Commercial systems usually pre-mix compatible nutrients, powders and liquids into three batch stock solutions, "A", "B" and "Acid" and they sit in tanks and are injected injected when needed, at ratios like 1:150 into stock water and working solution during growing cycles as the system monitors the solution strength and acidity.

Pre-mixing a final solution at working strength is doable if it is for a short period of time if kept clean, if, if, and like always dark, but it is poor practice if it sits around more than a week or so. Besides, it is a good medium for anything including molds and bad bacteria to grow in, and bugs usually find a way inside things that are not airtight along with the microscopic critters on them as soon as they find a way to fall in and drown themselves.

Thank You, that makes since, so can any extra mix be poured on a garden or lawn?

I'm guessing that it's not easy to mix up a small batch. I'm going to be practicing with one five gallon bucket (DWC) and suppose that I will need to top it off occasionally.

Oh sure, if that's all your doing to start, just make some extra and store it in a dark cool place each time you mix up your bucket fill plus little extra to store. Normally a grow cycle for these things is a month or less and you are mainly depending on the initial solution. But no need to make more than that. Plus, remember most of the water is evaporating, so alternate between topping off with water. I don't get to bothered with that and let my strength drift a little down since it starts out at a good (the right amount, not extra either) working strength.

Like you said just change it after the cycle, some people use 10 days to two weeks with aggressive growth, I've been lazy lately using a month, but I have a very well balanced fertilizer for my plants so really I don't do anything for three weeks until it starts getting out of sync and needs a pH adjustment or a minor little amount of something extra.

As for dumping the spent solution,k it usually does a great job perking things up if you are not a commercial outfit, no problem. Just don't dump it directly in a river since it contributes to algal bloom which is a big problem in some areas.

There might be some regulations somewhere in some strict communities, but really they would be overreactive for minor quantities. The argument would be "nitrites" and "nitrates" are getting in the water table. That's bogus for small quantities, the hydroponic salts are sort of like pouring liquid plants or compost and it's way worse that many people overdo chemical lawn treatments with much much more runoff of nutrients, so we're fine in comparison.

If in doubt about something and you have a mulch pile, that's another good place to add to some really awesome mulch.

I am about to launch my first attempt at hydroponics with plans from an aeroponic setup I found online. I am growing in my Portland Oregon basement that is not heated. I bought a couple of induction light sets so I won't have the heat from the lights to bring temperatures up. To combat this I enclosed the area in plastic to capture as much heat as possible. My concern now is the potential for mold. I have read about burning sulfur as a precaution. Has anybody tired this?

I've never used an induction light. They are supposed to not make heat?

Sulphur burners are used when you have an established crop that breaks out in mold or mildew. It's a llittle hot pan that hangs in the air. They are fire hazards, and even worse, the sulphur stinks horribly of rotten eggs. You have to wash it carefully off anything you might eat.

It would be a lot better to combat potential mold with air movement. Typically, outside air is drawn in and over the light, exhausting the heat. But that also exhausts the moisture the plants put off, which is what causes mold and mildew in the first place. Fresh air will also replenish the CO2 levels around the plants.

Sounds like an interesting lighting scheme and probably you put a lot of thought into getting the right spectral output from your induction bulbs, preferably specifically designed for matching the PAR curve for plants. If not, like some fluorescent bulbs you have to watch out that the light isn't being provided less optimally in a combination of peaks and shoulders that aren't in the most useful light frequency bnds.

As for burning sulfur I can add nothing to ^^^^ except you simply don't want to burn sulfur indoors where concentrations of sulfur dioxide will defeat all the benefits, nutritional, aromatherapeutically and/or medically, of fresh plants and accumulate to send you to an early grave. Not a very Eco thing either unless you could live on Venus where it is the second most common gas and another reason that planet has polluted itself to be a big, hot suffocating greenhouse inferno.

This is what the CDC, not quite the fringe environmental group has to say:

"Studies in animals support the human data regarding respiratory effects of sulfur dioxide At low levels (less than 1 ppm) of sulfur dioxide exposure, guinea pigs displayed changes in their ability to breathe as deeply or as much air per breath More severe symptoms seen in animals exposed to high concentrations of sulfur dioxide include decreased respiration, inflammation or infection of the airways, and destruction of areas of the lung."

Thank you all so much. My induction lights give off less than 200 degrees. I intend to run a fan but am reluctant to open a window and chill the air. I plan to station the fan near the open heat duct to draw air from the rest of the house (hopefully providing adequate CO2). We don't operate the oil furnace so it is just drawing what is in the vent system.
The lights are supposed to be adequate for all stages of growth I was told. We shall see.

