The Hydroponic Checklist: What you need to start growing!

Any beginning grower will need a short list of materials and equipment that will help him or her to succeed in building a first hydroponic project. A lot of these essentials seem fairly basic, but all of them are necessary to provide a good environment for plants, and really get things going.

Here are some of the most essential basic elements of the grow space that have to be provided.

Lighting

Lighting is one that a lot of growers think about first -- why is that? Maybe because grow lighting is a fairly expensive part of the system, or because it's a natural to think of plants growing under a light, which is also one of the more visible parts of the system. Make sure you get lighting with the right spectrum and luminosity to nurture plants.

Nutrients

Plants will need all of those essential elements that you can find naturally in soil, such as nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. Get prepackaged nutrients or build your own “plant diets” to put into reservoir water and introduce through irrigation.

Sterile Media

You'll need some sort of stuff to substitute for soil, that will hold plant roots. Growers use different types of sterile media including coc coir, rockwool, clay pellets or hydroton, vermiculite, perlite, and others, including different combinations that allow for drainage and other factors.

Water Pump

A water pump is a vital part of the hydroponic process, because it takes water where it needs to go to reach plant roots. You can use a deep water culture system and route water through tubes, or you can use a tray table system where water just dribbles down the tray, but either way, you need a pump to get the water to the right place.

Air Circulating Equipment

You also want to make sure that air does not become stagnant in a grow space. Also, for many different types of projects, the grow space is essentially sealed off from the exterior environment in order to preserve things like temperature and humidity for plants. So that means you’ll need vents, fans and other equipment to maintain your hydroponics project.

With air, water, light and nutrients, hydroponics plants are just about ready to go. You have to keep an eye on the plant’s overall environment and watch out for things like pH value and total dissolved solids. For more about hydroponics, check out Dealzer offers to the growing community, with fully warrantied grow boxes that include all of the above essentials.