Hello folks,
This is the 1st time I feel I need your help.
I have been growing in soil for the last 4 years, next year I want to make a new grow space to move the laydies to a wider room and hopefully be able to have more plants.
I saw the vervor kits for hydroponics and I might go with it.
Now I don´t know so many things, what equipment I will need?
Can I use Biobizz nutrients on hydro? how is it done? How is it when the feeding change?
I am in europe so Trumps tariffs may kill biobizz around here, any nutrients suggestion?
Make sure you use a chemical nutrient recipe for the DWC, preferably one that manages the ph with DTP or EDTA chelation.
For a single grow with four plants, you need a light, 4 buckets, lids, neoprene, air pump, stainless nut and an airline T, and of course some airline.
Ok, many research needed, IDk what is DTP, EDTA, I guess the kit brings all but water, nutrients, ec measure tool, ph measure tool, and seeds, I have light already.
Question 1: I feed water into all buckets with nutrients? and the air pump makes it circulate?
how often ph and ec need checking?
I am concerned about feeding, in soil I drop nutrients in water and water, on this set up is the same but no soil, right?
I construct my own system like this. Not pictured is the light and EC meter.
DTP/EDTA are chelation compounds that prevent the transition metals from precipitating out of solution when the ph shifts.
The air pump provides oxygen to the roots of the plant. With no oxygen in the water, the plant will die. The level of oxygen that can dissolve in the water is based on the temperature of the water. 13ppm at 10C to 7ppm at like 30C. 30C is where your plant dies, so it’s best to keep the temps at 18C in the root zone. I never monitor the ph, it’s auto mode due to the formula of the nutrients. I have an EC stick so when the conductivity goes down to 1EC I boost it back to 2.5-3 depending on the plants requirements. I just toss more nutrient into the bucket of water. I would check the EC after a week or two, I usually just glance at the plant and it tells me.
I grow in DWC and living soil, gotta keep them options open
My grow AKA the lab, is designed to keep temps under control during the summer. Concrete and ventilation system to extract the minimal heat produced by the LEDs. The buckets are sitting on the concrete, and the ambient temps are 22C. In the winter I just shut off the ventilation and keep the heat trapped.
Biobizz is spanish and most of their volume are done in central EU, they don’t care about Trump ^^ But it still a good idea to try a switch for this new setup ^^
Everything else; but not Hesi too ^^ The two favorite margins provider of EU growhops lol If you’re in EU it facilitate a bunch the things.
I have seen some Biobizz charts with american adress and so my fear, anyway I guess biobizz isnt adequate for hydro.
Nice tips, I will investigate what products they have but I already use one atami suplement in soil, in the end is all about what brand has the best quality price relation and good instructions to follow.
I smoked so much Hesi and Biobizz buds of customers at the growshop back in the day that i can already tell you that you will not recognize your cuts with the lines quoted lol
Water and nutrients, yes. The air pump is more to stop the plant from drowning as the roots are underwater, but the bubbles will keep the nutrient solution moving around.
Easiest way to do it is just start doing it. Seeds, I just threw them in the 3" net cups, with clay pebbles. they all popped. 2 x 5" air stones, and air pump. and a USB powered water pump down in there also. My next issue… how to move this 12 gallons of water downstairs to the basement grow room.
In summer it may be time to switch back to dirt. Without an inline chiller like for an aquarium, water will likely get too hot.
If the grow space is 80°f then the water will soon be the same. Too hot for roots.
Not sure what the conversion is but above 74°f you flirt with root rot in deep water culture.
People, all the advices were excellent.
I now know a bit more about DWC, and I think that I might leave hydroponics on the side for now.
I would need to spend money in gear I don´t have right now and I would need to go back to soil in summer as temperatures here can be high and in the summer even the water gets worm.
Between that and have to learn all from the basic being water temperature and nutrition my biggest concerns I might keep growing only with soil.
I like to learn and would love to have another way appart from soil but the risks are huge and I need my plants to be well so… I can afford material but not time, and as I see it, would be very different from what I do.
Who knows later I might have a nice stash and go for a hydro setup only in winter as keep water temperature low is more natural and requires less monitoring.
Feeding, I really need to invest on a nice EC gauge to go for this and to be honnest, I don´t like cheap meters as they can become innacurate and may need calibration and when I know that is because plants already telling me that, so I got a ph meter that I don´t use, the reagent drops never get out of calibration and I think the same happens with EC tester and that would be a double trouble.
It belong more to the grow style and the genetics. Nutes have their limits as a factor.
The quality of nutes will decide more the final grade of your weed, and what is remaining in the vegetal mass while you’re consuming it.
“Highly assimilable” is quite important for canna and hemp, they are just the best natural soil depollution agents known. It’s for good reasons, on the phyto side.
From Biobizz to one of the 4 that i quoted (with the necessary learning curve), the weed will just taste without parasite tones. Even just in using only the bases of the others the whole life of the plant.
AN have a bit the same problematic but on a higher grade of assimilation. When you finally build your set in their jungle of bottles, the weed render become quite streamlined. Until you change bottles of plain flo for others ones ^^, or like a bunch of sedentar AN users … making your own multi-brand combos.
It can appear picky from the perspective of most of stoners learning to dial a soil, but in hydro you want the cleanest, the more buffered and the more assimilable nutes possible ^^ It’s affecting a lot more the render.
Another reason to keep away from hydro right now. I really enjoy the results with biobizz, Others as well but I don´t know what´s on the streets right now and I guess many synthetic nutrients and pesticides may play a huge role when it comes to the final product by trashing it, at leas that´s what we see with legal cannabis in europe, all these thc a to z and in the end is just hemp flowers with dust covering it… AHHHHH god!
And then the learning curve that may last years because of so many brands and different products, but that´s the least, I have you all to point me in the right direction, still It´s illegal here so the least ammount of gear, the best.
Coco and drippers is pretty simple. Just need something like Jack’s/JR Peters, Athena, MegaCrop, and so on. I’m not sure what’s available where you’re at. Maybe Hesi, Chempak, or something. Best of luck if you try it!!
Growing in coco is all the benefits of Hydro with the general feel of growing in dirt . WAY less moving parts required especially if you stick to hand watering.
A drip system will help you get the most out of it; I hand-water in coco once daily & I can tell you for absolute certain, I am leaving some yield and marginal potency on the table by not running a 2-4x a day drip system.
. WAY less moving parts required especially if you stick to hand watering.