Product Description

Plants need nutrients, air, water and light with a little warmth to survive. Traditionally these have been provided by soil, but hydroponic techniques allow plants not only to survive but also to thrive by gaining the perfect balance of nutrients from a regulated solution. Offering step-by-step instruction on how to build you own hydroponic systems, this straightforward guide demonstrates how to arrange and automate a greenhouse and advice on how to grow a variety of plants and control pests. It covers the flood and drain method, drip feed, nutrient film technique, aeroponics and aquaponics. It also contains a detailed examination of nutrient content and the strength of solutions. Without the need for stooping or weeding, hydroponics is ideal for anyone with back problems or mobility impairment, and superb for children who can follow and monitor the plants' growth.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #109670 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 144 pages

About the Author
Les Bridgewood has been gardening without soil since the early 1970s. He regularly contributes to gardening magazines including Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses.

Customer Reviews

Not remarkable, but informative
If there was one sole reason to buy this book, it would be for the extensive diagrams detailing the cheaper ways of making the more expensive retail equipment - it wouldn't be as a guide for hydroponics on its own, as the growing techniques only tend to cover one specific way of doing things, leaving little or no room for tutored experimentation.

Having said this, however, it is good for familiarising yourself with hydroponics terms and getting the theory behind everything down to a fine art - but for anything beyond setting up equipment, such as system experimentation, you need something a lot more detailed on the potentially complex setups involved and the myriad ways to produce on hydro systems.

Hydroponics explained
I bought this to try and grow houseplants without the hassle of cat strewn soil. What a god send. Although the book is quite technical, I was delghted to be able to follow the explicit instructions and start to acquire a new hobby. I would have no hestitation in recommending this book to anyone with an interest in gardening and who would relish the challenge of growing in a new and exciting way.

Very disorganised, badly written, lots of basic info missing
The author clearly has lots of experience and a lot of enthusiasm for the subject but I have to say I found the book badly written. I suspect that the editors and the publishers are as much to blame as the author for this. Many of the explanations or descriptions are garbled and incomplete. I think that the author and the editors have not had a clear idea of the proposed readership for the book. I think also that the book attempts to cover too much ground - it does not explain the systems so much as 'review' them. Certainly as a beginner I did not find the book of much practical help. Many systems are reviewed and briefly described and there are lots of photos and diagrams but there is not sufficient clear instruction for any system which would enable you to set something up. It's one of those books where I would say that if you have sufficient understanding of the subject to be able to understand the descriptions and make good the rather brief accounts given then you don't need to read the book because you are expert anyway!