Hydro-Organic
Marijuana Horticulture
by Jorge Cervantes
Hydro Organic is a means of growing cannabis in an inert soilless medium and feeding with a soluble organic nutrient solution. Organic fertilizers are most often defined as containing substances with a carbon molecule or a natural unaltered substance such as ground up rocks.
Dedicated growers spend the time and trouble it takes to grow hydro-organically, because the natural nutrients bring out a sweet organic taste in buds. Indoor and outdoor crops grown in less than 90 days do not have time to wait for organic nutrients to be broken down. Organic nutrients must be soluble and readily available for short cannabis crops to benefit.
An exact balance of organic nutrients can be achieved with constant experimentation and attention to details. Even when you buy ready-mixed commercial fertilizers like BioCanna, Earth Juice, or Fox Farm, you will need to try different feeding amounts and schedules to get the exact combination to grow top quality bud.
Taking an accurate EC reading or mixing the exact amount of a specific nutrient is very difficult in organic hydroponics. Chemical fertilizers are easy to measure out and apply. It is easy to give plants the specific amount of fertilizer they need in each stage of growth.
Organic nutrients have complex structure, and measuring content is difficult. Organics are difficult to keep stable, too. Some manufacturers, including BioCanna, Earth Juice, and Fox Farm, have managed to stabilize their fertilizers. When buying organic nutrients, always buy from the same supplier, and find out as much as possible about the source from which the fertilizers were derived.
Combine premixed soluble organic fertilizers with other organic ingredients to make your own blend. Growers experiment to find the perfect mix for their system and the varieties they are growing. Adding too much fertilizer can toxify soil and bind up nutrients, making them unavailable. Foliage and roots burn when the condition is severe.
Soluble organic fertilizers are fairy easy to flush from the growing medium. Like chemical fertilizers, organic fertilizers build to toxic levels easily. Look for the same symptoms as in soil burned leaf tips, discolored misshapen leaves, brittle leaves, etc. Organic nutrients require heavier flushing. Rinse medium with three gallons of water for every gallon of medium. Some growers flush with plain water the last two weeks f flowering to get all fertilizer taste out of buds.
Mix seaweed with macronutrients and secondary nutrients to make a hydro-organic fertilizer. The amount of primary and secondary nutrients is not as important as the menagerie of trace elements that are in an available form in the seaweed. Major nutrients can be applied via soluble fish emulsion for nitrogen; phosphorous and potassium are supplied by bat guano, bone meal, and manures. More and more organic growers are adding growth stimulators such as humic acid, trichoderma bacteria, and hormones.