Hydroponic lettuce

[Gennifer11]

So I found hydroponic butter lettuce at the store and decided to try it. For human purposes of course. It was delicious, so soft and tender. I looked it up online and read it may be better than outdoor grown lettuce due to less need for chemicals. Does anyone know much about hydroponic foods? Its been awhile since my tort had a treat so I let him try a small piece and he liked it of course.

But I am curious (mostly for human purposes) how does hydroponic differ from regular foods? Are there bigger health benefits? If it's better, then I wouldn't mind using this as a treat instead.

 

[tortadise]

It's the exact same plant just grown through water instead of a soil system. Lots of times fish are used in the sump, plant foods, and fish excrement are the fertilizer and food for the plants. They grow much faster too. I kinda have small hydroponic system set up for tortoise food now actually, but without the fish and sump system.

 

[Gennifer11]

Interesting. So I wonder if I should start looking into buying mostly hydroponic veggies from now on?
@tortadise would you have any pics to show? I'm a big gardener person and this is the first time I've heard of this growing type. Maybe I'll get into it!

 

[ShannonC]

If you use fish in your system, it is actually called aquaponics. In a hydroponic system, fertilizers and such are in liquid form and in much smaller quantities because it continuously get recirculated for the plants to use rather than disappearing into the soil. If you do the aquaponics, the biological system is self-supporting and all natural. You feed the fish, the fish poop, the nitrogen cycle works its magic on the poop and converts it to safe, organic fertilizer, which then, just like aquaponics, continuously recirculates over the roots of the plants.

Haha.....I'm a "fish nerd" and I love to garden.....I would LOVE to set up an aquaponics system!! Most homesteaders use fish that they would, in turn, eat, then replace them the following spring. People that are not interested in cleaning and eating the fish will use goldfish of some sort.


ETA: you can use any type of aquarium fish if you want to set up a small indoor system. Goldfish are the most common because they produce a lot of waste, but they also grow quickly and would either need a very large quantity of water or would need to be taken out and replaced as they grow too large.