Hydroponic Radishes: Think About It

Hydroponic Radishes: Think About It

While some hydroponics vegetables, like tomatoes, get a lot of attention, other more obscure kinds of vegetables are also great candidates for using hydroponic gardening to bring food to the table. One of these is the simple red radish: of course, while some people love the small crunchy root vegetables, they’re not for everyone. But radishes are one way to get a lot of the nutrients that we need to stay healthy, as well as being a popular garnish at a lot of dinner parties. Lots of people have developed a taste for the radish, and one group of hydroponics gardeners likes them so much, they’ve created a whole project around hydroponic gardening methods and science experiments involving the radish.

SHARP: the Super Hydroponic Awesome Radish Project

Three AP biology students at North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, New Jersey have made it their mission to help inform the public about hydroponics and how useful it can be to grow plants, while also revealing some of the essential science that goes into keeping hydroponic plants healthy. The SHARP site has a lot of useful features, including some handy hydroponics guides, results of an experiment on magnesium for hydroponic radishes, and even a survey where visitors can vote on their radishes affinities.

Great websites like this one bring a lot to the table when it comes to creating good discussions around some of the best ways to grow our modern food supply, one that centers more and more on ‘green foods’ – that is, locally grown whole foods that promote a healthy diet. The impressive SHARP project is just one part of a big conversation taking place online about the future of using small indoor spaces to create those ‘victory gardens’ that will give families more options about how to control what they eat and get essential experience in the real applications of science.