Inquiring minds want to know.. Thoughts?

Scott--

As I see it hydroponic growing is quite a bit of trouble and expense to go to.
You would need to have reasons to do it, such as needing to grow indoors due
to climate or absence of outdoor space, having no soil, or very bad soil, that
you cannot amend for some reason, etc. Renters in limited space who want to
do intensive growing on balconies and take their stuff with them when the
lease is up would be one case that comes to mind. Growing illegal herbs in
spare rooms is another!

Would hydroponic veges taste as good as soil-grown? I have no idea. My
limited experience is with hydroponic supermarket veges which taste the same
as other supermarket veges but cost more for some reason. However, one of the
reasons home grown veges are better is freshness, you can get that with
hydroponics too.

Also consider how comfortable you are doing your own "soil" chemistry in
detail. Do you want to learn how to stabilise the pH of nutrient solutions
and mix your own stuff, do you want to buy the gear to do the concoction
yourself or are you going to do what the bloke at the hydroponics shop tells
you, pay for ready mixed solute, and hope for the best. If you have no
background in chemistry there is a fair bit to learn compared with the fairly
forgiving environment of soil which can be managed reasonably well with
minimal technical knowledge.

There are all sorts of things grown hydroponically these days, I would want to
know what the commercial forces driving that enterprise were (eg growing
flowers out of season to get top dollar) before emulating it on a small scale.
In your circumstances there may be no reason to do it. But if you are
curious, have some spare cash and want to play, you probably won't blow
yourself up. But don't try and buy any large amount of ammonium nitrate
unless you like answering questions under a spotlight.

David