Soft Secrets: Hydro-Organic

Hydro-organic, rolls off the tongue like a fatty ready for fire. But hydro-organic? Isn’t that an oxymoron? How can you merge hydroponic gardening, known for high yields using exacting amounts of chemical fertilizers, with organic fertilizer?

The term hydro-organic combines two words: hydroponic and organic. Hydroponic gardening is growing plants without soil and feeding them with a liquid nutrient solution. An organic substance contains a carbon molecule, or is or was once living. Organic fertilizers are any fertilizer that contains a carbon molecule or a natural substance that has not been altered from its natural state. Hydro-organic gardening is growing plants without soil and feeding them with an organic nutrient solution.

Most hydroponic systems use a growing medium to support the plant and roots. The growing medium is similar to soil except it contains no nutrients that are released biologically or via chemical processes. If you are growing in a sterile soilless mix containing no nutrients and fertilizing with soluble organic fertilizer, you are growing hydro-organically.

Why grow hydro-organic? Fertilizer control and the sweet, sweet taste of organic bud are enough reasons to convince discriminating growers. Since most crops are grown indoors in less than 90 days, there is little time for non-soluble organic nutrients to interact and become available to plants. Indoor growers induce flowering by changing the light from 18-hour days to 12-hour days. Six to ten weeks later juicy female buds are harvested. That’s a short time for lots of biological organic activity. During the life cycle of the plant, their nutrient needs change. Seedlings need higher levels of phosphorus and potassium. Vegetative plants use more nitrogen and flowering buds require more phosphorus. Organic fertilizers release nutrients at different rates and it is very difficult to calculate how much is being released. Organic fertilizers also tend to be very bulky and mix with water poorly. Yet when mixed and applied properly, soluble organic fertilizers are readily available and grow great dope.

To deliver the exact balance of organic nutrient solution to plants automatically, the hydro-organic system is more complex. Unless you choose a ready-made soluble organic fertilizer from one of the following companies: Canna, Bio Biz, Atami, etc., you will have to experiment to find the exact combination of nutrients to grow the fattest bud.

Measuring exactly how much soluble organic nutrient is diluted in a reservoir is difficult. Chemical fertilizer manufacturers easily mix exact amounts of each chemical into specific formulas tailored to different stages of growth: seedling, vegetative and flowering. For example, the compound, calcium nitrate, contains both calcium and nitrogen. In pure chemical form, this compound is easy to analyze and know exactly how much nitrogen and calcium per weight and how much to add to a nutrient solution to achieve the desired level. Organic nutrients are much more complex in structure and very difficult to measure exact nutrient content. They are also difficult to retain consistent. For example, the nutrient content of the organic “super bloom”, soluble bat guano varies greatly and it contains many different nutrients. The diet and health of the bats, the age of the guano, weather conditions and climate all contribute to the nutrient content.

Growing buds like this resin squirting beauty organically in hydroponics is easiest when using tried and true professional organic fertilizers.

You can fill grow bags with soilless mix and irrigate with an organic nutrient solution and grow sweeter tasting buds.

How do you overcome this minor technical difficulty? Buy a premixed soluble organic fertilizer or buy several organic fertilizers and mix them to make your own blend. Either way, you will have to experiment to get the perfect mix for your system and strain of cannabis. Any grower that has experimented with fertilizer mixes knows that adding too much can either lock nutrients up, making them unavailable or burn plants. The result is the same, slow growth and less smoke.

Like chemical soluble fertilizers, soluble organic fertilizers can be flushed out of the system if overdone. Organic fertilizers can build up to toxic levels just like chemical fertilizers. Signs of toxic fertilizer buildup or over-fertilization include burned leaf tips, curled down leaves, brittle leaves, and super dark green leaves. If you see any of these signs of over-fertilization, flush soilless hydroponic mix with at least two gallons of plain water for each gallon of nutrient solution. Flushing excess nutrients out of a system is very important to have great-tasting dope. Many North American growers flush their entire crop with plain water for the last two or three weeks of flowering to expel any accumulated fertilizer, which affects taste, from the bud.

A good base mix to start seedlings and cuttings is a balanced seaweed mix that contains all macro nutrients (nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus), secondary nutrients (calcium and magnesium) and trace elements. The nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus (NPK) percentages are printed on the front of fertilizer containers. Look for a fertilizer starter mix that contains 1-2 percent N, 2-4 percent P, and 3+ percent K. This mix will supply all the nutrients necessary for the first 3-4 weeks of growth. Many growers add growth enhancers (additives) now such as Rhizotonic or Cannazym biocatalyst. Check with your local grow store for recommendations.

Nitrogen keeps vegetative growth green and is used heavily during vegetative growth. Good sources of nitrogen include worm castings seabird guano, alfalfa meal and fish emulsion.

Flowering fertilizer has higher levels of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K). Bat guano, the organic super bloom, has sufficient levels of nitrogen to keep plants green, but most importantly, high levels of potassium and phosphorus to stimulate flower bud growth.

Making Organic Tea

Mixing organic tea is as easy as pouring poop into a reservoir of water and straining. Organic fertilizer tea mixes contain soluble organic nutrient diluted in water. Fish emulsion is the most readily available commercial organic tea. Liquid seaweed is an essential source of trace elements. Soluble worm castings and manures are high in nitrogen and bat guano is high in phosphorus. These materials and others listed make excellent U-mix organic teas singly or in combinations.

Mix the organic nutrient(s) in water and let them sit from one day to a month. Stir the solution again, and strain out the large particles by pouring the solution through cheesecloth or an old nylon stocking before applying. Adequate straining will keep irrigation nozzles from clogging.

Mix organic nutrients below and try to achieve the following ratios:

1-2 percent Nitrogen
2-4 percent Phosphorus
3+ percent Potassium

Alfalfa hay contains about 2.5 percent nitrogen, 0.5 percent phosphorus, and 2.0 percent potash. Purchase alfalfa hay from a feed store where it is also available as pellets or meal. Alfalfa pellets and meal are less bulky and convenient to make into a hydroponic tea.

Blood (dried or meal) is collected at slaughterhouses, dried and ground into a powder or meal. It is an excellent source of fast-acting soluble nitrogen (12 to 15 percent by weight), about 1.2 percent phosphorus, and under one percent potash. Apply blood meal to stimulate green leafy growth. Blood meal can burn plant foliage if applied heavily. Dogs and cats love to eat blood meal and keeping it out of their reach will make it last longer. It is an excellent ingredient for a tea mix.

Chicken manure is a favorite because it is so high in nitrogen. Manure from caged laying hens is generally higher in nitrogen than that from broiler chickens.

Some chicken manure is full of feathers that contain as much as 17% nitrogen which is an added bonus. The average nutrient content of wet chicken manure is: N - 1.5%, P - 1.5%, K - 0.5%. Dry chicken manure: N - 4%, P - 4%, K - 1.5% Both have a full range of trace elements. Beware of using fresh chicken manure as a fertilizer because it can burn the plants. Mix chicken manure in a tea.

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