Easy Hydroponic Gardening With Organic Growing Medium And Nutrients

Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using nutrient solution, without soil. The hydroponic plants are grown in an inert medium such as gravel, perlite or mineral wool. When people think of hydroponic gardening with organic nutrients, they assume that organic growing is totally incompatible for hydroponic. But the use of organic nutrients instead of synthetic chemicals in the hydroponic garden can ease your work. The absence of artificial chemicals eliminates the issue of ppm volume and maintains pH level of the water. Hydroponic gardening is quite easy as there is no need to adjust the nutrients level, check pH level and calculate fertilizer’s amount, which means future gardening problem may not occur. You can use organic nutrients such as Bat Guano, kelp, fish meal or earthworm casting that will surely enhance your hydroponic growing medium and plant.

How to create organic hydroponic system:

A gardener can use hydroponic grow container or coir fiber container to create hydro system for organic vegetable gardening. Place lava rock at the bottom of the container that perfectly maintains the water level. Lava rock is covered with a loose rock wool to divide the medium layers and prevent it from mixing. The upper layer must be filled with a mixture of potting soil, horticulture perlite and vermiculture. Such arrangement ensures the vessel action of water and prevents the bottom of grow layer from mixing with organic particles. Place a plastic screen lining inside the grow area with proper fitting at the bottoms and on the walls to protect the water mixing with small particles. Follow this same method if you’re starting with vertical gardening. You can also use hydroponic containers with small holes.

A perfect choice for organic gardening technique in hydro system is coir fiber pots. The filling will be same as described above but with thin layer of strand coir between the growing medium. Such container can be place in grow bed. Ensure that level of pump water should be lower than the soil combination. The secondary root should be flooded with water and lava rock and encourage water flow into the soil. The lower half of the base should be watered as per the hydroponic source, while the upper part should be moist once in a day.

This system promote gardener to supply nutrients to the upper part where it is important. Simultaneously, the medium structure can be moistened through pumped water with constant supply of oxygen and CO2 to the root system. Lastly, appropriate amount of CO2 will enhance the captivation of organic nutrients by the upper roots.

If you’ve been growing hydroponically and want to switch to organic plant nutrients then you must learn how to deal with pests and understand the new organic hydroponic nutrient material properly.

Tips for growing with organic materials:

• Organic materials cause nutrient solutions alkaline hence you should measure the ph level carefully before using. Use only high-grade pH adjusters to adjust the ph range.Organic material provides ideal environment for useful microbes to grow and live in your hydro system. Hence invest in good root booster and use it simultaneously to protect the roots.
• Keep your reservoir well oxygenated that helps to keep unlikeable odors coming from the tank and improve the health of plants and roots. Avoid using hydrogen peroxide that works well in averting root rot but kill all beneficial microbes essential for your plant growth.
• Avoid maintaining the same nutrient level for your plant as your solution might be more concentrate at vegetative phase than the flowering stage. You can check with the manufacturer for proper mixing directions.  
• Make sure that you regularly clean your pump and remove all unwanted residue. You can replace or clean your medium after each growing cycle. Keeping clean system will promote nutrients uptake and prevent system break down.