Organic Hydro - Your ideas, please

[SkyHi]

So other than yield the difference in the final product should be minimal? Everything else being equal.

 

[been]

That's the thing though, everything else is rarely equal. I don't want to insult anyone with gross exaggerations so I'll leave it at that.

 

[ESSC-RIPmaster]

oh my go with humboldy nutes man. i had plants outdoors with them and the yielded 1 and a half pounds from every plant from just a few main branches
other plants that had other nutes sucked less than a pound grrrr

 

[bestgrow]

About the CO2 taste comment, I heard you shouldn't run CO2 past the first few weeks of flower because it will kill some THC making your buds less potent. Just what I heard though, haven't made a comparison.

 

[sky high]

It's all good. Basically, this is just a small experiment to see WTF happens and if there are noticable differences in the end result (other than yeild)

My "miss the dank" comment is probably too generalized.
I still get dank from my buckets, but I do notice a bit less "frosting" on the hydro than the same plants done in soil. The bubblehash runs tell the tale, IMO...offering about 1/2 again as much from the soil grown plants than the hydro plants. (same strain) Then again...soil takes forever and offers far less product to run overall...

I have 2 large containers of GH "Maxigrow/Maxibloom" on hand and up to this date, have been using this product and a few additives for my grows. (fulvic, Koolbloom. kelp for foliar)

Humboldt nutes was certainly considered. However, all of their organic products I've seen are thick/chalky/gritty (organic bloom comes to mind) and grey to black. Seems like they'd be real root chokers and would make everything black/dirty. I realize organics aren't gonna be as clean as chems..but i knew there had to be something a bit more "filtered".

Here's what I finally decided on:

Great White beneficial microbes
Humboldt Roots
Pura Vida Grow
Pura Vida Bloom
Roots Organic Liquid Guano + KMag (added bloom boost)
Earth Juice Catalyst

still undecided about "flushing" products/sweetners and am not sure they work/are cost effective for what they offer. Comments?

The Pura Vida is fairly "clean" looking and in solution probably won't end up "black" in the res.

The Roots organic guano looks amazing to me. Grey'ish in color...doesn't appear chalky/like it will seperate in the res.

Time will tell. I'm tweeking the room as we speak. New ventilation/ducting runs, moving the refllective material closer to capture more light, and a better/easier way to facilitate draining the system. (hopefully)

thanks for the comments

s h

 

[sky high]

This experiment was a disaster for the most part.

The Technaflora product doesn't seem to be stable pH-wise. I experienced massive pH swings and could never get it to stay put. As a result, I started seeing what I believe was a Mag deficiency about 2 weeks in.

I flipped the plants just as the roots were starting to exit the buckets...but after a week or so more instead of nice white root growth everything was dingey and dark.

@ 2 weeks into 12/12 (last week) I noticed that one of the plants looked a bit wilted. Within 24 hours 2 more had the same look...and after another day it was obvious "something" wasn't right. Even though my res temps never got above 70...i think I got a fungus/rot of some sort.

Today I washed rocks/sterilized as best I could and replanted the room. This time I'm heading back to the chems and we shall see what happens.

Thanks for any input offered.

s h

 

[ignitetop]

canna

I am currently using the canna line on soil and i have noticed tremendous improvements from my last grow with foxfarm. It says it can be perfectly used for a hydroponic line so it might be worth giving it a try.

 

[BlueSuedeShoes]

organics can be just as fast

I don't want to argue one brand against another, but I got some experience growing with organics outdoors, and man, the humic acid and nitrogen in the grow solution caused the plants to sprout up really fast! Sure, I mixed in kitchen compost and composted horse manure into the soil, so that gave the plants even more nitrogen. I tried to recreate the humus filled soils of yesteryear! You can do the same in hydro, with the right nutrients, IMO.

 

[necros]

Humboldt nutes was certainly considered. However, all of their organic products I've seen are thick/chalky/gritty (organic bloom comes to mind) and grey to black. Seems like they'd be real root chokers and would make everything black/dirty. I realize organics aren't gonna be as clean as chems..but i knew there had to be something a bit more "filtered".

Just a heads up on Humboldt Nutes: Their organic line is designed to be used in soil and not hydroponics.

I'm running their DWC feeding schedule and loving it, but it's obviously not organic.

 

[sky high]

I'm back to using GH flora...... LOL. Carry on!

 

[Mr.Sputnik]

I'm back to using GH flora...... LOL. Carry on!

Agreed. Have you seen the new general organics (GH) line? I'm wondering how that would/would not work. Molasses is the only sweetener I use 'cause it's cheap and it's the "secret ingredient" in most sweeteners. Can organics be done in a RDWC? Thanks for experiementing and documenting sky hi. I'm going to try the general organics line for a run and report back. I think GH makes some of the best and most affordable stuff on the market.

 

[Cat Jockey]

The Technaflora product doesn't seem to be stable pH-wise. I experienced massive pH swings and could never get it to stay put. As a result, I started seeing what I believe was a Mag deficiency about 2 weeks in.

Any organic based anything, inclidong pH +/- has never provided much pH stability for me. I had a guy try to twist my arm off trying to get me to try Budswell.

"Ummm ... I think might stay away from the whole putting liquified bat shit in a res.", was my consistent answer.

Pretty clear I am not an organic guy, nor do I buy into the whole organinc thing in general, but keep at it SkyHigh. You solve this problem and you can make people happy and fatten your wallet.

A lot of people are waiting for someone like you to keep at it and figure it out for them. They'll gladly buy a system from you if you do.

Something I have always kind of thought about with things like organic hydro is the need to be able to play god more with the res and rootzone.

You don't need to find the right nute line. You need to design a new hydro system. Not irying to be negative with any of that, maybe just spur a thought thinking about the problem differently.

 

[sky high]

Not gonna be "designing" a new system here, CJ....but I am hoping to improve on a system that seems to >current<ly be in favor with some folks.

time will tell...........

 

[CaliOG]

Sky High I notice that you said you had root rot and fungus gnats. I Highly recommend Hygrozyme it works really well for root rot hope this helps

 

[Mr.Sputnik]

And for the fine particulates ruining pumps, here's the solution



A diaphragm pump! 960gph is pretty decent!

I would use 1.5-2ml per gallon peroxide in your mix if you had some funk and then reintroduce your beneficial bacteria and fungus just to be safe. Peroxide sure makes some pearly white roots!

I used 1.5-2ml of peroxide per gallon in my old nute mix. It was just flora nova, diamond nectar, silica, a little cal-mag and that's it. the peroxide destroys alot of organic additives, but they still somehow ended up adding flavor? Dark energy is a good one. No funk, even with res temps approching 78 degrees in the old stand alone 5 gallon DWC buckets.

Purple maxx (organic) doesn't do anthing for the purpling, but it did increase the resin production last run. It really took the frost over the top! I added it in for the last 4-5 weeks. It only needs 1/4ml per gallon to do the trick and it even worked with peroxide. Good shit.

 

[MASSES 420KING]

i have used the biocanna line in an aeroponics system [the rain forest 318] it is really kind of a hybrid aero/dwc and i had very impressive results with no issues also if you use a promix[bx or hp] and add these nutes that would also give you organic hydro or as i call it hydroganic if you have any more questions feel free to pm me