[pipeman]

Hydroponic growing basically means growing without soil. Hydro growing is faster and cleaner than growing in soil which can be important if you're growing inside.

 

Hydro systems can sound complicated, but most are really simple once you get your head around a few basics.

 

Hydro usually involves some sort of automatic watering system, (pump on a timer) and are watered more regularly than soil because hydro mediums retain less moisture. Some common hydro mediums include clay balls, perlite, and vermiculite among others. You need to use hydro nutes for veg & flower. For best results use MJ specific nutes, a variety of which is available at most hydro stores.

 

As always, you need to leave your water out for 24 to 48 hours prior to using to let the chlorine evapourate out. Generally you are aiming for a PH between 5.5 and 6.1. Tap water is usually higher than this so you will need a PH meter and some PH down from the hydro shop. Some hydro nutes are designed to lower tap water to an acceptable PH, which is why sometimes you can get away without having to worry about adjusting PH, but really trying to grow hydro without monitering your PH is asking for trouble. A nute meter can be a good idea but is not as critical as a PH meter. You can grow well in any hydro system without a nute meter.

 

The simplest hydro system is plain old pots with saucers same as you would use for soil filled with a 50/50 mix of perlite and vermiculite and hand watered once a day (preferably at beginning of light cycle) with PH adjusted water with hydro nutes mixed to instructions. Thats all you need to do, you're now growing hydro.

 

In most hydro systems it can be a good idea to flush out your system every 2 weeks with plain PH adjusted water to prevent any problems caused by nutrient imbalance or salt build up in the medium.

 

It is particularly important to flush hydro systems with plain PH adjusted water for 2 weeks prior to harvest to flush the chemicals out of your plant.

 

Related Topics:

NUTES!

Hydro PH Chart

Nute Strength?

DWC (bubbler) setup description

bubbler grow diary, first attempt

Taz Stoner's hydro setup

A simple, recirculating hydro setup

memnock's hydro setup

RobbieGanjaSeed's Simplest hydro system

Edited September 25, 2003 by pipeman

[pipasoo]

loved how you explained it mate but i cant get in to the related topics can you fixed that up ?? thx for the guide

[Pickle]

I was told the links are being looked into atm but if you copy paste the text in the link into the search field you can find the topics that way.

[Pure]

all fixed , all links linking within the board should be fixed if you have any issues or find one thats not Pm me