What does Hydroponics do for you???

[Kuroth]

Knowing nothing about it, this might see a dumb question but what exactly is the advantage of using Hydro???

Is it the speed??? And if so how does that work.. If say you have a plant that normally in soil takes 10 weeks in flower to be done, how does Hydroponics speed up mother nature??? And how much faster?

Thanks!

 

[BurrZurrKurr]

I'm not a hydro expert, but from what I've seen and done, the growth does seem quicker because the roots are exposed to optimum nute/water mix, and plenty of oxygen. Can get away with smaller containers than soil. I've seen people report that the problems can come on quicker, not as forgiving as soil, but done right really cuts a week or so off the whole grow/harvest time. I've run basic soil, and some hydro - I like the hydro, but again, I'm no expert. Some pros will likely chime in - good luck - check the hydro forum for more info.

 

[paladin420]

Hydro allows me to run that max legal plant count. And still take of my caregiver business.

I predominantly use ebb & flo so 3-4 times a day my root ball gets degassed and fed. As that water is drawn back to my Rez it pulls O2 to my roofs.

My flower times tend to only be a week or two faster than that same strain hand watered.

I feel that the veg times are where you can really make some time. Time is money.

Pal

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

I feel that the veg times are where you can really make some time. Time is money.

Pal

I agree. Personally, I dont think hydro systems flower faster, but they definitely pack on more bio-mass quicker.

 

[gtgio]

It's like hooking a World of Warcraft player up to an IV that injects Monster and Doritos directly into his veins.

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

It's like hooking a World of Warcraft player up to an IV that injects Monster and Doritos directly into his veins.

View Image

Haha, nice analogy.

Ontario freshness eh? I take a fishing trip in Kenora almost every year and its the only week of my year that I dont smoke... I always try to get the kids at the bait shop to hook me up but they play dumb.

 

[gtgio]

Haha, nice analogy.

Ontario freshness eh? I take a fishing trip in Kenora almost every year and its the only week of my year that I dont smoke... I always try to get the kids at the bait shop to hook me up but they play dumb.

Can't say i've ever been that far up north, I just checked it out on google maps and ironically it would be faster to drive through the states to get there from where I am in Toronto, haha.

But I can say that in small-town Ontario most everyone smokes bud because there's nothing else to do.

 

[ILoveit]

In my experience its less hassle growing in hydro, with soil I had to mix nutes every four days in hydro once every two weeks.
Hydro is less messy & less waste to bin plus you transplant once & your done. However the end product in hydro does not taste the same as grow in soil.
Also if your intentions are to grow organically then its best done in soil as the break down process occurs in soil. There are many advantages & disadvantages in both methods but youll have to research the two & go with what suits your lifestyle or tastebuds,

If you do decide to choose hydro than Id recommend you take a look at Heath Robinson's grows thats what gave me confidence.

Happy growing.

 

[FoCo(No.Co)]

Can't say i've ever been that far up north, I just checked it out on google maps and ironically it would be faster to drive through the states to get there from where I am in Toronto, haha.

But I can say that in small-town Ontario most everyone smokes bud because there's nothing else to do.

Seems like everyone up there is drunk... and I see a lot of natives buying pills on the street.

But yea I know those damn bait shop kids are holding out on me... I bet a lot of those small town folk smoke fire too. One of these years I'll meet the right guy and my annual fishing trips will be a lot more fun from then on.

 

[Danks2005]

1st and foremost is control. Control of nutrients and ph can be very precise. 2nd, no soil to lug in and out and around. I can turn on a pump to empy a rez, then open a valve and fill it. Easy as pie.

 

[cravin morehead]

What does Hydroponics do for you???

saves my back from hauling all those amendments and soil bags in and out. plus it keeps people from seeing tons of dirt going in and out of your pad/grow location. that being said, i keep my mothers in organic soil for keeping the growth speed down but still remain very healthy...

 

[Danks2005]

I keep my mothers in hydro, when they get too big I clone them and start them over. I would only start over 1 at a time. I recently lost all of my mothers while rebuilding my room. If the mothers were in soil it would have been much easier for me to keep them alive through construction. Poor excuse though, proper planning and I would have been able to keep them alive anyway. Oh well, now I get to pop some beans.

 

[supermanlives]

it does nothing . i tried every kind of hydro. i like dirt i guess. but my old 2.5 gal gh containers are great for plants. soil rules

 

[Danks2005]

I learned with hydro, then started using organic soil for a several years with great results. No doubt both work well and grow great weed. But, my jacked up spine just can't hang with soil. Plus I don't have a green thumb, I have to garden with logic and numbers, so I found my way back to hydro.

