What's up everyone and welcome back. Today, we're doing some hydroponic topics because it's been a while since I talked about hydroponics, which is how I really first got into gardening. Let's return to the beginning, for me at least.
If you're new to hydroponics, well hopefully these questions help you out because hydroponics is a confusing topic. You're not growing with soil and there's a lot more science to it. There's a lot more to understand from a conceptual basis.
Let's talk about a few different questions that commonly come up when people start out gardening hydroponically.
How Often to Empty Nutrient Reservoir?
One of the most common you're going to get is, "How often should I empty and replace my reservoir and nutrient solution?" As a general rule, every five to seven days.
What people will do is they'll use their EC or their TDS meter to measure nutrient levels and they'll top up their nutrient solution when levels get low. Here's the problem with that: these meters are only going to measure the overall nutrient concentration, not levels of specific nutrients. If your plant is using more nitrogen than phosphorus, well then the relative amount of nitrogen to phosphorus is going to be skewed. If you just add more nutrients in, you're going to add to much of one and too little of another. That's why people do a full empty and replace, because they need to make sure that they're resetting and starting with the right ratios of nutrients. Every five to seven days on a nutrient solution.
Organic vs. Synthetic Nutrients
Next question, "What's the difference between organic and inorganic hydroponic nutrients?"
Well organic fertilizers are going to be derived from natural organic compounds like compost, worm castings, manure, et cetera.
Inorganic fertilizers are created using synthetic compounds that are made through chemical processes. Now, it's important to note as far as your plants are concerned organic and inorganic nutrients are basically identical because at the molecular level which is how your plants are taking these nutrients in, these are the exact same. Nitrogen is nitrogen on a elemental level.
Now, many organic fertilizers are going to need symbiotic fungi and bacteria to breakdown properly before the fertilizer is available to plants while others are pre-digested and instantly available. Some people find that organic nutrients cause a bit too much mess in their hydroponic garden because there is biological life within the nutrient solution and it's really up to you. Do you want to go the organic route? Do you want to go the inorganic route? That's your personal choice that you're going to have to make when it comes to hydroponics.
Grow Room Temperature?
Next question, "What is the ideal grow room temperature?" Well that's going to depend on the plant you're growing. Tropical plants like an orchid is going to do well at above 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Kale and broccoli, they want cooler temperatures. They want 60 to 65 degrees. Tomatoes do pretty well, 68 to 75 degrees. Again, it's going to depend on the plant. Think about it if a tomato is a summer plant, you better believe it's going to want relatively warm temps. Kale, broccoli, arugula, et cetera...these greens do well in the cold. The grow room's going to have to mimic that because you're mimicking an environment with your growing hydroponically.
How Often To Replace Lights?
Next question, how often should I replace my high intensity discharge light bulbs? Again, this is one of those it depends type of things but HID bulbs basically fall off over time. The intensity of that PAR, that photosynthetically active radiation falls off over time. You can check this for yourself by measuring your yields with new bulbs versus bulbs that are about a year old. You're going to get worse yields with those older bulbs. General rule of thumb here is that after about 8 to 12 months of consistent use, you're going to want to replace your HID bulbs. That's a general rule.
SPIDER MITES!
Next question and the final question, spider mites. Spider mites are the bane of an indoor gardener's existence because they're one of the most common indoor pests in a grow room. These are tiny little insects. They feed on your plants' sap and juices and they can decimate crops. They are very small which is why they are so prevalent because it's hard to see them early enough to treat them before they are a really big problem. You might notice stunted growth and then if you look really closely there's going to be some webbing in your plants. That's why they get the name spider mites. The damage is going to show up as a dried out silvery spot on the younger leaves that'll die, that'll drop off.
A lot of the times you're going to use an insecticide to deal with this like insecticidal soap. You can use water dish soap and some hot pepper wax. That's a good opportunity. You can also introduce some predatory mites so there are mites that eat spider mites. Lady bugs also but I understand if you don't want to introduce beneficial insects into an indoor grow room. It's a little bit tricky. The best way to deal with them as always is going to be to prevent them from getting there in the first place so keep a sterile environment in your grow room and you're going to be pretty good to go.
Got Any More Questions For Me?
Those are some common questions that I get all the time when it comes to hydroponics. I really hope that was helpful and I hope you got some value out of it so if you did definitely let me know. You can do that by rating and reviewing this podcast on iTunes, or dropping me a comment however, if you're listening to this and until next time, good luck in the garden and keep growing.
Thanks For Reading!
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My name is Kevin and I run Epic Gardening, a website, podcast, and YouTube channel. My goal is to teach 10,000,000 people how to grow their own food.
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