PUFF THE WEATHER CLOUD SAYS:Let me check the sky… ☁️
🎬 How Plants Grow in Water tap Next!
No soil needed
In hydroponics, plants grow with their roots dangling in water instead of dirt. Hydro means water! 💧
🥬 Grow a Lettuce! play
Pick the weather outside the window. Give your seedling what it needs, then tap Next day.
🌦️ When the Weather Is Tough why farmers use it
Droughts
When it doesn't rain for a long time, fields dry up. Hydroponic farms reuse their water, so they need much less of it.
Floods and storms
Heavy rain, hail and wind can flatten a field of crops. Plants growing indoors stay safe and dry.
Cold winters
In snowy places, nothing grows outside in winter. Indoor water gardens with grow lights keep growing fresh food all year.
Big cities
Cities don't have much room for fields. Farms can stack plants on shelves inside buildings, like a plant skyscraper!
🐟 Did You Know? Aquaponics
Aquaponics is hydroponics with fish! Instead of grown-ups adding plant food, the fish make it.
- Fish swim in a tank and make waste (yes, fish poop!).
- Tiny helpful bacteria turn the fish waste into plant food.
- Plant roots drink up that food, and that cleans the water.
- The clean water flows back to the fish. Everyone helps each other!
Like hydroponics, aquaponics often runs indoors or in greenhouses, so it keeps working in cold winters and droughts. But fish like their water just right, so on very hot or very cold days farmers keep the tank at a comfy temperature. 🌡️
🧪 Try It at Home with a grown-up
Regrow green onions
Put the white root ends of green onions in a glass with a little water on a sunny windowsill. Change the water every few days. In about a week, new green shoots grow! That's hydroponics.
Lettuce jar garden
With a grown-up, put a lettuce seedling in a net cup on top of a jar of water mixed with plant food. Keep it in a bright spot and watch the roots grow down into the water.
Safety first
Plant food is for plants, not people. Never drink the water, and let a grown-up handle the plant food.
🤩 Wow Facts
Hydroponic farms can use up to 90% less water than farms that grow in soil.
Some farms grow lettuce indoors on shelves stacked high up to the ceiling. They're called vertical farms.
The word hydroponics comes from Greek words meaning "water" and "work". The water does the work!