I'm switching from soil to hydro - migration advice?

If you can set up right all you gota do is plug and pump lol
fuck hauling water plumb it in
Also your crop should more then cover nute cost

Cold$moke said:

If you can set up right all you gota do is plug and pump lol
fuck hauling water plumb it in
Also your crop should more then cover nute cost

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Plumbing is not available where I have my tent set up, though that would be great if you have an RO setup. I don't sell, but even then I was speaking about the cost difference between soil and hydro, I am not sure how much of the additional nutrient cost is offset by less electricity and no soil costs. It may be pretty close, but I would also need to add in the additional electricity use hydro required for the water and air pumps.

All that said, cost is not a major driver for me, I really do enjoy the ability to tinker with the hydro and I expect I probably do a lot more maintenance than is really required while I am still working on dialing things in.

hbbum said:

I am really liking the switch since I went to hydro. But they are right, it is not really less work. I only have a couple plants, they go through about a gallon of water each per day right now, so for me, I am lugging water in quite often. Also swapping and cleaning the res every 7-10 days takes a bit of time, but it is a labor of love and I enjoy it.

From a cost standpoint, I go through a lot more nutrients so that is more expensive, it is offset by not having to buy soil, but in the end I think it is still a bit more. Should be able to get away with a shorter veg time (I probably went to long) so you may save some additional money with the shorter time.

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I am setting this up so that I don't have to work so hard on it. For the water, I installed an RO filter in my room and am putting a float valve to auto refill the res. For the draining, I already have a drain installed - all I will need to do it hit a switch and pump it out. With the Growtronix system I already have in place, I can automate anything and monitor it from anywhere. I'm hoping to take the back work out of things so I can focus on the other aspects of the grow.

As for the cost standpoint, I'm ok with it - and like you said, it's offset by not buying soil, but even more so, not having to haul soil, repot plants, repot again then haul it back out of the room - makes it difficult to maintain a stealth operation.

BTW: Your grow is looking nice - hard to believe I was looking at 17 days of veg, those internodes look tight too!

....so it just hit me. If Hydro can give me that rapid of a veg, then I should be able to top and root them in the aero and send straight to a hydro setup. This will save me from waiting to cycle the organic young adults until starting.

Mine vegged for 4 weeks, but I should have switched earlier since I am nearly out of room. The next batch I will only let go for 2 weeks.

One of the reasons I like DWC over soil for indoors is how much less work it is for me.

With DIY hydro nutes made from dry salts, it's very inexpensive to run and provides consistent results.

I'm not sure why you guys are getting root rot from washing the soil off and putting in hydro. I do it all the time, even just yesterday. I have a large garden of "regular" plants that I start in soil then rinse the roots off and put in hydro and the only issue is shock for a few days. I've done it with mj too. Sounds like the OP is set but I'd highly suggest anyone that wants to do it but are uncertain go to lowes and buy a few starter plants and test with them.