Grow food at home, without the guesswork.
Use our plain-English guides to understand the main growing systems, or answer a few questions and find a setup suited to your crops, space and budget.
Start here
Which hydroponic system should you choose?
Read the beginner guide →
What are you trying to work out?
You can learn the basics first, get matched to a system or go straight to the setups we have reviewed.
Learn the systems
Understand how the main hydroponic setups work and what each one grows well.
Browse the guides → 2Find my setup
Compare your crops, space, harvest goals, effort and budget in a short quiz.
Take the quiz → 3Browse recommendations
See specific home-growing systems grouped by the kind of setup they suit.
View all recommendations →Six ways to grow food hydroponically
These are not every hydroponic method. They are six of the setups most relevant to growing food at home.
KratkyA passive reservoir with no pump or plumbing.
Tower gardenMultiple planting pockets arranged vertically.
NFTA shallow moving film of water beneath the roots.
Deep water cultureRoots sit in an aerated nutrient reservoir.
Countertop gardenLighting, circulation and planting pods in one unit.
Dutch bucketIndividual containers for larger fruiting crops.
Start with a clear explanation
Our guides focus on the decisions a first-time grower actually needs to make.
Choosing a systemBest hydroponic system for beginners in Australia
Compare six common systems by crop, available space, harvest amount, effort and budget.
Read the guide →
NFTHow nutrient film technique works
Learn what moves through the channels, how the roots receive water and where stacked systems differ.
Read the NFT guide →Still unsure which system fits?
Answer a few questions about what you want to grow, where the system will live and how involved you want to be.