Still more questions, if you use distilled water do you absolutely need a Water Quality Tester. IâÂÂm just playing around with Hydroponics, nothing more than one five gallon bucket for now. I see them on Amazon for less than $20.

I went and bought the PH Up/Down kit and will look into the PH meter if I decide this is fun.

Also, any suggestion on good Hydro book for beginners.

Don't know about intro books, the selection in my limited experience is pretty lousy as far as I saw and many times there is a bias to sell certain products which I dislike. Use the forum, it is pretty quiet at this time of year and all the questions are useful to a lot of people.

If by water quality tester you mean electrical conductivity, that is a good buy, but not absolutely necessary if you are using hydro commercial fertilizers at their recommended application rates indoors and changing every three weeks or so. If you use distilled water, be sure you have enough calcium and magnesium. in your formula. It is usually essential to add extra since most commercial products are made considering a medium hardness.

For pH, I'm a chemist (and wish I were a painter), and I don't bother with a pH electrode probe, they are simply not worth it vs. a few drops of indicator like in your kit. Not getting hung up on each decimal pH unit is probably a good idea too, since it can lead to senseless micromanagement and can even be worse. A good painter would be able to call the decimal pH unit anyway knowing how much orange or green tinge they like (either side of pH=6.0 in a typical universal indicator).

Water quality is a confusing term since it can mean anything. I have chlorine test kits which test water quality. (a quality anyway). Keep it simple and likely you can find this very rewarding like many others here. If there is something you enjoy, then go for it. Like me, I like playing with nutrient formulas more than playing with lights. Actually after trying lights once I decided it was simply too costly and something that didn't satisfy my hobby fun. So, I have an EC meter and stuff like it I use frequently and a bunch of fixtures in a tangled mess I put out of sight ;-)

Try to start out, using EC measurements btw - not strictly a "PPM Meter" as it has been called - my personal recomendation, no matter what anyone else says. It is so much more accurate makes for better understanding and of course more fun especially to compare notes with a diverse group of people.

You probably don't have to buy distilled water. Most people's tap water is ok to use. I use fish tank water when I can.

I agree to not get obsessed with testing. I don't do it at all any more. The plant's leaves will tell you when there is a ph or nutrient problem. And the roots will give you an idea of root zone oxygen percentage and bacterial health. And unlike expensive meters, those system are never defective or give bad readings due to lack of recent calibration. It is still nice to have a meter if you suspect there is a problem, but relying too much on them can cause its own problems.

I agree with the last two previous comments, I have been doing hydroponics in Australia for over 40 years I have both PH and Ec probes and I am going nutty as for the last 40 years as it has been mentioned in the preceeding comments, your plants will soon tell you if they are not happy. I do use the EC metre and the PH metres but use the KISS principle and enjoy hydroponics.

Glad to read your friendly comments Robert and it is nice to have a forum member from Australia doing some posting. I get the idea that you guys have an interesting way of getting things done in hydro down under with lots of innovative rigs.

I'm pretty new and enthusiastic about this but this isn't the most productive time of the year so if you get a chance some time to snap a shot and say a few words about any working setup to wake up the hibernating enthusiasts by seeing it in springtime), it would really be fun for me and probably to many of the northern folks.

We just had a post here about some dubious nutrient additives including molasses (burnt, thick, dark brown sugar syrup residue at the bottom of the sugar refinement crystallization vat if you call it something else there). I couldn't help wondering if anyone in Australia tried vegemite instead :-)

I am running three systems Pupilla ,one inside my garage which is a drip system, one is outside which is a flood and drain system, and another one I have just started using the inert Kratky system which looks promising, as it means just add the nutrient and let it do the rest with no pumps etc, as it uses the wicking system that as the nutrient is used up the roots keep following the nutrient down and at the same time there is space for oxygen to get to the roots. When I get some decent photos I will attach them. As Brisbane is sub tropical luckily we can grow all year long, as long as I watch the temperature so that I dont cook my outside hydroponic set up.
PS Molasses never heard of it just buy a pre packaged nutrient mixture which will probably suffice. As for vegemite I will stick to putting on my toast or putting in casserole dishes.

Just put in some new Bok Choy in my garage drip system plus a few small seedlings, watching my PH as Bok Choy have a high PH compared to other Chinese vegetables they seem to prefer 6.5 to 7.00 PH and and EC of 1.5 to 2.0

Looks like a very efficient system, and I have a question but will hold off in case you would start a thread and put it there, it would be great to so a few people can see what you're up to, and we don't have to bury it down here in a different topic.

