Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to the Epic Gardening Show. My name is Kevin and we are

back for the first time in a while with just a Kevin episode. This is just me answering

some questions that I've gotten from readers like you.

And today's question is coming from Esmay.

So what she's saying is, hey, do hydroponic herbs require direct, and she put that in all caps, sunlight. P me to explain some concepts about hydroponics that might help illuminate why the question itself

is perhaps ill-formed. And this is nothing against you, Esmee, but this just shows that maybe there's a lack of understanding about the way that plants grow and so the short answer is if the plant that you're growing likes direct sunlight then yes you should give it direct sunlight,

or if you don't have that inside your home, what you should do is then replicate as closely as possible the conditions of direct sunlight with something like an indoor grow light.

And so the underlying question here or the underlying principle is that simply because a plant is grown in a hydroponic system,

that doesn't mean that it changes the light requirements that it needs.

It's still genetically the exact same plant.

What's happening that's different

is that it's growing in water and a nutrient mixture

instead of soil, which actually enhances

its growth speed.

Typically, let's say you're growing lettuce,

or for your example, as may, you're growing herbs.

Well, herbs like basil, you can get harvestable basil

in something like 30 days, but the plant itself

can live much longer. lettuce is something like 30 days but the plant itself can live much longer.

Lettice is something like a 50, 55 day, 60 day crop in soil, but in hydroponics you can

cut that

somewhere around 25 to 35 percent really depends on conditions and so the what I'm getting at

...