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Growing Fruit, Vegetables Aloft Takes Hold (jcfloridan.com) |
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The Hydroponic Garden--A Guide to Hydroponics
Hydroponics allows us to grow the plants, fruits and vegetables of our choice--even in limited space--without using soil. It's an amazing way to produce perfect specimens and offers TONS of advantages that traditional gardening can't come close to touching!
Author: Deborah Buckhalter
Published: May 24, 2008
For
some folks, half the joy of gardening is crawling around on hands and
knees, getting dirty, and doing battle with bugs and weeds.
But for others, the physical demands of growing vegetables and fruit make it an impossible or distasteful endeavor.
Enter the age of hydroponics, which offers an alternative way to grow.
Walter and Terri Mosier have turned the method into a thriving local business.
Located on Standland Road near Cottondale, Mosier’s Family Farm
offers organic fruit, vegetables as well as all-natural dairy and eggs.
Customers can select something from the cooler, or step out in the
fields and pick their own produce. The beauty of U-pick on this farm is
that you don’t have to bend, stoop or kneel to get to the harvest.
Their produce is grown in containers attached to poles or “vertical
towers” far off the ground, easy to pick from a full standing position.
Their plants are not grown in soil, but in a more reliable substitute
material with a balance of nutrients the owners can better control.
They don’t use herbicides, for there are no weeds. According to a
flier about the farm, the method uses much less water that traditional
gardens – 85-90 percent less, they say. Few pesticides are needed, and
all of those are organic. Instead of harsh pesticides, the Mosiers use
things like dish-soap, vegetable oil, hydrogen peroxide, baking soda
and other non-traditional methods to discourage bugs.
Their bounty includes tomatoes, strawberries, lemons, sweet
potatoes, apples, shallots, carrots, blueberries, potatoes, red and
green bell peppers, a variety of herbs, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach,
lettuce... Read more...
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