I know it’s very possible with cannabis, what are your thoughts?
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It can be done, for sure! The problem that growers often cite with organic hydroponics is that many organic nutrient blends are very thick and tend to clog up thinner lines more readily than do salt based fertilizers. There are ways to mitigate this challenge and stay completely organic and hydroponic at the same time.
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Yes use organic suspension grade material. If material stays in motion then less to zero clogging can occur.
Ebb and flow and Deep Water Culture are no problem
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Novice question, but what kind of additional costs come with considering suspension grade materials? If you have to maintain the flow to prevent settling, I can see that generating high energy costs for a larger facility in contrast to a “smart” system that regulates in interval settings.
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Actually good question!
As long as a good circulation pump and or air diffusion is used shouldn’t be any different large or small systems. We have large farms and indoor facilities that actually have not seen a increase in power consumption.
If the blend is dominated with dense input, such as soft rock phosphate, then material will sink no matter what size pump is used. Material such as alfalfa will float to top and need to mix just as much as the dense material. Knowing what material density is the key, which not too many people pay attention to.
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Sounds like the real struggle is educating the consumer then. Is that right? Or is it more of an adoption concern with established farms not interested in the overhaul cost to switch to an organic hydroponic setup?
21 Questions, but:
- How do you consider the cost of a new facility setup with organic hydroponics? Generalized cost to switch from existing method?
- Are there any data on the growth metrics of organic hydro vs. “conventional” umbrella methods?
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Switching from synthetic methods to organic method can be scary. I designed my micronized blends against general hydroponic 3-part. With testing and growth chamber trials we got the formula as close as possible to synthetic results. After doing a cost analysis we were able to achieve MSRP $0.03 to $0.05 per gallon of water. Against any synthetic we still are competitive pricing.
A challenge we took on is making our blends so simple even my child can use our fertilizer(he grew a wonderful veggie garden).
We did hydroponic trials, compost tea trials, amending soil and just watering. We originally designed around fertigation, injection units.
As far as data goes, not too many organic blends have as much versatility as we designed. So room for data logging is open. Although vs synthetic, we have reached over 30% thc(36% with some HPLC tests) and terpene levels in extracts beyond 10% total. Yield we have growers reporting slight differences in wt but gladly will exchange a few grams for higher quality results
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I can get behind the quality grams approach, and it sounds like the THC yields are up where they need to be; although, I’m no @mastergrowers in any way. Sounds like some solid results.
I’m an advocate, as I think most generally are, of cleaner/healthier bioaccumulation. I’d be interested in hearing from some of our GNET @growopowners. What have been some of your experiences with using organics, considerations for or against it, and thoughts on going organic hydroponic?
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Always found that organics in hydro were more sensitive to reservoir temps. and the reservoir frequently would go anaerobic. Adding a chiller was just one complication too many.
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Actually water temp in both synthetic and organic is sensitive, but pH is more sensitive with synthetics. Where with organics the pH will buffer itself.
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Growth Science has been making waves as the only certified organic nutrient line that is completely fertigation friendly (dosatrons etc.). At least the only one I have heard of. @SensationalSolutions, is your line certified?
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Since the start 9 yrs ago we have been organic! All ingredients we use are certified. We are currently going through CDFA OIM inputs. But at the moment we are Envirocann certified which follows NOP standards
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Btw we are dry not liquid…we didn’t want to ship liquid which increases cost
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When is your Envirocann certification going to make it onto your label?
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Next season we have to wait on CDFA to make label revisions. We have been Envirocann for 2 yrs already
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Does Evirocann allow for labeling? Just trying to figure out why it still hasn’t made it onto the label in 2 years. Maybe it’s just not shown on your website?
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Yes Envirocann does. We haven’t added the Envirocann stamp anywhere because it’s just my wife co-owner and myself that actually run the biz.
Just haven’t updated our website and currently the labels are getting ready for renewal which the stamp will be included
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Nice!
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A good , solid anaerobic microbe can solve that issue. too much oxygen bubbling can also be a problem. Also, calcium can drop out of solution if left for days. Especially when using a products with sulpher. Sulpher drops out very quickly. #1 problem with organic lines. Sulphates hard to keep in solution!
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