Question

Why is the purification of water and nutrient salts so important in studies involving mineral nutrition using hydroponics?

Answer 1

Hint: Hydroponics is a type of horticulture and a subset of hydroculture, which is a method of growing plants without soil, by using mineral nutrient solutions in an aqueous solvent.

Complete answer: Water quality is an important determinative factor in hydroponics cultivation.
1. Water is the basic ‘carrier’ in hydroponics as it dissolves and transports nutrients for plants but water also dissolves a lot of impurities that can be harmful to plants.
2. These impurities cannot be easily detected visually, and people get easily misled into making wrong assumptions about the purity of water from the clarity of a sample.
3. Poor water quality can lead to a number of plant growth problems including stunted growth, mineral toxicity or deficiency symptoms, the buildup of unwanted elements in plant tissue, bacterial contamination, not able to grow in a proper way, etc.
4. Purified water is essential for healthy plant growth. Water quality problems are often easy to solve if they are properly identified.

Additional information: Different contaminants that can interfere with plant developments in hydroponics culture are-
Chlorine and chloramines, Bacteria and pathogens, Minerals like sodium, calcium, magnesium, Iron and Iron bacteria, the hardness of the water.
Herbicide residues present in tap and well waters cause important damages to sensitive crops.

Note: The best approach is to be proactive about water quality as assumptions based on water clarity, absence of visible contamination, etc. may be quite misleading.
Purification of water and minerals is required for obtaining maximum optimum growth of plants.