organic hydro?

blazingrngras

Active Member
I was wondering if it can be done. I usally use chemicals but don't not like the harsh side effect of the smoke it produces and was looking to get in to organic. I have just a few questions if I may.

How do I start. I have run dwc hydro before, pretty easy and love the smoke. I have good things about taste and yeild from organics. I am all ears hear. Thank you
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
endomychorrzae or however you spell it and you dont use i think you just foliar feed aact (actively aerated compost tea) and buy a specific hydro microbe feed
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
there are several ways to go organic in hydro. the easiest way is to use organic compounds that have high amounts of readily available nutrients that are soluble in water.

urea nitrogen, rock phophate, and kelp extract are the best way to meet your needs. a few things you can add depending on the type of media you use, i use peat moss but if you dont humic/fulvic acids are a good addition to your nute mix(you can make from inoculating a peat moss water mix allowing to dissolve peat and then filter, resultant liquid is humic/fulvic acids), so would enzmes and some carbohydrates such as molasses or corn syrup.



you can attempt to use innoulants in your res, but you would be better off making AACT and hand feeding each pot once a week for inoculation should you want to add more varity of organic nutrients derived. this also allows you to use organic matter that breaks down slowly in you media, such as bone meal.using this method tho, in peat or coco means media would need to be tossed after being used and re amended a few times. i would only use same soil for 2 grows after my exp with using soil for errrr too many grows 10+? got 3 years out of a soil mix

its a very complicated matter and if you want to set it up its worth it, but you really got know the variables and just have a plan and stick to it.

me on the other hand i use both synthetics and organics about to do some shopping for nute and im trying to decide what im gonna do so this was a good brain storm for me:D
 

blazingrngras

Active Member
So how good would bat guano do. I can get hefty amounts for next to nothing. Or would it be lacking something that the plant need. Sorry for the dummy questions but I'm totally in the dark.
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
exactly your understanding of how nutritional values are met is lacking, its a lot of research to pick and choose the right nutrients for the right system.

bag gauno is good stuff. in hydro tho next to useless, that is an organic material thats needs to be broken down by microbes to be used as nutrition, it would need to be mixed in with your media, or used as an ingredient in compost teas, but you could not use it directly in the hydro res/system it would clog things up and would not breakdown properly or fast enough. most solid dry organics fit in this category,kelp meal, gaunos, EWC, bone meal, blood meal ect.

the simplest way to go hydro organic, would be a flood and drain NFT sytem with no nutes in the res only water and grow the plants in a soil with compost fertilizer(organic nutes) and toss the soil after a grow with it.
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
Okay thank you. I will do some more research. No flood and drain yet just res and net pot
worst way to belnd organics is in dwc. just letting you know ahead of time, basically thats making a lot of work for yourself and if that work does not get done it will be come a foul rotting mess.
 

blazingrngras

Active Member
Well hell with the hydro. I guess I could run a couple plants in hydro using chemicals and run a couple in soil organics. I have never grown in soil so here comes some more reading. Rotting mess=failure
 

iknowad

Member
possible if you add some kind of beneficial bacteria to break down organic materials into nutes such as hygrozyme or compost tea. If you arnt adding any beneficials don't bother.
 

blazingrngras

Active Member
Thank you for the link. Looks interesting. Pretty cheap. Is that a red flag when it comes to this kind of thing. Iknowad thanks for the advice. Quick question for the experienced. Is it worth the trouble growing organic or should one just opt for the easy way(chem) I mean this as in yeild. Was looks at a 600hps but I can eaisly fit 600-800watt cfl if it come to it. I have 433w cfl actual watts now
 

Nizza

Well-Known Member
theres a thing out called Super Organic Stimulator; not really a nute but what it is is microorganisms that u add to ur res and they break down unwanted salt deposites turning it back to fertilizer, havent seen reviews on it tho
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
yes i suppose that should be noted several company's as well as your self can make a water soluble nutrient solution, usable in DWC, but you will still be basically running an inorganic res because you wont want to activate your nutes with any mycos and you would basically just be using what readily available nutrients there are in your solution which in most organics is very limited, so you will be using a lot of not and changing water alot still. love pureblend could dfinitly do and organic DWC setup with it, but that would cost a lot to keep a plant feed right without activation with mycos and microbes. just not cost effective IMO
 

