I requested this on NetGalley years ago, shortly after my first (incorrect, or at least insufficient) allergy diagnosis: I'm sensitive to the nickel content in foods, and many fruits and vegetables vary in their content levels, depending on where they were grown and the soils in those areas. My overachiever self thought it would be a great idea to hydroponically grown my own vegetables, so I could control the content more closely. Ha!

This seems like a great book-- clear instructions, lots of photos, examples of set-ups from simple through complex. Users can't just be gardeners, though-- you have to be handy with tools and a bit of a chemist, too. I don't have the bandwidth to take this on right now, or maybe ever.

There has been a resurgence lately on more effective use of our gardening resources and much more emphasis on self reliance skills for 'regular' people who don't have a lot of land or the background (or desire) to be full time farmers. Hydroponics, though it's not a new idea, has really come into its own as a method for increasing productivity and there are a plethora of books from which to choose.

Tyler Baras has written a practical how-to book aimed at introducing several different kinds of hydroponic systems along with the pros and cons of each type of system. Most hydroponics books I've seen are impractical because they're either aimed at the professional grower with a lot of money for setup and equipment or they're entirely too simple and impractical because they don't give any real solid how-to or steps for actually getting from the idea of growing crops or flowers hydroponically to doing it.

DIY Hydroponic Gardens spans the middle ground in providing entirely realizable practical systems which have the potential to produce food without being huge, prohibitively expensive, or impractical.

The book is 192 pages, available in ebook and paperback formats and was published by Quarto - Cool Springs Press. It's laid out in a logical format, beginning with and introduction which includes concept definitions, advantages of hydroponic growing and a good overview of the parts of a successful working hydroponic system.

Chapter two covers specific equipment including hardware, substrates, lights, and more, along with some maintenance info and how to take care of problems (like pests) before they become debilitating.

There is a large chapter on specific system setups. Each of these includes a tutorial section which includes tools and supplies for the DIY setup. Each setup includes a recommended plant list and a realistic discussion of the limitations and potential drawbacks.

Propagation, nutrition, maintenance, and troubleshooting, all have chapters including a good (realistic!) photography section showing some of the less desirable outcomes. I really liked that the author showed some of the problems which occurred in his own systems. Most books only show strawberry and lettuce plants bursting with health growing vigorously and apparently trouble-free, so that when bugs or algae pop up, new gardeners feel discouraged and incompetent.

The book has a good glossary and appendix with crop selection charts, conversion tables, a short bibliography and a no-frills index.

All in all a very useful and practical book with usable plans utilizing easily sourced hardware.

Four stars

If you have ever considered or wondered about Hydroponic gardens this is the book for you. Readers learn what they need to know about how to create their own garden with all the details needed. You will learn about the supplies needed, how to build it, what to plant as well as how to maintain it. There are one that one option when it comes to the systems available too and each is designed to be easy to build. Also included are some recipes for the plants being grown. You want it then you've got it in this book.

DIY Hydroponics Gardens is an interesting book full of projects to make your own hydroponic fruit and vegetable garden on a small or large scale. Think back to school and growing watercress on cotton wool in an egg shell or your kids coming home with a bean grown on a damp tissue - it's like that but on a much, much bigger and better scale, be it indoors or the greenhouse, all without soil.

There are 7 chapters in this book which are include an Introduction, Equipment, Hydroponic Growing Systems, Starting Seeds & Cuttings, Plant Nutrition, System Maintenance and Common Problems & Troubleshooting plus a Glossary and handy Crop Selection Charts.

The Introduction and Equipment chapters explain what hydroponic gardening is and what equipment you will need to get going. The author then provides 9 projects to get you started from a simple bottle to a vertical garden. Each comes with a list of all the supplies needed along with the tools and colour photography of the steps taken to build the project along with the instructions.

There is information on how to start the seeds once you are ready or how to take a cutting and use that to grow onto a full plant. Plant nutrition is important, so the author provides details on how to substitute soils nutrients with fertilisers, how to maintain the correct balance and when and how to clean the reservoirs of water. There is also a whole chapter on troubleshooting, be it nutrient, pests or seeding problems.

Finally after the Glossary of terms there is an Appendix on all the different plants you could grow. It is provided in chart form and gives the best hydroponic systems that work for that plant, be it lettuce, spinach or herbs - its surprising how many vegetables, herbs or fruits you can grow this way.

Throughout the book there is full colour photography and fantastic instructions to follow. There are also tables for measurement and temperature conversations between metric and imperial.

I received this book from netgalley in return for a honest review.

Very thorough intro to hydroponic gardening. They start with the very basics for those, like me, who know nothing about hydroponics. There's a wealth of information on equipment options, different types of hydroponic setups and the pros and cons of each, how to get started with plants once your setup is ready, maintenance, and a really handy troubleshooting section. If you're not a beginner, I still think it would be a really handy reference because of the depth of coverage.

While reading the beginning, I kept thinking, "Too bad I don't have room for a system like that!" and then, SURPRISE! there's a section on an ideal setup for those without much room to spare. Nice! I still need to consider toddler-proof options, but if I can get that figured out, I'm going to give it a try.

Highly recommended!

#DiyHydroponicGardens #NetGalley #Sustainable #SOSEarth #Hydroponic #Garden #FutureGardens

This is complete and well explained reference book about the Hydroponic gardens. The book covers step by steps projects to create hydroponic garden of different size depending on the needs. Also, the reader can have access to the charts about the PH, the harvesting time required and more technical information for a large selection of plants, flowers and legumes.

This book does a vey good job in explaining the processes and variations, as it does on how to build and care for your own system.
We have an aquaponic garden and was interested to get information on other systems.
This book is easy to understand, is well illustrated with photographs. I think anyone that has any interest in hydrophonics of any type would do well to read this book to get a good understanding of the process, pitfalls. costs and benefits of running such a system

I have had an interest in hydroponics for years. This book finally provides some answers for me. What hydroponics are, how they work, how to set up a system, and how to troubleshoot any problems that arise. I feel confident, with the guidance provided in this book, that I could attempt hydroponics on my own.

I love this book. I am interested in hydroponic gardening but didn't know where to start. This book answered many of my questions. The beautiful pictures and the clearly written text made it very easy to understand how to do it.
I received an ARC from NetGalley to review and plan to buy a copy for reference.

This is a book for those who are really handy and have the space for these types of garden spaces. This is a how to build these types of gardens. For me, previous experience with PVC building and other types of materials. But there are good ideas in the book and helpful information.

An easy to follow guide to growing your own plants hydroponically. I would recommend that if you want to try a lot of the projects, you might need a large enough space indoors or outdoors to accommodate the size of the systems. Apartment dwellers seem to be out of luck based on the size of most projects unless you can build them elsewhere and bring them home. This goes into great detail about the specifications and needs plants grown in this way have, and I learned a great deal about how the hydroponics process works from this. This is an easy way to get started in this hobby if you need some help setting up without spending a lot of money.

I am so bad at gardening, like laughably so, which is embarrassing since I come from a family of champion gardeners. Well, there was one type of gardening I was good at, keeping my aquarium plants alive, so I thought, maybe I should look into hydroponics so I can finally grow some of my own herbs and flowers. This is a great guide, letting the reader decide to go really hardcore with their garden or starting out small, I like that it gives variety for the style of garden. Starting with the basics (a bottle garden) and moving to more complex styles the book has something for everyone!

I for one cannot wait to give it a try and maybe keep some herbs alive for a while!