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Old 08-28-2008, 01:16 PM
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hooked.on.ponics
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Two things to consider on organics for hydroponic systems. Smell and clogging.

A lot of organic nutrients have a strong smell, and not in a nice way. You get stuff like blood meal and fish emulsion involved, and then it starts to break down (rot) and it can quickly make your whole house smell like an open sewer. Add in the amount of circulation of solution and air that the average hydroponic system does and it just blasts out any scent there might be. A filter can help but I'd rather save it for the good kind of stink if you know what I mean.

Also, the organic matter in them can build up and clog pumps, sprayers, drippers, and so on. You can get similar problems with salt build up in chem salt ferts, but in hydroponic systems it's a lot more common to have problems with organics. Especially when you consider that the organic stuff usually has a flourishing microbial population it's easy to see how things can build up and cause problems.

The trick is to skip completely past all the low-grade stuff. Properly processing organics for use in hydroponic systems is no simple task. Getting that stuff to still grow plants without clogging or stinking is worth the money. I haven't tried a lot of organics myself, since I didn't get into that until after I'd started using AN, but from what I've heard talking with other people AN is one of very few companies that passes both criteria with their organics while still putting out a quality product.
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