- HYDROPONIC GROWING
Intro
If you can read through all this information that I've put here and understand what I'm saying than you can grow amazing hydroponic plants that produce the highest yields over any other method of growing.There is so much misguided information on the Internet about hydro that it makes it tough to get started.Everything you read here is my past and experience and what I've learned,no copy and pastes from other websites (other than a few pictures)...Hydro can be frustrating when things go wrong but it's worth the exploding growth,this guide will show you how to grow successfully while also reducing risks of things going wrong
Buy a system or build one yourselfThis video is the easiest way to make a hydroponic system..I use DWC buckets for indoor grows but I use this same box type of setup for my outdoor plants.Without air stones at the bottom this is technically the kratky grow method.The only thing that will grow easy is small plants (mainly lettuce).If you try to grow something big in this system without airstones it will most likely get root rot from all the roots sucking up what little oxygen is in the stagnant water.This guy is a little new to hydroponic growing but this box he makes is very easy and cheap..I would also bury the box in the ground
|
|
The video below is a professional recirculating undercurrent deep water culture...This system costs around $2,300 or you can choose to learn and build one your self for around $1,200 for the same setup,but be wary when building your own as it can be a pain fighting with water leaks and getting enough air,water movement,and making sure the system is lightproof so algae doesn't begin to grow.
My custom outdoor RDWC system
These next 4 pictures are an outdoor system I designed and built with my dad which works awsome..I made the frame from 2x4s and plywood then used plastic sheeting to line the inside and make it waterproof.We put foam insulation on top to keep heat and light out and then buried the system to help keep it cool and also ran a cold water line from his well to inside the hydro reservoir running parrallel with the system and out the other side.Then we turned the water on a constant drizzle to keep cold water flowing through the pipe...The well water drizzles out and into my dads pond which helps keep his pond aerated and to keep his water levels from dropping..But the best part is it keeps the hydroponic system at a perfect 62-64 degree Fahrenheit range which is perfect..no need for an expensive water chiller :)
Deep Water Culture and other methods of Hydroponics
First thing you should know is that there are many different ways to grow in hydroponics (I believe there are 8).aquaponics,deep water culture,ebb n flow,nutrient film technique,aeroponics,drip technique,wick setup,and the kratky method.I have tried all of the ones I am mentioning and will tell you that I only use the deep water culture method to this day(other than the kratky method for lettuce)as I have found DWC (deep water culture)had the best growth rates combined with being the easiest to maintain.Water culture is just a simple method of growing plants while there roots are submerged in a nutrient and oxygen rich reservoir.Ive found its easiest to keep your deep water culture buckets as small as possible without roots getting root bound inside,this means much less water that you have to keep aerated,less nutrient solution you have to use,and if your reservoir is to big you will have to upgrade water chillers because they can only chill so much water..I use 5 gallon gallon buckets for vegging smaller plants then when they get bigger I put them in 10 gallon Rubbermaid trash cans.but the plants I grow are vegged longer than normal and the trunks are as big as my wrist,otherwise most people can get away using a 5 gallon bucket through the plants whole life cycle.If you have many plants what you want to do is want to connect 2 inch pvc pipes to the bottom of your buckets with a water pump pulling water from the first bucket and exhausting it into the last bucket creating a under water current while mixing your nutrients and oxygenating your reservoir(add a Venturi air intake to your water pump to create higher dissolved oxygen).
