Plants require a few things to survive;
Nutrients - Soil simply holds the nutrients that plants need to grow. If you wash out the nutrients from the soil, then it becomes no more useful for growth than concrete. This is, in fact, an issue with modern agriculture as short-sighted crop rotation and heavy use of industrial fertilisers results in soil degradation. Plants require three main macronutrients to survive: Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potassium (you may hear these referred to as NPK in the Hydroponics world). In addition to this, they need certain micronutrients for various growth and health functions. Growing with our nutrient powder means you get the ideal mixture of nutrients required for plant growth. If you were to grow in the soil - all these nutrients may not be available, or your plant may have to expend unnecessary energy to grow it's roots to find the nutrients it needs.
Light - Sunlight is great for growing plants, but what is sunlight really? It's a broad spectrum of waves that are emitted by the sun when it releases energy via fusion. In other words - there are certain wavelengths of light that plants need to grow. This varies slightly between plant species but is usually a small band of blue light between 430 and 450 nm, and red light between 640 and 680 nm. Our LED provides this so that your plants can grow indoors without having to be anywhere near the sun.
Water - In soil water is essential in breaking down nutrients that are held in the soil so that they can be sucked up by plants. Water also fills up plant cells, providing the structure and rigidity that allows it to grow (that's why plants wilt when they don't have enough water). It's necessary for both photosynthesis - which is how plants convert nutrients into energy for growth, and transpiration - the evaporation that allows plants to cool down. Our Indoor Garden has a 1.5L reservoir that stores enough water to feed plants for 2 to 4 weeks depending on the size of the plant. This allows all the above functions to occur, resulting in a happy-healthy plant.
A Growing medium - something that retains water and allows nutrients to pass into the roots of the plant.
Adequate environmental conditions - such as temperature around 23 Degrees Celsius, 50% humidity and a reasonable level of airflow.