Hydroponic Gardening
Marijuana Horticulture
by Jorge Cervantes
Hydroponics is the science of growing plants without soil, most often in a soilless mix. In fact, many growers are already cultivating hydroponically. Cultivating clones in rockwool, peat moss, and coconut fiber is growing hydroponically. Growing mature plants in soilless Sunshine Mix or Terra-Lite, even when watered by hand, is hydroponic gardening.
With hydroponics, nutrient uptake and grow medium oxygen content can be controlled easily. Manage these two factors, along with a few other requirements, to grow a bumper crop of buds with every harvest.
The inert soilless hydroponic medium contains essentially no nutrients. All the nutrients are supplied via the nutrient solution – fertilizer diluted in water. This solution passes over or floods around roots at regular intervals, later draining off. The extra oxygen trapped in the soilless medium and around the roots speeds nutrient uptake by tiny root hairs. Cannabis grows fast hydroponically, because it is able to take in food as fast as it can be used. In soil, as in hydroponics, the roots absorb nutrients and water. Even the best soil rarely has as much oxygen in it as a soilless hydroponic medium.
Contrary to popular belief, hydroponic gardens often require more care than soil gardens. If growing hydroponically, expect to spend more time in the garden. Extra maintenance is necessary because plants grow faster, there are more things to check, and more can go wrong. In fact, some growers do not like hydroponic gardening, because it requires too much additional care.
Hydroponic gardening is productive, but exacting – not as forgiving as soil gardening. Soil works as a buffer for nutrients and holds them longer than inert hydroponic growing mediums. In fact, advanced hydroponic growing mediums do not use a soilless mix; they use nothing at all!
In hydroponics, the nutrient solution can be controlled, so plants grow less leafy foliage and more dense flower buds. The stepped-up nutrient control makes plants flower faster and be ready for harvest a few days earlier than soil-grown cannabis.
Small flowering plants grow well in small hydroponic containers and horizontal tubes. Mother plants grow longer and are best suited to a large bucket system, which allows room for root development. The mother plant’s root system is easily contained in the bucket, and she is able to produce thousands of clones during her lifetime. Mother plants must have a huge root system to take in lots of nutrients to keep up with the heavy growth and clone production schedule.
Most grow rooms have two limiting factors: the number of plants in the garden and the electrical consumption expressed in watts. For example, if growing 12 large plants in a five gallon bucket hydroponic system, you will need about ten clones and one mother plant. The flower room could be illuminated with two 600-watt HP sodium lamps. A 40-watt fluorescent fixture could be used to root cones, and a 175-watt metal halide will keep the mother and vegetative plants growing. This is a total of 1415 watts that cost about $35 to $60 monthly. That’s a bargain, considering the garden will yield at least a pound of beautiful hydroponic buds every month!
If flowering is induced when clones are six to eight inches tall, they will be two to three feet tall when they finish flowering. You can pack short plants tightly together in a sea of green or a screen of green to maximize yield. It is easy to grow 60, four inch rockwool cubes on a flood and drain table or in three gallon grow bags full of soilless medium. To get the maximum yield, a plant or two is harvested every day or two. When a ripe plant is harvested, two small clones take its place. The weaker clone is culled out after two weeks.