Helweg - How to grow fruits, vegetables & houseplants without soil : the secrets of hydroponic gardening revealed

How to Grow Fruits, Vegetables & Houseplants Without Soil

The Secrets of Hydroponic Gardening Revealed

Rick Helweg

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How to Grow Fruits, Vegetables & Houseplants Without Soil: The Secrets of Hydroponic Gardening Revealed

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Helweg, Richard, 1956

How to grow fruits, vegetables & houseplants without soil : the secrets of hydroponic gardening revealed / by Rick Helweg.

pages cm

Other title: Secrets of hydroponic gardening revealed

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-60138-600-7 (alk. paper) -- ISBN 1-60138-600-1 (alk. paper) 1. Hydroponics. I. Title. II. Title: Secrets of hydroponic gardening revealed.

SB126.5.H45 2014

631.585--dc23

2013045471

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A few years back we lost our beloved pet dog Bear, who was not only our best and dearest friend but also the Vice President of Sunshine here at Atlantic Publishing. He did not receive a salary but worked tirelessly 24 hours a day to please his parents.

Bear was a rescue dog who turned around and showered myself, my wife, Sherri, his grandparents Jean, Bob, and Nancy, and every person and animal he met (well, maybe not rabbits) with friendship and love. He made a lot of people smile every day.

We wanted you to know a portion of the profits of this book will be donated in Bears memory to local animal shelters, parks, conservation organizations, and other individuals and nonprofit organizations in need of assistance.

Douglas and Sherri Brown

PS: We have since adopted two more rescue dogs: first Scout, and the following year, Ginger. They were both mixed golden retrievers who needed a home.

Want to help animals and the world? Here are a dozen easy suggestions you and your family can implement today:

• Adopt and rescue a pet from a local shelter.
• Support local and no-kill animal shelters.
• Plant a tree to honor someone you love.
• Be a developer put up some birdhouses.
• Buy live, potted Christmas trees and replant them.
• Make sure you spend time with your animals each day.
• Save natural resources by recycling and buying recycled products.
• Drink tap water, or filter your own water at home.
• Whenever possible, limit your use of or do not use pesticides.
• If you eat seafood, make sustainable choices.
• Support your local farmers market.
• Get outside. Visit a park, volunteer, walk your dog, or ride your bike.

Five years ago, Atlantic Publishing signed the Green Press Initiative. These guidelines promote environmentally friendly practices, such as using recycled stock and vegetable-based inks, avoiding waste, choosing energy-efficient resources, and promoting a no-pulping policy. We now use 100-percent recycled stock on all our books. The results: in one year, switching to post-consumer recycled stock saved 24 mature trees, 5,000 gallons of water, the equivalent of the total energy used for one home in a year, and the equivalent of the greenhouse gases from one car driven for a year.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Karen,
the real gardener in the family.

Introduction

When one thinks about a garden and the activity of gardening, it is quite natural to think of digging into the dirt, pulling weeds, fertilizing, and composting. This book, How to Grow Fruits, Vegetables & Houseplants Without Soil: The Secrets of Hydroponic Gardening Revealed, will offer an alternative to the traditional notion that one requires a good plot of land with rich soil in a sunny location to be a successful gardener with a bountiful garden.

Hydroponic gardening is a dirt-free, low-cost, space saving, low in pesticides, and environmentally friendly way of growing plants without any soil. Once you understand the fundamentals of hydroponic gardening, you too will be able to reap the benefits of this easy-to-do horticultural alternative.

Hydroponic gardening does not require you be a professional horticulturalist. The purpose of this book is to help you to learn how to grow soil-free in your own home. This book will help you understand the fundamentals of soil-free growing. It will take you from understanding exactly what defines hydroponic gardening, to learning about the life-cycle of a plant, and what it takes to begin, nurture, and harvest plants of various types. You also will learn how to sustain your garden at the lowest cost possible by harvesting, not only the fruits of your labor, but also by gathering and saving seeds for new plants.