Hydroponics houseplants – ideas and tips for growing plants in water

Nowadays, there are already some methods for growing hydroponic houseplants without the use of soil. As a rule, you can put many plants into an absorbent state in which they grow using nutrients. One advantage of hydroponic houseplants is the water reservoir, which makes it easy to control whether you need to water your plant. In addition, the aggregate is open enough to allow air to circulate around the roots. The combination of the reservoir and the absorbent state creates moisture around the plant. This method of hydroponics is sometimes referred to as “passive hydroponics.”

However, there is another way to use the nutrient solution and that is “active” hydroponics. This system often uses some form of nutrient delivery to deliver the appropriate nutrients to the roots. For this reason, in this post we will describe for you the main method of growing hydroponic houseplants.

Create your own soilless and maintenance-free hydroculture

The mess-free method is not only pet-friendly and easy to care for, but it also creates some amazing arrangements. This is an elegant way to bring a little green into your house or apartment.

Plants that are receptive to rooting in water will grow easily this way for years with little attention and care. You can grow fiddle leaf fig, rosemary and geraniums in glass containers, creating a design pretty enough to serve as a centerpiece. As a bonus, you can even pick fresh rosemary sprigs directly from the hydroponic houseplants.

How does hydroponics work?

To grow, plants typically need water, oxygen, nutrients, and some support to stay upright. The latter two needs are met by the nutrient solution in traditional hydroponic houseplants. So if you want to replace the dirt of the soil in favor of nutrient-rich water and a bottleneck vase to support the stems, then bring a soilless garden home.

What do the plants need?

While plants have specific light requirements, one of the main causes of dead growth is too little or too much water. Plants that do not receive enough water will wither and die quickly, while those that receive too much water will develop root rot and fungal and bacterial problems that can lead to death. You actually only need three things to successfully grow hydroponic houseplants:

1. Water
2. Nutrients
3. A medium to hold the plant

Aside from making it easier to grow houseplants hydroponically, using water instead of soil has several other great benefits. Growing your plants in water using hydroponics is much healthier – it helps reduce allergies, prevents mold, and the water is pest-free.

So this method completely eliminates the main causes of houseplant death: overwatering and underwatering. Without soil, your plants are also less susceptible to disease. In addition, daily care and maintenance is reduced to refilling the water once a month.

How to set the whole thing up

Select a plant that you know will root in water and cut a section just below the leaf where the plant's natural rooting hormone is active. While the cutting is still fresh, place the plant segment in a glass container with water. Choose a vessel with a thinner neck that supports the plant's stem, such as round glass vases.

Since the new hydroponic houseplants get all the nutrients from the water, the type of water is crucial here. Use bottled or well water instead of tap water, which is often stripped of nutrients through filtration and chlorination. Watch your budding plant friend for signs of rooting, which typically begins after two weeks. If the water level is too low, add a little more water. The picture above proves that even a mighty oak tree can continue or begin its life in a humble water garden.

Aggregates made from clay granules

To grow hydroponic houseplants, you can purchase expanded clay pebbles that are specifically designed for this purpose. These are made from clay granules that have been fired at high temperatures to form a hard outer shell and a honeycomb-like center. This allows water absorption and you can easily rinse and clean the clay balls with clean water. The picture above shows the typical internal structure of expanded clay pebbles.

The aggregates perform a similar role to soil in supporting hydroponic houseplants. Such brown or green beads have the ability to absorb nutrient solution and transfer it from a reservoir to the plant roots through the aggregate by capillary action.

An internet search for hydroponic houseplants or passive hydroponics usually leads to various suppliers who have suitable plant granules in stock. Some of them even offer it in different sizes, but you can basically use the small pebbles for fine-rooted plants and the larger clay balls for everything else.

Suitable fertilizers

This is the “food and water” for the plants. There are specific nutrients available for hydroponics, usually in either powder or liquid form. You can add these to water to form a solution, or in a resin or tablet form that is added to the aggregate or reservoir. The resin form is used to release food slowly over long periods of time, often months.

Hydroponic nutrients differ from some houseplants and foods in that they contain additional trace elements. However, some nutrient solutions may not be suitable for hydroponic houseplants. In this regard, always check suitability with the manufacturer first. Nutrients are available in many different NPK (N = nitrogen, P = phosphorus, K = potassium) formulations, expressed in percentages. By selecting different NPK formulations, the plant's growth, flowering or harvest can be controlled to a certain extent.

Easy transplanting of hydroponic houseplants

The easiest method by which you can convert a houseplant to hydroponics is to root it in water, because the root system is slightly different from that grown in soil. The procedure consists of cutting a soft stem and in onecontainer filled with waterhang by placing a piece of cardboard on top of the container and passing the cutting through a hole in the center.

The cutting is placed somewhere where it gets light, but not in direct sunlight or in places that are too hot. The water in the container is changed every few days to prevent it from stagnating. Once a good root system has developed, you can carefully remove the cardboard from the plant so as not to damage it.

Then place the plant in an indoor greenhouse or cover it with a clear plastic bag with air holes to maintain high humidity for up to a month. For this period you can also only use water and not a nutrient solution.

Provide sufficient light

Like all plants, houseplants need good light. While a bright window, or even better a winter garden, can provide sufficient and sometimes too much light in the summer months, this is not the case for some plants in the winter months, where day length decreases significantly.

Many plant varieties come from tropical climates where daylight lasts longer throughout the year. Therefore, you are welcome to offer your plants additional artificial lighting to replace daylight. In fact, hydroponic houseplants that are indoors and not right next to a window receive much less light, so in such cases you will need to use artificial bulbs as the main source of light.

Suitable varieties for hydro plants

Which plants are suitable for hydroponics? There is no definitive list, but rather a starting point when it comes to plant species suitable for hydroponics. We tend to experiment with commonly available plants and see if they can be converted into hydroponic houseplants. The majority of plant varieties convert successfully. This is not an exhaustive list, but here are some easy varieties to get you started.

Here are some herbs and houseplants that can be grown hydroponically. This means they can survive in a vase full of water without potting soil. When it comes to herbal plants, you can plant things like mint, oregano, basil, rosemary, lavender, thyme, or sage. As decorative houseplants you can use, for example, ivy, philodendron, violin fig, begonia, geranium (cranesbill), money tree, spider plants or spider plants.

Hydroponic houseplants

Below is a list of houseplants that are ideal to grow without soil. These will thrive happily in a hydroponic system. You may know many of them and have already planted them. Why not use a cutting and let it grow in your new system? Not only are hydroponic houseplants beautiful in a home, they help purify the air by absorbing CO². Which of these would you try cultivating in water?

• The Devil Epheus: Epipremnum aureum
• Arrowwort: Syngonium podophyllum
• Philodendron
• Sheath: Spathiphyllum
• Navel plant or gunner flowers: Pilea
• Drachenbäume: Dracena
• Dieffenbachia: Cut the young tips and place them in the water, but be careful with the juice as it is caustic!
• Cobstring: Aglaonema: You can grow it whole or in individual branches.
• Spider plant (spider plant): Chlorophytum comosum

We can't think of any reason not to use a hydroponic system, even if you're considering it in conjunction with your regular gardening. This means you can have fresh growth when you want it, depending on the size of your apartment. Children will love seeing the plants growing in front of them.