As for the (blackstrap) molasses, looks like Oz follows the UK on that one and call it black treacle for the same stuff, and I agree completely it isn't something I would add but it does have most of the plant nutrients left over from the cane refining process (which is why refined white sugar has a reputation of being a non-nutritious food, since it all gets left in this black gunk in the bottom of the kettle). There is some somewhat dubious science that supports certain "rare & special" sugars that make up this kind of gooey liquid give some plant species a boost and they uptake them and use them, but I'm not convinced the widely promoted studies are gold standard in a scientific sense or just some snake oil salesman's gimmick. It seems to serve as a decent ingredient in lawns too but that might be for its ability to immobilize some tiny critter pests something like mineral and neem oil also can do.

Speaking of molasses, it's hard enough to find so I'll follow your lead and keep the sweet molasses for my french toast (a.k.a., eggy bread) and my salty nutes for my plants. I do like vegemite, and apologize for the idea all Americans are horrified by it, which is so UNTRUE.

Molasses is used for plants in soil. It is not exactly a fertilizer; the sugars feed the bacteria and fungi that live in the root zone. Those bacteria and fungi are what the plant uses to take nutrients out of the soil. In the US, at a farm store, a big jug of animal feed molasses costs only a few dollars and it almost a lifetime supply. A spoonful is a wise additive to a fertilizer injector, attached to a drip system.

Molasses in hydro is a separate issue, because your bacterial makeup is going to be different. There are a lot of competing organisms who are eager to digest those sugars before the beneficial ones can get to them, and a lot of them are bad guys, or at least not beneficial.

We're all culturing bacteria, whether we think about it or not. You can't grow plants without it. I think we've all probably put highly chlorinated water into a reservoir and seen plants suffer from it. That's because it kills off the good bacteria.

Fish tank water seems to be very healthy on a bacterial level. You can also buy additives. mycogrow from fungi perfecti is about $6 US and will last a long time in a small hydro reservoir. There are also much more expensive products like Bush Dr from Fox Farm.

Sounds all like a very reasonable summary of the bacterial and fungal life from the viewpoint of molasses ... especially the "competing organisms who are eager to digest those sugars" basically long before the plant ever gets any.

I must add, that in addition to throwing the microbial ecosystem out of kilter, well-chlorinated tap water can directly injure roots themselves and some plant species are much more susceptible. This effect is completely independent of the secondary (and also strong) effect from upsetting the blance of microbial flora/fauna, and confusion between the two issues is seen in plenty of threads online when trying to figure out exactly how to separate causes.

Hi all, be kind as I am new to this. I have many skill sets so setting up something won't be a problem. I grew some Beefsteak tomato's out of season for here. They produced quit a few small to med.(tasty) fruits before they kind of withered away. Sun too hot, bugs or fungus I don't know. I have started terracing a 1/4 acre I have. I plan on building a 1/2 hoop of sorts to utilize a Dutch bucket setup( using polybags in the link) for tomato's and other vegies. On the back wall I have from terracing I'll make up a PVC pipe System for lettuce and herbs. I'm not sure what to do with cabbage. Any thoughts or words of wisdom will be appreciated.

Here is a link that might be useful: EBAY STORE

Hydroponics gardening is rather difficult for some people. It is also technical for inexperienced plant growers. Nonetheless, you can learn the fundamental principles.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grow your own food

Hello Grow Own Foods I posted this link a short time ago but seeing that you have brought this subject up I will post again. I apologise for those who have seen this and say "not again"
This is taken from an an Australian ABC garden program which shows that this form of gardening is taking hold.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coUb1qUnMvk

Here is a link that might be useful: Aquaponics

"Thank you all so much. My induction lights give off less than 200 degrees. "

This doesn't mean anything.

In the case of lighting plants indoors, energy used on heat, and energy used on light are almost exactly the same thing. Light bounces off of things, heats those surfaces, and gives off some more IR radiation. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about LEDs, or incandescents, every watt coming out of the wall becomes heat.

More efficient lighting just gives you more light before that energy ends up as heat. The fact that your light fixtures can't physically burn you like a metal halide/sodium vapor fixture can do doesn't mean they don't produce a lot of heat.

I have just started hydroponics and some (not all) of my seedlings leaves are not as bright green as I would have thought they would be. They appear a little yellow. Could this be due the pH of the water?

richardemery839 - what are the plants and what is the ph?