The term “hydroponics” is familiar to most people. Hydroponics involves growing plants in a liquid growing medium solution. Hydroponics has become quite popular in recent years, particularly in the growth of vegetables like lettuce and tomatoes.
Hydroculture is similar to hydroponics in many ways but has a key difference – instead of using a nutrient solution containing water as a growing medium, it uses an inorganic solid growing medium (or inert).
The inert growing medium is usually rock-based, typically something called “expanded clay aggregates.” Hydroculture is sometimes called “passive hydroponics,” meaning the plants grow without soil, bark or peat moss.