Simple Hydro

[georgiepeorgie]

I am currently on my 3rd hydro grow and it is SIMPLE! For all you first timers out there I reccomend that you don't get bogged down by all the technicalities. My method is very simple. I use 3 waterfarm buckets with clay pellets, distilled water, and Botanicare Pure Blend Pro Grow and Bloom. That is it! I veg under T5 floros and flower under a 400HPS. I have never had a single problem with over/under fertilizing, or PH lockout that I read about on this forum. I simply change water once a week, add the recommended nutrients, control temperature, and exchange air. I probably could use other additives to my grow but I must say I prefer simple, and the old saying "if it aint broke dont fix it!". So far I have grown NL#5, Crystal, Blue Mystic, and now that BOG is back in action I have 5 Bogglegum babies happily vegging away! No TDS meter, no stack of books, no PH up or down, no box full of nutes, no doctoring, just nice healthy buds for a minimum of work. Also worth mentioning is I have a very high ratio of female/male from seed. I believe in part it is due to no stress. From the time they sprout, my babies get consistent food, light, temp, and air. First round 9/10 females, Second round 8/8 females, and I'm praying that this batch will follow suit.
I welcome any questions or comments.


Peace and happy growing.

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

Thats great your having good luck with hydro, but growing in hydro or growing in general without PPM and PH meters is the same as flying blind. I have seen people fly blind before successfully, and it can just be pure luck that your water is decent enough for it. Some people may not have the same luck flying blind with their water, your just getting lucky.

Keep up the goodwork but consider adding some meters to your list of goodies, you may be getting by now but you could grow more effcient with meters, meaning faster growth, and better quality.

 

[Green Thumb]

Been thinking about this a lot, would definitely make things less time consuming day to day. Glad to hear you have had success with it.

 

[Blckbrd]

NICE! I too am a waterfarm fan ... I think they're great for K.I.S.S. growers, very forgiving once your roots reach the nutrient resevoir, and you can build up your "accessories" or recipies as your comfort level grows. They are awesome platforms to stick with or improve on as your skills develop. Little things like on/off pump cycle times, temperatures of air vs. resevoirs, flushing the salt residue, and CLEANING thoroughly after every grow make a world of difference. Have fun!

 

[MikeRoOrganix]

Hey guys if you are using PBP, nute lockout and burn etc are generally things of the past. Also PPMs do not accuratly measure organic nutes (not salt-based). They will provide a general guide but not the accuracy GH users expect. However, it is totally unnecessary, as PBP are about the most simple nutes ever to use. I would not say it is flying blind at all. I got rid of my ppm pen 5 years ago and have no problems. PBP even has PH buffers in it. No need to check or adjust PH once you know your baseline. All this is IMHO and cheers to all styles.

I would add that E&F is IMHO the most simple hydro form. I find all hydro methods about similar in results but some methods are complicated!

 

[georgiepeorgie]

I'm not claiming my way is the best, I just know that there are a lot of newbies out there intimidated by the overload of info and techniques on starting a hydro setup, and wanted to make the point that the basics can be very easy. As far as flying blind, sometimes it's better than looking out the window and seeing all the garbage coming at ya!!! Just joking pureknowledge, I just don't have the time to dedicate to my grows like you do, so I'm sure they are not as good as yours, but I do grow some good bud that makes me very happy, and it takes very little time. In the future I hope to improve as I have time. Thanks for the links to your grows, I definitely will check them out.

Peace to all

 

[FRANKENBLUNT420]

i know people say you neeed all that meter shit, buti dont think so at all. i am far from liking hydro to the point where i rarely check my one DWC bucket and my cloner as far as pH and the like. i jsut top it up when i need to and call it a day. some clone make it some dont, as far as the DWC bucket, the plant is still growing so i guess theres something going on right in there.

i am soil all the way, i tried the hydro thing and all that you need to maintain a healthy root zone for hydro is too much for me. kepping th water warm, keeping it cool, true pain in the ass far as i care, well thats if you have to deal with that sort of thing which i do.

for my situation soil is just the better option hands down, for example, in my bubblecloner i have atendancy to let things get out of hand meaning to say that i let the plants stayin the cloner way too long till the roots got slimy, al i do is replant them in soil and they have been right as rain ever since; in my DWC the roots have some sort of slime shit going on and i could care less and the damned air tube i have in the bucket wont stay down cause th suction cup is shit, but some way some how, it keeps growing and nothing is wrong with the leaves either so hydro cant be all that hard to need all this meter shit ppl keep talking about.

but as far as needing that ppm/ec blah blah blah meter shit, i would say its all bullshit anyway, and my hydro grows are living proof. so needless to say, if i can do it, monkeys can do it!!!! i'll pat myself on the back as a soil grower but kick myself square in the ass as a hydro grower!!! lol

 

[PuReKnOwLeDgE]

I stand corrected thats nice to know

 

[RagnorokYoshi]

my current grow right now is DWC and i only checked the ph and temp levels. i changed my res once every two weeks and im a week away from harvest. only thing thats wrong with my plants is a little bit of light burn from being so close to cfls ( switching to 150 hps :yay

this is my first legit hydro grow tho, and even without all the meters i still want to get them to learn and kno all the little details...