Question: I miss my fresh garden vegetables so much. I was wondering how hard it would be to grow some of them hydroponically in my house?

Answer: You would be joining a large number of people worldwide who eat hydroponic vegetables. Imagine not having to wash the soil and other debris from lettuce or spinach leaves. Hydroponics is not new and in some cold climate countries, greenhouses of hydroponic vegetables are grown year-round.

Using a hydroponic technique is one of the easiest ways to grow most plants. Basically, you are growing plants without the soil providing nutrients. The nutrients are all provided in the water, not the potting medium. The plant still needs to get all of its other needs (light, warmth, air, etc.) met in the usual way.

When a plant is in the soil, the root portion of the plant needs to be large. It must gather water and nutrients in an inefficient and calorie consuming manner. The soil's role is to hold up the plant and to release nutrients into the water so the plant can consume them.

In a hydroponic system the water and nutrients are provided as often as the plant needs them. The root system can be small and still provide the top with all the nutrients necessary to produce leaves, flowers and fruit. There will be more productivity in a smaller area over a longer period of time. With nutrients continuously available, the plants grow and mature quicker.

Another benefit is fewer insect and disease problems. Most problem causing insects and diseases have some part of their life cycle spent in the soil. So, the lack of soil means none of those problems, better yields and fewer pesticides. And, wow, think of this: No soil means no weeds!

Hydroponics can be done low-tech or high-tech. You can start with a pop bottle or a Styrofoam ice chest. For small window sill plants, like herbs, that are always being cut down, cut a two liter bottle in half and turn the top upside down into the bottom. Place a strip of cotton cloth through the top into the bottom to act as a wick. Fill the old top (now it is the pot) with some inert media like perlite. Add a small plant or cutting and fill the bottom with water. This is a capillary system that wicks the water and nutrients to the roots.

For larger plants like tomatoes, you need a larger pot. Cut a few holes in the top of the cooler and secure a tomato plant in each hole with a piece of wire. Use three sticks to make a tripod over the cooler and tie the tomato plants up with a few strings.

The next step up in technology is to drill holes in the top of a piece of pipe. Put a plant in each hole. Set the pipe so one end will drip back into a barrel. Put a small water pump in the barrel and pump the water to the other end of the pipe and let it run back to the barrel. This is a flood and drain system where the roots are flooded with water and nutrients and then allowed to have air and oxygen, before the next flooding cycle.

There are numerous commercially available tray, pot and barrel systems. You can have a single shelf-sized system for one window or a whole greenhouse system. High-tech computerized water recirculating systems are available that monitor the amount of nutrients and automatically control the watering cycles.

If you don't have a lot of sunlight available, there are several lighting systems that can help. There are specific metal halide and high-pressure sodium lamps available that emit light similar to the colors of sunlight. They can be installed in fixtures that rotate around, as though on a ceiling fan, or that move back and forth in tracks. These fixtures allow for larger growing areas with fewer lights. I will talk more about indoor lighting next week.

Specific plant foods have been developed for hydroponic use. They must supply all of the plants' chemical needs except for what it receives from the water and air. It must be used every time the plant is watered, but

Some varieties of hydroponics use an inert media to stabilize the plant into a pot. One such product is created by heating rock until it becomes lava, and then it is spun out like cotton candy. The rock fibers are called Stone Wool or Rock Wool.

Interestingly, hydroponics uses only about a tenth of the water as normal in the soil gardening. Water in the soil spreads out beyond the roots and evaporates away, but in hydroponic systems it is recycled. It is one of the most efficient ways to produce food.

Email questions to Jeff Rugg at [email protected]. To find out more about Jeff Rugg and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.