Hydroponics Growing Information for Beginners

Hydroponics Growing Information for Beginners

Even at a time when there’s a lot more resources around the popular idea of hydroponic indoor or greenhouse gardening, too many beginning growers still have no idea how to go about the basics of cultivating hydroponics plants. A simple multistep guide can go a long way toward educating first-timers on what goes into setting up a basic hydroponics project and giving plants the opportunity to thrive.

Knowing Your Plants

Hydroponics growers raise all kinds of plants in many different kinds of structures. Smaller plants like herbs are often popular choices, but larger vining plants like tomatoes and cucumbers are also common in hydroponics gardens. The key is to understand which plants you will be growing and adjust your grow room ideas accordingly, to make sure that plants will fit into the grow space in maturity. It’s important to look at the size of adult plants and match that with hydroponics grow system or kit that includes sufficient space.

Grow Lighting

When it comes to grow lights, growers have many options. The two most common types of hydroponics grow lights are metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs. While both of these kinds of bulbs provide a good light spectrum, they are slightly different. Metal halide bulbs produce more light in white and blue spectrums, while high pressure sodium lamps contain more of the ‘upper end of the rainbow’ spectrum of red orange and yellow. Some experts suggest using metal halide lamps on leafy green plants or during the vegetative stage, while a high powered high pressure sodium lamp will be good for flowering.

It’s also important to use grow lights with a good reflector and ballast that will support getting the right light spectrum to plants.

Air Flow

Another big principle of hydroponics is to have enough airflow to get some fresh air into the plant environment. For larger grow rooms or spaces, growers might use a box fan or some other air handler in a window. The kinds of small, contained hydroponics kits sold for lower volumes of plants often include their own fans and air handling vents.

In addition, a good hydroponics kit can also include a filter that will prevent odors from hydroponics plants from coming out of the grow area and infiltrating other indoor areas around the gardening space.

PH Balance and Total Dissolved Solids

In terms of the overall environment for plants, pH balance is super important. In addition to having the right temperature and humidity for plants, a good pH balance also gives them what they need to survive to maturity. Easy new pH balance tools such as pH helpers and monitors will assist growers in taking pH measurements for a reservoir and simply adding a little of these solutions to raise or lower the pH value as needed.

Growers can also monitor their reservoirs for total dissolved solids, which can show how much nutrients are in the water, and when it’s time to flush out a reservoir and give plants fresher water in order to prevent stagnation and damage to roots.

Light/Dark Cycles

Typically, hydroponic plants will experience night and day just like people. Every grower has his or her own opinion on exactly how long these light and dark cycles should be, and getting it exactly right can involve some trial and error. When it comes to providing consistent light and dark cycles, having lights on a timer is a great idea. Timers such as those built into many hydroponics grow kits will automatically expose plants to grow lights over a certain part of the 24-hour cycle. It’s important to make sure that plants have total darkness, or as near total darkness as possible, during the dark parts of their cycle.

Carbon Dioxide

As a major part of photosynthesis, carbon dioxide can have a big effect on plants. Hydroponics science has found that adding more carbon dioxide to the air in specific amounts can actually increase growth. This is why hydroponics retailers sell specific carbon dioxide ‘upgrades’ where growers can carefully adjust the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the air help plants grow greener and lusher.

With all of these basics in place, growers can proceed with a certain level of confidence, knowing that plants are protected from some of the most common and severe kinds of emergencies that can damage or destroy an entire plant cycle.

All of these basics go a long way toward helping beginners to support plants in the ways that will yield great, green results. While there are many more assisting principles in how to get plants to develop better roots, stems, leaves and overall structures, these essential tips will shield growers from some of the common situations that threaten a crop and can kill plants rather quickly, or leave them compromised and stunted in terms of growth.