If it weren’t for rolling blackouts in Cali I’d definitely try my hand at hydro at some point. I just don’t think my heart could take watching my whole grow die bc of smth so stupid.
Many people do hydro without any critical electrical systems (other than the lights). Hand watered drain to waste in coco is where most people start in hydro.
Many people also do sub irrigated planter style or something with a gravity fed valve system like octopots.
At one point in time I had to travel regularly for my job. I'd leave for 4 days and that could turn into 10 after I was already gone and I had noone to look after the garden. I made a diy hybrid type thing like a cross between a sub irrigated planter an a octopots.
I just used a rubbermaid tote with a cloth pot on top. A hole thru the lid with a netpot attached to the cloth pot down into the Rubbermaid. Fill the netpot and cloth pot with coco and you've got a bottom feed sub irrigated planter for hydro, fill the tote with your nutrients. The coco acts as a wick and eventually the roots grow right into the Rubbermaid. I used 12 gallon tote with a 3 gallon cloth pot for each plant and it was fantastic. Grew like that for 3 years with work trips as long as 10 days with noone even there.
It worked fantastic, plants love it and once the roots hit the rubbermaid it's explosive growth of hydro that we all love.
There's many solutions to doing hydro with no pumps or daily hand watering.
