How to prevent pests and diseases from your hydroponics crop

Want to keep troublesome pests and harmful diseases from getting into your hydroponics system? Everyone does. But how this is done gets complicated. There are a range of conditions and insects to look out for, and different ways to control them. Here are some of the most common pieces of guidance that experienced growers will give to beginners about keeping plants safe from all sorts of harmful invaders.

Sealed Air Circulation

A lot of compact grow boxes and other grow systems have a sealed internal grow area for a reason. Part of it is to be able to control things like temperature and humidity. But these systems also block out all sorts of insect invaders, such as aphids, fungus gnats and white flies. Without certain kinds of protections, pests like this can get in –and devastate plants. It's important to keep air circulating well in order to prevent stagnation, but having the right kinds of screening and protection in place can help ensure healthy harvests.

Pruning Plants

Throughout the plant cycle, it's important to keep pruning plants and taking off dead plant matter. It helps plants to grow better, but it also cuts down the risks of certain bacterial infections. One example is pythium, a bacteria that can really do a number on plants. By not having dead plant matter sitting around in a grow space, you decrease the likelihood that plants will succumb to one of these types of bacterial blight or disease.

Cleaning Out Debris

Aside from pruning the dead parts off of plants, it's also important to keep other kinds of debris out of the plant space. That means doing a full sanitizing and cleaning out after every plant cycle to start with a clean slate. It means looking carefully at the sterile media you use, to make sure it's not contaminated. And it means regularly wiping or dusting off the plant tray surfaces in order to keep dirt and debris from collecting.

Cleaning the Reservoir

Other types of cleanliness in hydroponics involve looking out for algae or other kinds of buildup in a reservoir. These don’t typically spread to the plant environment, but they can, and they can also compromise the ways that plants feed, and the health of their root systems.

These are some of the most common tips for keeping a grow space in good condition and not allowing it to harbor certain kinds of things that might be harmful for plants. For more, check out what Dealzer has to say about every step of the hydroponic process and choose from our 1500 pieces of grow equipment. Thanks and happy gardening!