Hydroponic Gardening 

Alena Heede

April 11, 2024

Program

Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in a water-based nutrient solution, without soil, and is a method that has great advantages for growing plants in high-density urban areas.  Alena’s presentation will focus on the Kratky method of hydroponic gardening.  This is considered a “passive” hydroponic system, meaning it doesn’t require pumps to circulate water and nutrients, but rather plants rely on gravity to move the nutritional solution to the roots.   This method is readily adaptable for small home gardens or large-scale production.

Speaker

Alena has been a Ft. Bend Master Gardener since 2021.  A retired corporate executive, she has been a self-proclaimed “hydroponic amateur since 2022.  Her interest in hydroponics developed during Covid and was a result from her studying and investigating healthy, immunity boosting foods. Alena shares that as her knowledge base grew and she learned about glyphosate and other harmful chemicals in our food that the next logical step for her was hydroponics.  The plants grow incredibly fast, and a she finds it lovely and so calming to watch the plants grow and flourish.