The medium culture has a solid growing medium for the roots such as gravel, sand or a perlite culture. Hydroponic plants are grown in a number of ways, each supplying nutrient solution to the plants one way or another. Hydroponics can be used to grow plants anywhere, even in your own backyard. Using hydroponics can grow anything from garden crops to flowers. In areas where food is traditionally produced, but where fields are over crowded or stripped of their nutrients, hydroponics is a way food can be produced using a minimum of space and resources. Hydroponic growth leads to an increase in production over traditional farming in two ways. For one, hydroponic gardening just plain saves space. They can also be set up to open and close air ducts in your greenhouse or grow room. As you progress in your hydroponic garden hobby you may also want to switch from an aquarium pump or bubbler system to a more advanced irrigation and drainage system for your garden. Once again, the more plants you have the more advanced equipment you will need. Hydroponic systems use apparatus that are varied. There are two basic divisions between systems: water culture and media based. Systems may also be active or passive. Active systems use pumps and usually timers and other electronic gadgets to monitor the operation. Passive systems may also incorporate any number of gadgets. Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants without soil as hydroponics cultivates plants in nutrient-rich water. This is an advantageous method of gardening for home and for commercial use. There are no weeds to deal with and hydroponic plants are typically healthier, mature earlier, and use less space. Environmental control systems were being developed to help growers provide the ideal plant environment in addition to the ideal plant diet. Commercial crop growers are turning to soil less cultivation more and more. The speed of growth combined with the control over the growing environment means higher quality crops.