hey, would enyone knows whats the easys thing to buy as growing medium for hydroponics. cuz theres not much stores here and its a pain to buy on the net. thanks
In bubble buckets (DWC) I use a big bag of rounded stones from a garden centre, which were intended to cover driveways and paths. It's cheap, and provides more support for the volume, which helps if you grow larger plants. Just make sure it doesn't contain limestone which will leech into your solution.
im doin my first bubble bucket and i heard lava rocks work good or hydroton....but theres no hydro stores around here so hydroton is hard to find. so im goin with those lava rocks....
i feel like lava rocks hold water even better than hydroton. Lava rocks are great to use for hydro. Just wash them first.
Petco sells Hydroton. I was in there the other day buying some air stones and saw it. They have that coco stuff also.
If you are going to use hydroton clay balls you need to soak them overnight in a PH solution of 4 thats PH4 this will ensure your ph levells dont rise above ph 6 ish I use this methord with my Aquafarms and works a treat as I dont have to ph them at all and get great results from them all the best hope this helps
After years of trying different options I've settled with the bare minimum. A 4x4 rockwool cube with a 1" starter plug shoved in it. I couldn't be bothered wasting my time cleaning the hydroton LECA each grow.
Just make sure whatever you use be it hydroton or volcanic rock that it is CLEAN. Someone on this forum told me an awesome way of cleaning hydroton. Get an old thin t-shirt and stretch it tight around your rocks. Tie that shit off and throw it in the dishwasher for a few cycles. Then it's as simple as filling your baskets and rinsing it in the sink.
for my ebb and flo i use 4x4 rw cubes with 1.5 in rockwool cubess tucked in. Love it, low maintenance, I just have to watch the overwater with my NL plants. In the 1.5 cubes seems impossible to overwater. In my dwc I tried and in my waterfarm I am using for mothers I am using recycled tire mulch from home depot. It works good. I read a report that the very best medium is lava rocks. It is because of the little holes in the rocks, the marijauan plant sin particular love to pu their little root hairs in them. Some growers shy away from the lava as it is sharp and if moved it will damage your roots. I have stunted a plant this way and it is not a pretty site. I recently chopped a few males 7 weeks old in 4x4 cubes and found that the plant had barley used a quarter of the cube. I put my 4 inchers in 5.25 turbogarden pots filling the extra space on the sides and bottom with mini cubes. I have just arrived at this site and i like it, glad to be here, I post on another site too.
cheapest, easiest medium to use is water, use a bubbler. sterlite container and some aquarium supplies, every wal-mart has all you need except a bit of hydroton.