This is an aquaponics system.It uses the same basic principles as deep water culture with the roots growing down into an aerated reservoir,but with aquaponics you have fish living within the reservoir and the fish provides the nutrient solution by simply pooping it out.aquaponics is awsome because you can use bigger fish and create a sustaining loop,you feed the fish,the fish feed the plants,the plants feed you.However I wouldn't recommend any large bearing fruit or vegetables to be grown in aquaponics because the fish don't add enough P and K by themselves to properly feed larger plants
Oxygen and Its Importance
Ok.To be able to successfully grow using hydroponic methods you must first learn how things work because although hydroponics do grow plants faster than soil plants,when things go bad they go bad faaast.So you've got to know what your doing before you just buy a nice system...First thing and most important is oxygen.A rule of thumb when buying airpumps is that you need a pump that can put out 1 liter of air per gallon of water that's in your reservoir.The entire reason hydroponically grown plants grow faster is because they're receiving more oxygen to their rootzone than soil grown plants or plants grown in soilless mediums..Sinse the plants roots are submerged in water they have a high risk of anaerobic bacteria taking over your system and killing your plants.You need a high amount of dissolved oxygen in the water so the plant can breathe.If your air pumps break and go unnoticed for long periods of time your plants roots will suffocate and die and with all that dead organic matter floating in a low oxygen reservoir it will leave you very vulnerable to bad bacteria like Pythium or slime that will run your system in no time killing your plants..One thing I've noticed is that people always seem to think that plants gather oxygen from the actual air rising from the air stones but that's just not true and aggressive air bubbles can actually damage roots..The bubbles that are released from air stones slowly dissolve into the water as the bubbles rise to the surface and also stirs the surface water allowing more contact with air which does the same thing..The best air stones are the micro pore ones that create a lot of very small bubbles which have a bigger surface area than just a few big bubbles.The smaller bubbles also rise to the surface much slower than big bubbles allowing them more time to be absorbed into the water creating a higher dissolved oxygen ratio in your reservoir which means more root production which means bigger plants..You need enough air stones to keep the surface area of your reservoir constantly moving with bubbles...You can buy an expensive device to tell you how much dissolved oxygen your water is holding but they are very expensive and as long as you know your water temp is under 70 and you have sufficient movement and aeration in your reservoir that you've got enough oxygen
Hydroponic Mediums
The medium is what's going to be in your net pots or bed.The only thing this medium is going to do is help anchor your Roots into place.The medium just needs to have great aeration without high water retention or else you have a good chance of starting with root rot or possibly even crown rot if your water level is to high.When starting off in hydro you can transplant soil to hydro but only if the plant is small and there isn't a big root mass yet(rinse soil off roots before transplant) or your soil will constantly soak up that water causing the soil to become waterlogged and anaerobic.Instead you should start with a hydroponic cloner with neoprene slots for easy transplant into the bigger system.You can buy this system for 20 bucks on Amazon,there not expensive.There are all kinds of hydro mediums you can choose from and I have tried and experimented with a lot but I'm only going to recommend either Clay Balls which are just heat expanded clay that is very light.(hydroton),which is what I use or Rockwool which is also a good choice,I just prefer clay rocks because I can sterilize and reuse them rather than buying more each harvest.If you have a small plant that is in soil you can transplant it into a hydroponic system as long as you try and rinse as much soil as you can off the roots and put a layer or 2 of clay rocks or rock wool between the roots and water from your reservoir.try and be gentle as you are putting your plants through stress and how well you handle them will be how fast they recover..
Net Pots,Bed, or Neoprene
This depends on the hydroponic system that you will be using and the size of the plants your growing..You always want your water level to cover about 70 percent of your rootmass.Start off with the water level barely touching the bottom of your net pot and lower the water level as the roots grow.If your just using this to clone cuttings with or grow something very small like lettuce I would just use neoprene slots,but other plants that are heavy will just fall into your reservoir with neoprene so they must be small,you just slide the stem through and that's it ...If your using net pots I would use small 2 inch pots for anything that doesn't have much root mass or take up space cause you can fit a lot of them side by side.For bigger plants like tomatoes I would use 6 inch net pots to encourage root growth before the roots leave the pots so the roots don't get extra big or their circulation of nutrients will be deprived from the holes in the net pots being to small...Growing in a bed of about 4 inches of medium and then the reservoir underneath is also a good setup and I like big hydro beds for year round greenhouses,it's almost like soil,you can just put a plant wherever you want.And it eliminates the cost of net pots and you can just put plants wherever you want if you need to fill a gap you just put a plant there utilizing all light..
Water Temperature and Water Levels
Temperature is probably the most important and under looked thing in hydroponics other than the actual air that's being held by the water....How high or low your water temperature is will decide on how much air your reservoir can even hold.You can have 10 air pumps and a million air stones but if the water temperature is in the 80s or 90s it just can't physically hold enough oxygen for the plants roots to breathe,which will cause root rot or even Pythium to plague your garden.The perfect reservoir temperature is between 62 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit.this allows the water to have the highest possible dissolved oxygen levels without being to cold for your roots to thrive. I highly recommend insulating the top of your hydro system anywhere light touches it to keep heat out and fix any possibly light leaks into the reservoir (any light in your reservoir and you will notice algae starting to grow)and if your growing outside you should bury your entire hydroponic system in the ground with only 2 inches sticking out of the ground so rainwater doesn't flood in.This will help ensure that your temps stay low,after they get higher than 72 I always started having bacterial problems which led to root rot and a few dead plants.I would also highly recommend buying a water chiller,although expensive it will prevent a lot of heartache which is sure to happen if you grow in hydroponics long enough..if you can't afford a water chiller there are other options from simply placing frozen gallons of water into the reservoir to running cold water pipes through the reservoir.when it comes to your water level I always start off with the water barely touching the bottom of the net pot and as the roots grow down into it I slowly move the level down about 2 or 3 inches so there's less water that you have to keep cold and oxygenated and there's more air touching the actual roots with a fine spray of water from the bubbles popping so they get more oxygen without drying out.Also keep in mind that the higher your water level is the harder your air pumps have to work to push air through the weight of all that water,causing less oxygen to bubble out..when it comes to water you don't have to go all fancy and get RO water or uv sterilize it or buy separate water just for hydroponics..if your water EC without nutrients is above .6 than you might want to consider a filter,I've done side by side grows with different types of water and my tap water performed just as good..
