It's commonly said that plants need water, sunlight, and soil to grow. But what if I told you
it was possible to grow plants without soil even if you only have a few simple household materials?
To test this claim out, all you need is a cup, cotton balls, seed, water, and nutrient mix.
Place the cotton balls at the bottom of the cup and put the seed on top.
Place some of your nutrient mix in your water, and water your seed.
Place your seed in the sunlight and continue to water it until it grows into a sapling.
You've just created a hydroponic system by growing plants without soil.
At NASA, hydroponic systems are commonly used to grow plants in space with the hope
of eventually being able to cultivate crops using hydroponic systems at a larger scale.
So, plants don't actually need soil to grow, just the water and nutrients that come with it.
However, there is one important factor that we missed, air.
In order to perform photosynthesis,
plants need both carbon dioxide and oxygen, two gases that come from the air.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and convert it into food that they can use
to grow. Plants also need oxygen to release energy from stored sugars.
So, plants actually need water, sunlight, nutrients, and air to grow.