Hydroponic is about as ‘organic’ as you can get.
I have eaten hydroponic tomatoes and they are excellent!.................
People are really dumb. They'd rather have tractors and fertilizers and "summer only" vegies. Just dumb.
There are a fair number of them on the South side of Chicago at this point and it's becoming a burgeoning industry. I was wondering how tomato's being sold at my local grocer are still "locally grown" when growing season is over, and now I know!
Only free range tomatoes! /s
The hydroponic solution has to have the correct mix of minerals in the water.
I’ve had some hydroponic tomatoes that had no taste at all.
The real benefit of hydroponic growing is that you are feeding nutrients directly to the root ball. Why is this important?
When a plant grows in soil, the root ball needs to continually expand to search out new sources of nutrients as the soil becomes depleted. As a result, the plant's energy is focused mostly on root ball development. With hydroponics, the nutrients are fed directly to the roots, so the majority of the plant energy and growth is expended above ground. The result is much more flavorful fruit, and more intense resins on herbs. Cooking with hydroponically grown herbs will really wake up the flavors you have been missing.
Hydroponic plants are best consumed immediately after harvest. Those in the supermarket have traveled many miles and have sat for a long time. Most of the plant flavonoids and oils have oxidized and are gone by the time you purchase them. So at that point, "hydroponic grown" becomes a marketing phrase rather than any real benefit to flavor.
I have consumed hydroponic pot and it is great yield-wise, but the flavor is lacking.
There is something “just not there” compared to pot grown in soil.
I posit that it is the beneficial bacteria/fungus that cannot be replicated in a hydro setup that is the crucial missing link, a link that will never be found.