[Sundown]

From what I've seen most of the organic nutrients on the market are just that, nutrients. There isn't anything alive in them, they're products derived from animal or plant waste or from decomposition. Which to me is simply providing the same nutrients as chemical based nutrients from a different source. It seems to me the definition of any organic system would have to be a system that's alive. I read an article recently on organic hydro that stated a bio-diversity in excess of 30,000 was needed for optimal health and growth rate of a plant in a LIVING hydro system. When this point is reached the rate of nutrient absortion and mineral control becomes augmented through symbiotic plant and microbial relationships. Now, having said that I should add this isn't what I'm doing, although I must admit I'm thinking of setting up a "test" system to give it a try. The results they listed in the article are just to great to ignore. And they never mentioned any brand names at all, so it wasn't a thinly disguised advertisement for some product. For those interested the article is in Maximum Yield (maximumyield.com) may/june 2006 issue. You can download the whole mag in pdf format at their website.

just my 2 cents.

[waster]

I don't do organic, but friends who do all use soil with fine results. To me organic hydro seems an odd concept. Apart from sustainability/ecological concerns, organic growers I know reckon their bud is a nicer smoke, due to not forcing the plants, and with the natural root conditions in soil.
btw I use ebb&flow, I can leave my system unattended for up to a week if need be, and I think lucas is right - keep nutes/ph balanced in reservoir, then regular flushing will keep the medium in balance. Surely if you know the analysis of your nutes and water ec then you should be able to use ec readings to maintain stable solution?

I have thought about it and it seems organic soil would be so much less work. I picked my hydro system becuase it fits in with my life not take it over.

[Rosy Cheeks]

Hydroponics and aeroponics is the high end of growing, systems that need some attention and tuning but produce a maximum yield on a minimum surface.
The kind of NFT I do is trouble free, but yes it takes a daily peak into the growroom and at least a day a week of heavy duty. The formula you do more to get more is good to some, and to some not.
I enjoy to flower retired motherplants in soil in between hydro grows, just for the simplicity of it, and it brings some variety into growing. I mix organic with salt based nutrients in soil, I don't see the point in chasing after the organic in hydro. Once you have basic notions of chemistry you know it makes no difference to the plant, and salt based nutrients are simply easier to work (not taking any credit from the few organic hydro nutrients that are stable, high quality products) in water.
The thoughts brought up on the organic trend are all valid.
I tried some two year old Biobizz all organic nutes on the plants and they are still good. The stuff doesn't even smell after two years (no fermentation), so I think I'll redefine it as a once organic product.

I use waterfarms, which just need a daily peek and a major res change and check every two weeks. Harvest is the big one with cleaning the hydroton, works well so far.

u know what ..leaving my plants for a week...no way dude..see that where lazy growers come into play..i have lots of plants will say...i still check my ph ppm every night before i water..u have to if your running organics .. your right that its not as stable...but i use a flood to drain...i can see y if your running a system, u could run into problems...but still with enough will and power u can make it work,,,,, but i have used GH for years...if your a lazy grower its for u...organics are better for everyone on this planet...and if done right can get better results than chem out dro dro...for sure...OG kush loves the organics... and u all should to...but keep in mind if u dont like to work or u just want some ok nuggs that are harsh as fuck just go ahead and keep your eyes closed as i grow organic..

maximumyield.com good post...thanks

thanks to all keeping the movement alive....
by the way pics are 100% organic..and taste better then any chem on a stem..

[HydroBro]

Originally Posted by Rattrap

On my previous grow i did a organic hydro (DWC) that i found needed daily & even at times 12 hourly checks to keep everything in balance.
For me at least, untill a stable organic hydro grow style is developed i'll stick to soil - no more 100L+ of water to deal with! just 4 - 5L every 4 -5 days!

I don't understand what the big deal is with Organic in the first place. I mean on a large scale for farming application etc I get it. It's better for the environment and it's the way of the future. But we're all just trying to grow dank nugz here right? If you want to grow hydro, then use inorganic nutes and just keep an eye on things. There is no need to go out of your way to make your grow Organic just because it's suddenly trendy is there?

I mean if I'm wrong and someone can give me a logical reason why organic is so much better for growing smoke, then please do tell, but from what I've read it would seem to me that it's really just more about fitting in with all the rest of the tofu-eating vegetarian tree-huggers. (no offense ) Me, I'm not interested in all that crap, I just wanna get high.

[Rattrap]

Originally Posted by HydroBro

Me, I'm not interested in all that crap, I just wanna get high.

Then take up sniffing petrol. lol
Seriously tho, there is quite a taste difference between chem & organic buds. There is also the question of taking in unwanted chemicals thru the buds we smoke as well as dumping more chems into our enviroment. Those chems really do transfer to us when we smoke the buds.
I have a sensitivity to chems, when i smoke chem grown buds i get bad migraines but not from organically grown & i'll add bio-buckets to the list of good buds too now even chem nutes. They really must be able to break down the nutes into a more organic form.

Hello,

the definition of organic matter is that living beings can get energy from it. Noone can get energy from carbon-di-oxygen hence this compound is inorganic. Plants build organic matter from anorganic matter (mineral salts and their ions) and the energy of sunlight.

Ammonium (tetra-hydrogen-nitrogen) is assimilated by plants. But when certain bacteries oxidize ammonia to nitrite then ammonium must be called an organic compound. Therefore ammonium is either organic or anorganic depending on its use. Nitrite can be organic, too but nitrate is always inorganic.

Inorganic feeding is important for plants the roots of which have few access to oxygen. Drainless pots and passive hydroponics hardly work with organic feeding because bacteria digesting organic compounds compete with plant roots for oxygen. The bacteria start to grow on everything including roots and when all oxygen is used up they switch to anaerobics (alcohol, lactic acid and methane metabolisms). Roots can switch to anaerobics, too, but while aerobics has an efficiency of one half anaerobics has one of only 5 percent. It is like in sports; when the muscles and organs start to produce lactic acid then the pain starts and you should stop and take a rest. As concentrations of alcohol and lactic acid become too high roots starve and the plant dies.

The minerals used for inorganic feeding contain much oxygen hence the extreme is blowing up the roots. In organic feeding the extreme is suffocating the roots.

Uli

[marmarkus2006]

I am a new hydro/growing period kinda guy. Had lots of n00b troubles which I have thus far ironed out. check my thread in indoor hydro. I have four two week
old plants that have been grown via ebb/flow. After reading this thread, I completed construction of a 10 gallon tub which I intend to use as an organic test bed. Here is what I am doing. The lower portion of the tub will be filled with hydroton. aprox. a 5in. layer., a 1" layer of seperated rockwool, then my topping will be about 6" layer of perlite/sterile topsoil. Ebb/flow will fill the bottom layer with clean ph'ed only water. The nutes, along with only just enough water to keep the top layer damp will be added every three days. I will do constant ph/ppm tests of the rez and post the results. i will also do soil tests to watch for a build up of ph, and nutes that can hurt the plants. As I intend to start with a low(300/400) ppmand gradually work my way up to what becomes optimum I dont see that as being a problem. Here is to science. these are plants I am using for the test. a nice nigerian sativa. Oh there will also be a 4in bubble ring in my rez. I figure that the extra oxy. in the water will be a good thing.