Growing Sterile Or Using Beneficial Micro Organsims
There's a lot of heat on this topic but with all my trial and error I'm gonna have to side with sterile...Growing with beneficial micro organisms (beanies) is great with soil and I've recorded bigger yields with it...In soil...But in hydroponics I've tried every which way and after going through hell and back from losing entire crops from bad bacteria with exploding growth rates and clogged up pumps because of organic buildup in the reservoir I'm never swaying from the sterile route again..I had no increased yield using beanies (beneficial micro organisms)in my system either..Its just a concept that people think if it works with soil it will work with hydro but it doesn't work that way..The beneficial bacteria are great in soil because they help break down raw elements that the plants roots can't absorb yet and speeds up the process for something to decay and become water soluble and be made available for the plant to use..However in hydroponics the nutrients are made available through synthetic nutrients which require no further breaking down,the plants drink it right up...I've tried adding teas with organic nutrients and creating a little ecosystem with beanies but it raises the risks of many bad things happening that just don't seem worth it to me.You can use products like"Great White" or "hydroguard" as as beneficial innoculant which decompose dead root matter faster which greatly reduces bad bacteria from using that to breed on and it also physically attacks other micro organisms that might be eating eating your nutrients or harming your roots.But I wouldn't add any organic matter or organic nutrients .I love growing organic in soil and you can with hydro but it's just not worth opening the door to the many bad things that can happen.
Hydroponic nutrients
If your growing sterile (which is my preference for hydroponic growing) than you want to keep your reservoir as clean as possible from keeping your water clean and not having obstacles in your water for bacteria to cling to and start reproducing..You don't want any beneficial bacteria and you want a clean nutrient solution..I wouldn't pick any nutrient line that is thick or sludgy or tends to clump together or your system will just get clogged up,if you pick something clean like the CANNA line it will never buildup on you and you can go months without changing your reservoir...I am not affiliated with CANNA in any way other than a customer but I simply love there products..Other than there bloom booster CANNA BOOST there line is very affordable and high quality,I've tried out damn near every nutrient line you can think of and they've got my vote..When it comes to nutrients you don't need a million bottles of stuff to get maximum yields
...Most nutrient lines though will at least know what there doing with their NPK numbers though so you can stick to just one line instead of trying to get complicated.Maybe use a product like CAL MAG if your using Reverse osmosis water or anything with a EC lower than .2..CAL MAG will add any missing macro or micro nutrients that your water might be missing and most nutrient lines don't add these nutrients in their base line...Other than the base nutrients you don't need anything but a bloom booster that will be high in P and K..and my tests do show increased yields when using these products..With the CANNA line it's called PK 14 ,cheap and works wonders but does lose nutritional value after being opened..But that's it,You don't need root stimulators,enzymes,flavor enhancers,microbial teas and products like molasses or h202 can cause problems..Slime loves peroxide and if you have slime already present it will eat up all that oxygen and multiply like crazy ...All a waste of money and causes your EC to go up and down and ph swings which will make it harder to be sure you have all your essential nutrients.
...Most nutrient lines though will at least know what there doing with their NPK numbers though so you can stick to just one line instead of trying to get complicated.Maybe use a product like CAL MAG if your using Reverse osmosis water or anything with a EC lower than .2..CAL MAG will add any missing macro or micro nutrients that your water might be missing and most nutrient lines don't add these nutrients in their base line...Other than the base nutrients you don't need anything but a bloom booster that will be high in P and K..and my tests do show increased yields when using these products..With the CANNA line it's called PK 14 ,cheap and works wonders but does lose nutritional value after being opened..But that's it,You don't need root stimulators,enzymes,flavor enhancers,microbial teas and products like molasses or h202 can cause problems..Slime loves peroxide and if you have slime already present it will eat up all that oxygen and multiply like crazy ...All a waste of money and causes your EC to go up and down and ph swings which will make it harder to be sure you have all your essential nutrients.