iknowad

Member
Thank you for the link. Looks interesting. Pretty cheap. Is that a red flag when it comes to this kind of thing. Iknowad thanks for the advice. Quick question for the experienced. Is it worth the trouble growing organic or should one just opt for the easy way(chem) I mean this as in yeild. Was looks at a 600hps but I can eaisly fit 600-800watt cfl if it come to it. I have 433w cfl actual watts now
Same yields but chem would be faster because the nutes are more readily available. Organics need time to buffer out and convert into useable nutes. Its really up to you. "quality vs quantity" or "quantity (speed wise) vs quality" . Yields also are related to grow space and techniques used as well. Nothing wrong with organics though. If you wish for a more "cleaner" product go right ahead and give organics a shot. I'm actually trying out organic rdwc atm. I'm using a alternative beneficial bacteria product called stress zyme which is used for aquariums to increase conversions of ammonia to nitrates in the nitrogen cycle. I have noticed that chem nutes are definitely faster as it usually takes 12-36 hrs for organic materials to be converted into nutes in the presence of beneficials. I have confirmed this with my ec meter. Another benefit to organics is that the nutes are not "hot" compared to chem nutes so nute burn chances decrease.

I'm in wk 3 and I started to fertilize last week (you will hate me for this) urine... 250ml/3.5 gal every 2 days. Im planning to try this out (aka peeponics) then in flower I'm going to use high phosphorus bat guano tea. The nice thing about pee is that if you eat multivitamins you will also provide micronutrients as well. I'm getting about an inch of growth a day. Already started scrog so just letting it veg out some more till I flower.
 

blazingrngras

Active Member
I have no way yet of metering water and nutes yet. Pee wow would have never thought. Amber trics right outta the gate. Jk rofl. I never would have thought of that but it does make sense to me. What you consume as in health wise then it will be passed on to the plant. That would be a interesting rip but interested in how it turns out.
So say I have a huge fish tank (longer than 6ft) full of fish and goldfish would that water have enough goodies in it for the plant with maybe the need for additives. Just not sure how ammonia effects plants as I know that goldffish piss ammonia that is a lot stronger than other fish. I was wanting to try this my last grow but started with chem when I got the idea.
What in the hell does IMO mean. I can't figure it out and I only see it on this forum
Not being cost effective is a big deal as I am a budget grower( used wal mart nutes my last grow) so surel there is a way to cheapen it up. Thank you everyone this is really helps besides the fact that I don't kmow what half the $5 words mean but I get the general pic. The link that was provided is probly where ill start and the tweak the formula. Can't wait till harvest and I'm still 3+ months away from starting the grow. (Wifes orders) just getting a game plan down.
 

iknowad

Member
I have no way yet of metering water and nutes yet. Pee wow would have never thought. Amber trics right outta the gate. Jk rofl. I never would have thought of that but it does make sense to me. What you consume as in health wise then it will be passed on to the plant. That would be a interesting rip but interested in how it turns out.
So say I have a huge fish tank (longer than 6ft) full of fish and goldfish would that water have enough goodies in it for the plant with maybe the need for additives. Just not sure how ammonia effects plants as I know that goldffish piss ammonia that is a lot stronger than other fish. I was wanting to try this my last grow but started with chem when I got the idea.
What in the hell does IMO mean. I can't figure it out and I only see it on this forum
Not being cost effective is a big deal as I am a budget grower( used wal mart nutes my last grow) so surel there is a way to cheapen it up. Thank you everyone this is really helps besides the fact that I don't kmow what half the $5 words mean but I get the general pic. The link that was provided is probly where ill start and the tweak the formula. Can't wait till harvest and I'm still 3+ months away from starting the grow. (Wifes orders) just getting a game plan down.
The kind of concept you are talking about with the fish is called aquaponics (combination of aqua culture [aka fish farming] and hydro). I have a system outside for normal crops that I uses this same Idea with a koi pond and a ebb n flow system. The fish and the plants work in a symbiotic relationship and bacteria in the water convert fish wastes in valuable nutrients which the plants filter out for the fish. I have not tried aquaponics for cannabis yet because it requires more space to set up. This would be impractical indoors as I strongly believe in stealth. Get a ppm or EC meter. When you start out in hydro its so easy to mess up the nutrients and create nute burn. pH is even more important in hydro as well as ranges exceeding 5.5-6.5 (i like 5.7) will cause nutrient lockouts which lead to stress which can lead to stunted growth. I use HCL and usually adjust my pH twice a day.
 
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