I’ve always grown in soil and not scientific at all. I’m interested in getting into hydro growing, but I don’t know where to start.
Can anyone recommend a good way to learn the art of hydroponic growing? A book, site, tutorial or anything would be great.
I know next to nothing about hydroponic growing, so look at it like I’m starting from scratch.
I started growing good weed by following BOGs soil instructions on the original OG in the early 2000’s. Since then I’ve picked up some technical info but not enough to run a hydro system.
I haven’t because I literally don’t know where to start.
Not sure if this has ever ha[[ened to you, but have you ever been asked if you have any questions about something, but you don’t know enough about the topic to even forma question about it? That’s where I’m at.
Where do I start? I’ll do a search for how to grow hydro and start there.
Have you considered hempy buckets? I’m a soil grower but folks like @Gadarien and @Organical have been KILLING it in those. They both have thread with some great results. Check em’ out.
I run Peat/Perlite using Lucas formula nutes. Read. Read some more. Start going thru posts. Start some plants and if your grow goes south, ask for help. Lotta sharp guys here
Hoocho is a great youtuber that has a ton of hydroponic info. His older videos cover a variety of types of hydro systems.
None of it is weed specific, but it will give a general idea of some terminologies and different styles that exist. He doesn’t go much into Deep Water Culture, but others.
If you’re more of a book person, there are a variety of books out there about hydroponic system design.
I read a TON and cobbled together my own system. It can be as simple as a bucket of water, some powdered nutrients, and a way to do initial mixing, on up through $$$$ automated controllers and dosers and such.
They are very simple/straight forward, I run perlite only in 1 gallon buckets with @GreenleafNutrients Mega Crop 1 and I’ve consistently been harvesting plants in the 4-6oz range dry. One downside is I water every day, but you could easily add an automated system if that would be a problem.
I hope this helps a little bit!
Honestly you are posting this questions on one of the best resources you can have for this question. There are threads covering pretty much any topic you would like about growing Cannabis well here.
Its kind of hard to wrap up hydroponics in a single thlught. There are so many systems and as many ways to run them each, so I usually recommend one of two ways of starting on the hydroponic journey. (The only absolute in hydroponics is that thd planting medium itself provides no nutrition to the plant, all the nutrients come from the nutrient solution being applied.)
For soil growers coco coir is often an easy way to get into hydroponics, there doesn’t need to be major equipment overhauls and you can even wayer by hand with coco. Coco also tends to be forgiving enough that mistakes can be corrected rather quickly. Even though it does kind of feel like soil, coco provides no actual nutrition to the plant and therefore you will always water with a nutrient solution and your waterings will be considerably more frequent (at least once or more a day).
The other simple option is deep water culture (DWC). This is a self contained hydroponic method so you can always try one plant in DWC while the rest of your plants could be in the soil you know and are used to. The plants roots live directly in the nuntrient solution, so accuracy with pH and EC can make a world of difference. The one problem I find occurs most often in DWC is the temperature of the nutrient solution gets too warm, and this can be a big problem if it persists. The heat interferes with the waters ability to hold dissolved Oxygen and the roots need that oxygen to survive. So some means of keeping fresh Oxygen in the solution is vital, either with an airstone and pump or by curculating the water. The other tip I tend to offer for DWC is keep the roots submerged, so regular top offs of the reservoir are needed.
Hopefully this gives you a starting point. Now come up with some questions.
I’ve never done well learning on Youtube. I’ve learned a little on there, but when it comes to a technical subject I do better with books. I like how books thoroughly cover a topic, usually from begining to end.
I read books to learn programs for my carrer instead of watching youtube videos. I can’t imagine learning hydroponics will be much different. So far, I’ve failed at learning hydro growing on Youtube.
What type of hydro? DWC, RDWC, ebb and flow, flood and drain, and so on. Once you pick one, it’s super easy to read some threads of people who use it or google it. Plenty of people will have written up guides and whatnot. It’s pretty simple once you have everything you need. Keep the res filled, pH right, and use good nutes that have everything they need.
Good question! I don’t know what any of that is. I need an education from the ground up. I know it is giving the plant nutrients vial liquids rather than grow medium like soil. Something like rockwool and liquid is about how much I know.
I 2nd that emotion! Gary is a super knowledgeable super approachable dude. Gives his hydro system designs away for free on YT and sells em if you dont diy.
First thing id do if i was starting from zero is understand the pros and cons of different hydro tech. For instance dwc or rdwc ofton require an expensive water chiller to not have problems (summer time). While something like ebb and flow buckets or table isnt as dependant on active chilling.
Coco coir is considered hydro. I dont know if coco growers re use coco but with clay pebbles you almost never have to buy more.
So thats the place id start
Here’s a couple reaources to learn the basics of hydroponics. Its not referring to cannabis but it will help you with the base knowledge and then apply that to what you want to grow.
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