Few questions about growing in Atami Wilma (vs. Soil), Wilma-specific questions and few generic questions

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I have new Atami Wilma system (large) with drip-feed. I have earlier experience with growing in soil, but never before in hydro. Few questions…

  • Wilma uses drip-feed system where the roots grow in 20 litre pots. I’ve been thinking of growing in the medium of hydro pebbles and coco coir. Compared to growing in soil of about 40-60 litre pots, how does the yield compare if other variables remain about the same? Am I better off growing in which type of setup? Even though I already have Wilma, I’d like to know is this really a better alternative given the fact that root space is critical for big plants…

  • If I end up growing in the Wilma system, do I need to add perlite to the medium and what sort of mixture ratio should I have with perlite and without perlite?

  • How does one change the water in this hydro system? How often the water should be changed? Do I need additional supplies to change the water?

  • Is it true that the water gets aerated without air pump or air stone in this system?

  • Should I use air humidifier inside or outside tent?

  • I have root rioters (similar to rapid rooters), coco-coir and hydro pebbles and all sorts of nutrients (Growth Technology’s Green Fuse Grow, Green Fuse Growth stimulator, Cal-Mag pro, Coco Grow & Bloom, Piranha to provide fungi to prevent root rot in advance, some Rhizotonic…) needed. How do I go with growing these from germinating them to them sitting in the Wilma pots? Earlier I’ve just germinated them in a glass of water, planted them in a small pots of soil and later replanted them to larger pots back when I grew them in soil, but somehow this hydro in itself makes this surprisingly complicated given the fact I need to provide the exact amount of nutrients with right pH and EC from the start and as I’ve never before used these mediums, I’m bit of overwhelmed of how do I all this correctly. Any links to guides or written guides here are greatly appreciated + all sort of tips and “what to avoid” are welcome as well.

  • Do you have better recommendation/tutorial for some other medium than coco-coir/perlite/clay pebbles? Maximal yield is what I’m seeking. I know there other variables than growing medium for maximizing yields, but hydro part is what I’m struggling with.

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Alot of questions, I hopefully can answer a few:

You can definitely grow larger plants in coco than regular soil I don’t know if a 20L could get as large as a 40 or 60 though. I would say half the volume would be as small as you’d want to go…

Generally in a system like this people will use coco OR clay pebbles. You can put a layer of pebbles at the bottom and fill the rest with coco but I don’t think it would be any good to mix them together. There is coarse coco available (people call them croutons) that would be perfect for a system like this imo.

You change the water by draining and refilling it lol. I guess you could move the plants and dump the reservoir out, or you could use your pump with a T fitting to pump it out. You should completely change the res once a week imo, people will say to do longer but keeping it fresh makes life MUCH easier, especially if you’re new to this.

I guess the water gets aerated falling into the plants and falling back into the res, but I’d still put an airstone in there anyways… they’re cheap

If you need an air humidifier you would put it outside the tent, wherever the tent is taking air from. Most people need DEhumidifiers though.

I’d plant the seeds directly into the root cubes, then place them into the coco/pebbles a day or so after sprouting.

Good luck!

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