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One of the big data debates we've seen between growers is what to use to set up an initial system -- do you buy an already designed hydroponics kit, or put one of these together for yourself?This gets to the core of people's philosophies, and reasons that they go into hydroponics in the first place. You're always going to have a certain number of people who want to do everything themselves, while others would prefer to have prepackaged solutions. It's like buying a car, where the die-hard …

Obviously, there are a wide variety of things you can grow in any hydroponic garden - so growers have to make choices about how to allocate resources and what to plant. Maybe you have things in mind already, or you go with what you like most. That's a pretty good strategy, because you'll probably be the one eating most of what you grow. But some other growers might want to helpful hints -- they might even say themselves, well, let's go with the most common hydroponic vegetable that gets th …

If you are starting out with certain kinds of hydroponics projects, you may be looking at getting “good bugs” to counter the effects of “bad bugs” on your crops. One of the most common insect predators people purchase is ladybugs -- these benign and colorful creatures eat aphids, smaller insects with the ability to devastate different kinds of plants.Aphids use their mouths to suck fluid out of stems or other parts of a plant. This can leave plants yellow and stunted. Aphids can also leave …

For some growers, speed is the name of the game.If you're one of these types, you may want to know about how to speed up your crop cycles with hydroponics. You might be wondering about how hydroponic growing is different from traditional soil-based gardening, and how it can help you be more efficient to generate more fresh produce over time.Hydroponics will not make plants mature faster than they would in soil, although some growers have been able to induce early flowering for harvests. Ins …

Why are some growers so paranoid about interrupting light cycles for plants?It's a good question, and it has a lot to do with people's personal experiences in hydroponics. Most newcomers don't understand what happens to plants if a light or dark cycle gets interrupted -- for instance, if you get some unexpected visitors and need to open up the grow area and let light in during the dark cycle, or if your grow lights go out because of a power outage or other problem.So what happens to plants …