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Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture

Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture represents an educational, in-depth, up-to-date, indoor horticultural growers guide that covers all principles of indoor Hydroponics Indoor Horticulture by Jeffrey Winterborne hydroponic horticulture and gardening. This book contains 110,000 words, with over 300 diagrams, pictures, illustrations, graphs, tables, 3 dimensional CAD renderings, and is printed in full colour.

Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture examines, explores, dissects and presents a fully comprehensive step by step growers guide, relating to all and every aspect of indoor hydroponic horticulture, with complete chapters on plant biology, propagation, hydroponic systems, nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide enrichment, pH, biological pest control, fungi/disease, cuttings/clones, pruning/training, breeding, harvesting, equipment, grow rooms, a full history of hydroponics, and more.

This book goes further than any indoor growers guide has gone before, presented in full colour with 3 dimensional CAD renderings. Hydroponics - Indoor Horticulture quite simply outclasses any other book on the subject... In terms of literal content, quantity, quality and presentation, no other indoor horticulture growers guide can compete, let alone compare.

(Below follows a one page sample taken from the book)

Roots

Growth emerges first from the root; ‘tis the first thing that grows. Roots pump nutrients and water to the leaves in exchange for sugar. The rootball is also a battery for the storage of excess energy created via the leaves, which gets stored as starch. This ability to store unused energy is the key to bumper yields. The healthier the roots are and the greater their capacity to store starch, the greater the plant will grow and the greater the yield will be.

Roots are organised in layers of cylinders. For roots in primary growth, the outermost cylinder consists of the dermal layer which is constructed with epidermal cells. You will also find root hairs which are the unicellular extensions in the epidermis which function in the uptake of water, nutrients and oxygen. The cortex is the next cylindrical layer. This is a layer of ground tissue which is made up of parenchyma cells. The endodermis cylindrical layer follows which is the innermost layer of the cortex.

Example of a Cross Sextion of Root

Example of a Cross Section of Root

The endodermis is distinct from the rest of the cortex. The major distinguishing factor is the casparian strip, which is a layer of a waxy substance called suberin embedded into the endodermal cell wall. This casparian strip prevents the passage of water and molecules through the endodermis via an apoplastic pathway. Inside the endodermis is the pericycle which is a layer of meristematic cells which functions in the formation of lateral roots, the vascular cambium and the cork cambium. The last cylinder consists of a vascular which functions in the transport of water, sugars, and other nutrients up and down the plant.

The greater and more extensive the size of area that the roots have to grow in, the bigger the rootball can become, the better the plant will grow and the more the plant is able to yield. This is due to rootballs being able to store lots of energy and are therefore capable of exchanging many types of nutrients pumped up to the leaves, thereby allowing the leaves to pump down more sugars and allowing the cycle to progress exponentially. The growth of the rootball is directly influenced by water, oxygen, temperature, nutrients and the sugars pumped down via the leaves photosynthesising the light.

A classic example of this process is comparing a soil grown plant to one in a hydroponics system. In soil, the plant has to continuously develop its root system in search of water, nutrients and air, so with what available energy the plant has, it has to spend a substantial amount on its lower root growth, thereby allowing minimum amount of energy for its upper leaf development.

In hydroponics systems, water, nutrient and oxygen are directly mainlined to the rootball therefore freeing the plant from expending substantial energy in search of these. This in turn allows the plant to spend this energy on upper leaf growth, which in turn develops the roots.