Hydroponic Tomato Growing? What They Mean Is High-Droponic Tomato Growing!

High is right! Is the Middle East controlling the cost of tomatoes too? If the price of tomatoes gets any higher, a lot of things may change. You may have to eat your pasta with potato sauce, instead of tomato sauce! Your BLT, without the T! Your pizza with only the cheese! Ugh. No matter what part of the country you’re from-- whether you say to-mate-o or you say to-maht-o-- they’re going to sock it to you at the supermarket. Unless…you get into hydroponic tomato growing!

Don’t let that two-dollar word scare you. Hydroponic growing just means “with water only.” This innovative method of growing tomatoes is dirt-free! Technically speaking, hydroponics is a method of growing plants, such as tomatoes, in solutions of water and fertilizers. Growing takes place without the use of artificial mediums. Sand, rock and gravel, if used, only provides mechanical support at the roots.

Hydroponic systems are open, where after the solution is delivered to tomato plants roots. It is not reused. In a closed system, surplus nutrients are recovered, replenished and recycled. That’s really as technical as you have to get.

Hey, Water You Waiting For? Give It A Grow!

Though tomatoes mostly grow commercially using hydroponics in huge greenhouses—there is nothing preventing you from giving it a grow yourself. All you need is, you guessed it-- water! But not just water, water with the nutrients added.

After your tomato seedlings sprout, just improvise some way to keep their little heads above water to prevent them from drowning. Later, pebbles on the bottom of the hydroponic container will provide support at the roots. Tomatoes grow fast. And before you know it, you’ll be seeing red again and you can laugh all the way to the supermarket!

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