Simply put, hydroponics is the living of plants without soil. The word "hydroponics" originates from the Greek word hydro, meaning "water" and ponos, meaning "labor or water-working."

All plant leaves requires light, oxygen and carbon dioxide. Plant root systems need water, nutrients and oxygen. When plants are grown usually (in soil) water gets nutrients from the soil and takes them to the plant roots. The water and nutrients are going up by the roots to feed plant growth. Soil drainage then permits water to be replaced by air in the gaps between soil grains. This provides the roots with oxygen.

In hydroponic plant systems, you break up the nutrients in water. Soil is replaced with a "growing medium" - a soil replacement - that holds the roots and provides them with water, nutrients and oxygen.

You can carry the nutrient solution a couple of ways: You can drop feed it to each plant or you can deluge the root chamber, then drain it out. These methods need a pump and clock to circulate the nutrients through the roots. You could also grow the plant roots in the air by spraying it with a fine mist of nutrient solution, or grow it by aerating the solution under each root mass with an air pump.

In fact, six basic kinds of hydroponic systems consist the basis of all hydroponic gardening.

The wick system is the simplest and easiest to put up of all the systems on hand. It is also reactive, with no moving parts. It doesn't need any electrical energy source or special attention.

The nutrient solution is strained into the grow bed from the nutrient reservoir throughout the capillary action of wick matter and absorbent grow media. When plants get very big, they may use nutrients quicker than the wicks can supply them.

The water culture is other very easy hydroponic system. Plants grow with the roots suspended in the nutrient solution. The structure that holds the plants is typically made of styrofoam and floats straight on the nutrient solution. An air pump gives the nutrient solution and oxygen to the plant roots. The major drawback of a water culture system is that it doesn't work well with big plants or with long-term plants.

The ebb and flow hydroponic system works by momentarily flooding the grow tray with nutrient solution and afterwards draining the solution back into a reservoir. Usually the pump is submerged and is connected to a timer.

The ebb and flow system can be utilized with different types of growing media. The whole grow tray can be packed with grow rocks, gravel or granular rock wool. You can use separate pots packed with growing medium. This makes it simple to move plants around or even shift them in or out of the system.

Drip systems are most likely the most widely used kind of hydroponic plant system. in essence, a timer controlled pump delivers nutrient solution to drippers placed at the base of each plant. In a Recovery Drip System the excess solution runs off and back to the tank for re-use. A Non-Recovery System does not gather the run-off which therefore goes to ravage.

This is another very common hydroponic system. A steady flow of nutrient solution pumped from a tank flows on the top of the roots of the plants in a tube or tray and then back to the tank. The growing medium is almost air, plus whatever medium was utilized to grow the plant from a seed or cutting (usually rock wool or perlite.)

The aeroponic system is most likely the most high-tech kind of hydroponic gardening. The growing medium is principally air. The roots suspend in the air and are misted every other minute with nutrient solution. A clock controls the nutrient pump almost like other types of hydroponic systems, but the aeroponic system requires a short cycle timer that runs the pump for a few seconds every couple of minutes.

Many growers favor hydroponic plant systems and think them to be a far more effective way to give water and nutrients to their plants. Because food and water go straight to the roots, the plant is able to use more energy growing on top of the surface, producing more vegetation, larger fruit, flowers and vegetables.