardening where you are trying to be nature and tale care of the plants yourself.
No only will you get fresh organic vegetables with this system, you will also get fresh fish. You can grow fish to eat, or just raise them as pets. Or you could even sell them to others for their aquaponics systems, to aquarium owners or for stocking ponds. If you eat them or sell them you can more than cover the cost of fish food and get free fertilizer in the process.
You can get started with a low cost simple aquaponics system with this step by step aquaponics guide. You can learn how to grow vegetables the easy and fun way and supply yourself with all the fresh organic vegetables and fish that you can handle.