Reservoir EC (ppm) and PH
If you plan on growing anything larger than lettuce in hydroponics I would definitely recommend you buy a good EC Meter that also tells you the PH..I wouldn't buy anything cheaper than 80 dollars or it will just need replaced too soon..EC stands for electrical conductivity and tells you on a scale how much dissolved solids are present in your reservoir..This number will tell you how much nutrient solution is in your tank and if your plants are about to go hungry or burn from nutrient toxicity..PPM stands for parts per million and tells you the exact same thing as the EC does it's just on a different scale..I choose to use EC instead because when people are talking about PPMs that number is based on so many different scales and people have no idea that the scale they're using is completely different from other people's scale..It's like the metric system..There's PPM scales that base there numbers off 3 different things either 500 650 or 700 is the most common ones..So the PPM number is useless unless you know the scale that their referring to..but EC tells you the same number just on a different scale and its worldwide so the number doesn't change based on any scales..to convert from EC to PPMs just multiply whatever the EC number is by the number of the PPM scale you want to use,so if your using the 500 scale and your EC is 1.2 than your PPMs are 600..for smaller plants start with low EC numbers and only add maybe a quarter of the recommended dose of nutrients than wait for it to mix with the whole reservoir and then test your EC and add more if you need.Its always better to do gradual changes rather than over doing it and causing stress on plant roots which will halt growing..For small plants I like the EC at .8 and as they mature into flowering slowly raise it to 1.4...Most plants will start to show signs of nutrient toxicity once levels pass 1.6 -1.8..And they will start to lose their color and show deficiencies if it drops under .8(with the exception of maybe lettuce)...Once plants start drinking a lot of water and you have to refill your reservoir you won't have to add nutrients everytime you fill up you will just add water or your salt levels from the nutrients will build up and your EC will skyrocket..Just feed based on your EC levels and I like to change my reservoir once a month to make sure my plants aren't using all their say nitrogen that I'm giving them and my phosphorous and potassium levels are getting to high but the EC level would still say everything is fine although your plants will start turning yellow from nitrogen deficiency..Also pay attention to your plants,if the leaves get darker green and edges burn you probably have high EC (too much nutrients)and need to replace some of the reservoir with water..If your plants are losing their color and it's not just late in the season and nature pulling nutrients out of the leaves to bare fruit then you probably have a deficiency and should add more nutrients.Remember that your water level has everything to do with how high your EC will be.If your plants drink all your water and you don't top off your reservoir with plain water then your nutrient levels will skyrocket burning your plants...And allllways check your reservoirs ph and EC every time before u add top off water,ph swings can happen when plants pull certain salts out of your nutrients,and if your ph swings to much it will cause nutrients in your reservoir to be unavailable for the plants roots to absorb and will cause your plants to show signs of toxicity even though all the correct nutrients are there...Always keep your ph between 5.6 and 6.2 and you shouldn't have any problems..I posted a chart above that shows lockout of nutrients and different PH levels
How to sterilize and clean your system between grows
You should do this between every grow to ensure there's no gunk hiding somewhere where bacteria could be reproducing..what I do is pull all the plants then raise the water level as high as it can go without over filling.Then I pour an entire gallon of Clorox bleach into my 100 gallon reservoir and turn on all water pumps and air pumps to keep water moving through the parts and create friction to help the bleach break down anything organic so you can flush it out.Then I go to sleep and come back 24 hours later with the system still running..Then I drain the system to the last drop then fill it once with water and drain it once more...don't worry about the tiniest bits of bleach left in the reservoir as the ingredients in bleach break down quick and small doses won't hurt your plants..Believe it or not I know a couple growers that add 6 to 8 drops of bleach in there system per gallon of water in they're reservoir even while the plants are growing in it,I've tried it and noticed whiter roots with no ill effects compared to the no bleach system grown right next to it..the bleach has chorine which isn't as bad as I'm sure you've probably heard on the Internet.but it eliminates all the microbial life so your roots aren't competing for the nutrients and oxygen in your Rez and it elimates slime spores and keeps anything from reproducing..A lot of growers will recommend H202 or peroxide to kill whatever problem there having in there res but they don't realize that some problems (mostly slime that suffocates roots killing plants quick) actually like h202..its adds enormous amounts of oxygen to the water that's supposed to sterilize and kill everything,but slime will eat that oxygen up and multiply 10 times the growth making your problem a lot worse..