Re-usable hydro medium (?)

Silica · Oct 20, 2008

Im used to growing in perlite, hand watered.

However it looks like LEO has just changed the law and making it illegal to buy hydroponic gear including HPS lighting and also PERLITE.

However i would like to continue growing so was wondering if there is another medium i can buy a lot of
that is re-usable after washing?

I was thinking of wither stocking up on a lot of perlite and a lot of expanded clay and using those...

However it looks like nutrients will be hard to get aswell..

Anyway what mediums are good to grow in yet reusable?

ProGroWannabe · Oct 20, 2008

Coco can be used almost indefintely. Also, you could make organic teas from readily available ingredients for a fertilizer.

See some of the posts by Guano. He and a few others seem to be our resident experts on organics.

hererisssh · Oct 20, 2008

Yeah PGW hit it on the head. You can do 100% organic hydro but it's a pain in the ass if you don't have access to stable ingredients for the teas. Coco is reusable but will break down. I like hydroton (expanded clay), now that's fully reusable, but it can be a pain to clean after a grow.

Where are you that access to basic potting soil builders like Perlite is being restricted?

Monkfish · Oct 20, 2008

the more you recycle cocco the better it gets imo, but it does run out of steam, and im finding as good as results in my style of grow adding a lightweight compost mix occassionally to replenshish the goodness, ime you just cant beat growing weed from the enzymed roots of previous weed.

bests mf

theherbalizor · Oct 20, 2008

Silica said:
Im used to growing in perlite, hand watered.

However it looks like LEO has just changed the law and making it illegal to buy hydroponic gear including HPS lighting and also PERLITE.

I can see alot of orchid growers getting really pissed off by this. Find your self an orchic specialist. Youll be amazed at what youll find!

Silica · Oct 21, 2008

Cheers.
The reason i posted that about the HPS lighting and perlite was as i saw it on tv.

However i have searched high and low on the net and havent been able to find any confirming information..

I dont think i would use coco as you cant hand water..I prefer to handwater so it will be either expanded clay or just cleaning perlite and using that..Maybe both.

I was told once not to re-use perlite but i cleaned it once with bio-bugs and a swear the yeild was way higher with the reused perlite.

Anyway ill go back to hunting down those new laws.

kid606 · Oct 21, 2008

why you think coco can't be handwatered? it easily can..some folks even handwater coco without drain and let it dry out a bit like in soil..some use it in recirculating systems including a lot of drain..it's up to you..:nerd

Silica · Oct 21, 2008

Ok thankyou i will look into it.
It doesnt look like perlite will be illegal but HPS lighting and other things will be.

Silica · Oct 21, 2008

By the way how do you people clean your coco or other mediums?

Do you just rip out the roots at harvest, collect as much as you can then soak it in something like bio bugs?

What else can i use to clean the medium?

HCC · Oct 21, 2008

theherbalizor said:
I can see alot of orchid growers getting really pissed off by this. Find your self an orchic specialist. Youll be amazed at what youll find!

thats true, but the stuff is a lot more expensive...
here the orchid growers get their supply from grow shops,lol

ProGroWannabe · Oct 21, 2008

Silica said:
By the way how do you people clean your coco or other mediums?

Do you just rip out the roots at harvest, collect as much as you can then soak it in something like bio bugs?

What else can i use to clean the medium?

I rinse mine WELL when I am preparing it for it's next use. It can be a bit of a bother trying to keep from losing a bunch of it when rinsing, but it's well worth not having buy new bags all the time.

I try to be sure that I use at least 3 times more water than I have coco. If I have a 5 gallon bucket of coco to rinse, for instance, I'll ge sure to pour at least 15 gallons of pH'd water through that 5 galon bucket holding my coco. pH is kept at 6.0 for me, some run it a tad lower. Once you've gotten all the water through the medium, try to work it around in the bucket every few hours as it dries to get some of the excess water out of it or water will drip eveywhere as your filling your pots.

This is how I do mine, to each their own.

jadins_journey · Oct 22, 2008

Silica said:
By the way how do you people clean your coco or other mediums?

Do you just rip out the roots at harvest, collect as much as you can then soak it in something like bio bugs?

What else can i use to clean the medium?

H2O2, hydrogen peroxide, is what I use to clean my hydroton these days. This is one of those chemicals that can have multiple uses in your hydroponic systems. Mixed at 1ml per gal H2O2 can be ran daily in your system to increase disolved O2. Use it as a flush at 5ml per gallon in your system between resv changes or you can use it like I do at 15ml per gal. and clean your hydroton.

I wash a minimum of 250Litters of hydroton each month with H2O2 but there are risks, this stuff will burn the crap out of your skin so I handle it carefully. Pour into a pyrex containor and then transfer to 60ml sysringes while wearing gloves and glasses. Attach a couple of pics, the last one is of rocks soaking for 10 minutes in H2O2.

jj

Shaggy · Oct 22, 2008

I rinse and reuse perlite... am I the only one?

Re-usable hydro medium (?)

Re-usable hydro medium (?)

Silica

ProGroWannabe

hererisssh

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Monkfish

theherbalizor

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Silica

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Shaggy

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Re-usable hydro medium (?)

Re-usable hydro medium (?)

Silica

ProGroWannabe

hererisssh

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Monkfish

theherbalizor

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Silica

kid606

Silica

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HCC

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