Sharon Kleyne Hour

Todd Blossom, who believes in hydroponics and says, “Hydroponics is a clean, above-ground, pesticide-free way of growing such a variety of plants,” founder of Hartford Fresh, Inc., at Hartford Farms. “It’s year-round cultivation. You can space plants as they grow and it’s 25 times as productive [as traditional gardening].” The word hydroponics comes from the Greek words meaning “water” and “labor”, and is a method of growing plants, mainly fruits and vegetables, without soil. The plants are placed in trays or inserted into tubing over a container of water with a submergible pump. The pump circulates the water making traditional gardening methods unnecessary. Sometimes, a different medium such as clay pellets, sand, or peat is used to support the plant. But the water filtration is the key to growth.