Growing plants without dirt

The modern survivalist should have at least a working knowledge of hydroponics. In the original Greek hydro means water and ponics means labor. Water literally does the labor normally reserved for dirt, which means you can grow a garden by suspending plants in containers or tubes and using a liquid solution to deliver nutrients to the roots.

Why should a modern survivalist care about all this? Hopefully, you already see the wisdom in growing fresh vegetables to augment your food supply during the summer months. With a greenhouse and hydroponics system, you can continue to harvest food staples year round. Benefits to hydroponics are:

1. No soil is needed
2. Water can be re-used
3. You can control optimize the nutrition levels
4. The controlled system prevents nutrient by-product pollution of the environment
5. Stable, high yields
6. Pests and disease are more easily treated without soil to contend with

There are several different system designs when it comes to hydroponics but all involve containers that hold the plants attached by some means to a nutrient solution tank that feeds water over the plant root at periodic intervals. Google the term “hydroponics” if you’re interested in learning more about the technique.

The Holistic Survival Team