 

[RidgeRebel]

i maintain it once a week. i never miss a watering, whether I'm there or not (usually not). nor do i have to deal with a garden that only half the plants need water or worse, like 4 or something dumb like that. my growth rates are accelerated so when those 60 or whatever days are up my yields are better. i get the most out of my fertilizers because they are recirculated (8 or so mins, up to 6 times a day). with way less medium (altho it is more expensive per bag, i use far less bags) which means easier humidity control because theres not all that water evaporating off of all the soil surface. not to mention theres something scientifical about measuring out nutrient strengths and ph all proper like i really dig also. so basically my garden gets taken care of better and i don't always have to be in there messing with it. just more upfront costs.. trays and res's, plumbing and whatnot. top feed is where its at because you don't have to have these huge res's that always need to be full just to be able to flood the whole tray to the proper level, id say. altho, i would like to run some DWC trash cans outside this year...

 

[Herbophile]

I'm able to veg with half the light and twice as fast for my set-up and I like the the consistency and control that comes with hydro. My soil grows were always successful enough but it was more hands on. Like was said above I also hate when a few plants get out of synch with watering times for some reason and they get on an odd schedule. For how easy it seems to be I could never get the watering in soil thing down pat.

My yields and over all quality in hydro also blow away anything I've done in soil.

The one thing I don't like when I run hydro is having to keep mothers. When I'm in soil I just clone right before flower but in hydro they veg too fast to do that so I'm forced to keep the mothers going.

 

[Herbophile]

..

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

i used to do organic soil, recently started a diary about making the transition to hydro (link is in the sig)and i can say that growing in hydro is the best damned thing since the invention of the wheel.

cuts/clones: i use a 50/50 mix (perilite/vermiculite) and water with (GH series) 1cc micro, 1cc gro per. 1gl

cloner: i have a bubble cloner that i keep with my moms that holds 12 plants, i like to leave the rooted cuts in there until they get around 1'-2' tall, it takes the same amount of time for them to get that tall as it does for a full term flower grow so my grow is literally turn key. ive got 2x18" blue airstones/ top up with lucas formula for veg (5cc micro+ 10cc bloom/per. gl.) and the tub holds 5gl so no need to top up to frequently.

flower: best damned thing to ever happened since sliced bread!!! all i do is top up and that is all. near the end of the grow i start to see tip burn and i alternate top ups between water with nutes and plain water, and for the last two weeks i just top up with plain water. no need for any meters, readers or anything of the sort. lucas formula for flower is the best far as i care to tell.

i grow 2gl DWC so:
*no need to constantly go in and check for pests (outside of mites which i had a year ago and sterilized the shit out of everything since then) since theres nothing for them to grow in, atleast i havent seen any in mine.
*no more luggin' dirt all over the place/ breaking out xtra equipment to deal with clean ups
*no more having to till soil in order to mix nutes, all i have to do is shake a gl. bottle
*i stick with the GH series and that is IT! no need to buy different additives and what not unless your seriously into "tweeking" and having a whole bunch of additives which i am not
*can leave my plants alone for atleast 2weeks (i can top up a lil or alot along as my water line doesnt go above the bottom of the net cup)
*i travel at times so i need to be able to leave my grow for about a week at a time, dont have to worry about coming back to half dead looking plants
*barely anything to clean up! if you spill anything, if you want, you can leave it right where it is and whats the most that will happen? the mess is gonna dry up?
*as long as you K.I.S.S. then its less for you to worry about, do
*faster/quicker plant growth response to cutting/bending/topping/defoliating/FIM'ing and other training techniques.
*for my grow style i do alot of transferring from one container to another so the versatility is something i have come to appreciate for example:
-i can either leave the rooted cut in the 50/50 mix and let it get bigger that way
OR
-i can take it out/rinse the mix off the roots (one dip in a plain ol' cup of water mix comes straight off ) put it in a 1.5" net cup of hydroton/ leave it in the bubbler/ then its straight into the DWC bucket to be flowered out. once the cut gets big enough i can make the transition from veg cab to flower cab in one movement (no need to re-plant/re-pot)
*growth is alot faster in veg which is a key thing for me, knocks off a week or so from a soil grow. ive had the hydro quality and its more than fine by me, like Herbophile said its better than anything ive done in soil to date.

hydro is soooooo much easier than soil. if you want to you can do organic hydro and make out even better.

im sure there are tons more reasons but those are how hydro has helped me out. having a family to deal with, school to study for doesnt leave me with the kind of time you single folks have.

i do keep my moms in soil for right now, but im looking for a container that i can keep/fit two of in my mom spot, once i do that then all four moms (well 2 right now)are gonna be in hydro too.

 

[Kuroth]

Thanks for all the GREAT info guys...

 

[aerokrafter]

Taking the next step, aero/hydro is about explosive growth. Then riding those growth tips into awesome buds. And what a ride!

Day 0


Day 14


bud


nug


Dirt is fun, but getting rid of it is moe fun!

-AK