emily's garden and questions for hydro growers

Okay so a few years ago (liked 8 reaqlly)I bought an emily's garden from the hydro store. I figured that I would use it but I never did stop using soil. I figure I might as well try it out soon. If your not familiar with it it's basically just like the DIY DWC that are on here. My questions are this the pots are fairly big and go deep with a few inches of it submerged in the water which has a bubbler attached.

The kit came with some wicks that soak up the moisture so I am wondering are these absolutely necessary or will the hydrostones soak up the moisture without them? Keep in mind they are like 10'' tall or so so there is going to be about 8'' of substrate just in the open air inside reservoir. Would a substrate like coco coir be okay to use here or would it stay too moist or what? I have been dying to try this stuff.

What kind of water should I use? Just regular tap water ok it's like 6.5 so I assume I'd have to lower it right and that would be sufficient? With the reservoir having only 2 gallons of nutrient solution how often will I be changing the res?

Are there any good organic hydroponic fertilizers I can use?

Any help would be appreciated.

Tap water is fine to use, just let it sit out for 24 hours.
Your ph is a lil high for hydro. Best between 5.5-6. But you may not have any problems. Ph meters are like 20 bucks on ebay.
Your res should be cleaned every 2 weeks.
And last Botanicare has a great line up of organic nutes. Pureblend pro, i think.
Good luck and happy growing!
Dirtfree

k great so what do you think about the coco coir as a medium in this type of set-up?
How often will I be changing the nutrient solution? It seems to me that the plants will alter the ppm and ph as the solution is used right?

Pipe Dream said:

k great so what do you think about the coco coir as a medium in this type of set-up?
How often will I be changing the nutrient solution? It seems to me that the plants will alter the ppm and ph as the solution is used right?

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the hdyroton works best...coco coir would work too, but i think would stay too wet...just my opinion...it sounds like you know your stuff youll do fine!

You should do a full change and clean every 2 weeks. Yes you are correct, as the plant usees up the nutes it wants it will raise the ph a lil at a time. PPM same thing you can acually watch your plants intake the parts per million over a few days.
Another thing is you need to know your ppm before adding anything so you know what you are working with.
Oh and I know nothing about coco...sorry. But if you have questions about hydroton, I can help ya there.

Pipe Dream said:

k great so what do you think about the coco coir as a medium in this type of set-up?
How often will I be changing the nutrient solution? It seems to me that the plants will alter the ppm and ph as the solution is used right?

Click to expand...

Here check out this thread it will tell you anything you want to know about coco coir

I'm planning on using coco on my first grow using a DWC bucket system.

Check it out.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/163510-coco-growers-unite.html

Peace

Dropastone said:

Here check out this thread it will tell you anything you want to know about coco coir

I'm planning on using coco on my first grow using a DWC bucket system.

Check it out.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/163510-coco-growers-unite.html

Peace

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Hey thanks man I subscribed to the thread I will get reading it soon enough. Yesterday I was in the chat section and someone turned me on to this article http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/1534.html I think this would be great for my setup how you fertilize from the top and have layers and the wicks would probably come in handy with a setup like this. Than I can use the hydroton on the bottom where it's wet or even submerged and the coco or something more near the top I haven't really read the article all the way through I just skimmed through a little but I think I will read that coco forum and this article and use them as a referance.

Pipe Dream said:

Hey thanks man I subscribed to the thread I will get reading it soon enough. Yesterday I was in the chat section and someone turned me on to this article http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/1534.html I think this would be great for my setup how you fertilize from the top and have layers and the wicks would probably come in handy with a setup like this. Than I can use the hydroton on the bottom where it's wet or even submerged and the coco or something more near the top I haven't really read the article all the way through I just skimmed through a little but I think I will read that coco forum and this article and use them as a referance.

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I just read part of the article you suggested, it was an interesting read.

Glad you liked the thread I posted for you and good luck with your grow.