converting from dirt to hydro. good idea?

my plants are growing like slugs in dirt, they are all 1.5 months old and measurements are from 2 inch to 5 inches from the bottom of the stem to the top.

my friend told me she was growing hydroponic and that that yielded tremendously more and faster. her explanation was that the plant is getting what it wants when it wants.

i asked her if i could pull my plants from the dirt after this long and put them into a hydro system and she said "she would thinks so".

what do you guys think?? and can the medium in the cups be merely something to hold the plants up?? or does it have to be special like rockwool (Ie; i can use small wads of toilet paper to hold the stem up).

also the roots. do they just simply straight up go right into the water and thats it? or does it have to be a certain way? cause if can then i plan to just make a big ass hole in the bottom of each cup and submerge the roots directly into the water (or if they float they float as she told me), then use something to keep the plant inside its pot.

what to do...

Hey buddy. I think this is a good idea.

I have found in my experiences that its pretty hard to kill a pot plant, so i don't think you can really do allot of harm as long as you take a few precautions.
For a plastic cup Hydro system all your really want is your plant suspended, with roots in the water. Make sure roots don't get light. And have a water soluble nutrients in the water to simulate soil.

When you take the plants out of the soil just make sure you don't break any roots and keep the plant stress to a minimum.

I took a seedling that had just sprouted he only had his 4 leaves, put him in a clear plastic cup and no nutes in the water and he was there for 2 weeks and showed no signs of trouble. I then decided to put him back into soil and its now a full grown female. So yea i was a complete retard and i still managed to get things going.

So yea give it a shot and i will do what i can to make suggestions but i am in no way up to date with sophisticated hydro methods, i used the Aerogarden

Anyway, good luck bucko!
J

CaveChest said:

Hey buddy. I think this is a good idea.

I have found in my experiences that its pretty hard to kill a pot plant, so i don't think you can really do allot of harm as long as you take a few precautions.
For a plastic cup Hydro system all your really want is your plant suspended, with roots in the water. Make sure roots don't get light. And have a water soluble nutrients in the water to simulate soil.

When you take the plants out of the soil just make sure you don't break any roots and keep the plant stress to a minimum.

I took a seedling that had just sprouted he only had his 4 leaves, put him in a clear plastic cup and no nutes in the water and he was there for 2 weeks and showed no signs of trouble. I then decided to put him back into soil and its now a full grown female. So yea i was a complete retard and i still managed to get things going.

So yea give it a shot and i will do what i can to make suggestions but i am in no way up to date with sophisticated hydro methods, i used the Aerogarden

Anyway, good luck bucko!
J

Click to expand...

thanks man, by the roots not getting any light, do you mean what so ever? or direct light from my cfls? cause the plastic lid im using to bore holes into will be white. i am using a plastic container so light would be able to get into it, just not directly. what do you think?

The simplest way to put it is, simulate dirt.
When your plant is in the cup make sure the roots aren't getting light but the plant is.
So if the holes in your lid are getting light to the plants roots then thats bad, you want the roots to get NO light. If thats not an option then as little as is possible.

J

hmmm idno if i can, i can be sure that no light will leak through the cup holes but the cover that im using to place them in is white. and light will glow on the other side.

I don't think a little light glow is that bad, just cover it up as much as possible.

White lid = algae growth something fierce
Put black duct tape or Mylar or panda film or paint on your lid. Done. Also best way to take a plant from soil to hydro is

Step one- shake excess dirt off
Step two- use a hose with a nozzle, kitchen sink ones work great to spray the dirt off of
the roots.
Step three- soak in water and clerex then transplant


This worked for me. Just be gentle

Oh and use lava rocks, gravel, hydraton, marbles, or anything of this nature. Do not use wadded up toilet paper. Paper has bleach in it plus it can clog water pumps and probally create stem rot

TOKEMASTERFLEX said:

Oh and use lava rocks, gravel, hydraton, marbles, or anything of this nature. Do not use wadded up toilet paper. Paper has bleach in it plus it can clog water pumps and probally create stem rot

Click to expand...

marbles??? could u explain to me in detail how to have my plant in marbles without smashing the roots between the marbles accidentally? didn't know u could use marbles

or should i shove my plant through a big hole at the bottom of my cup? and just use marble to hold the stem still?

where do i find clerex? and what cost?

retuks said:

my plants are growing like slugs in dirt, they are all 1.5 months old and measurements are from 2 inch to 5 inches from the bottom of the stem to the top.

my friend told me she was growing hydroponic and that that yielded tremendously more and faster. her explanation was that the plant is getting what it wants when it wants.

i asked her if i could pull my plants from the dirt after this long and put them into a hydro system and she said "she would thinks so".

what do you guys think?? and can the medium in the cups be merely something to hold the plants up?? or does it have to be special like rockwool (Ie; i can use small wads of toilet paper to hold the stem up).

also the roots. do they just simply straight up go right into the water and thats it? or does it have to be a certain way? cause if can then i plan to just make a big ass hole in the bottom of each cup and submerge the roots directly into the water (or if they float they float as she told me), then use something to keep the plant inside its pot.

what to do...

Click to expand...

I don't think your problem is connected to the soil directly

I grow in soil, and my plants grow like crazy, grown more than 10 inch for 3 weeks from seed, and super bushy

I also have seem people having incredible yield with soil, even comparing to hydro setups

you are free to go hydro, but my suggestion is to perfect soil first and then go to more advanced and complicated setups, chances are if you cannot grow in soil you will probably fail with any type of medium, remember "more complicated" is not always better

If you were to take your plants out of those cups and put in a bigger pot they will grow like crazy,, just dont have enough room to grow.......

stick to the soil if you want to grow hydro start new plants, soil is not the reason for your slow growth ive grown in soil for 8 years and did hydro the past 9 months and now im back to soil, if you wanna do hydro start with new plants. you did somthing wrong in 1.5 months you should be pushin at least a foot, hydro might not fix the problem.... have you tryed in the past month and a half to figure out whats wrong with your plant???? hydro is a lot of work at first until you get used to it compared to soil and its really easy to loose a crop if you screw up bad enuff...... figure out what youv done wrong first

retuks said:

my plants are growing like slugs in dirt, they are all 1.5 months old and measurements are from 2 inch to 5 inches from the bottom of the stem to the top.

my friend told me she was growing hydroponic and that that yielded tremendously more and faster. her explanation was that the plant is getting what it wants when it wants.

i asked her if i could pull my plants from the dirt after this long and put them into a hydro system and she said "she would thinks so".

what do you guys think?? and can the medium in the cups be merely something to hold the plants up?? or does it have to be special like rockwool (Ie; i can use small wads of toilet paper to hold the stem up).

also the roots. do they just simply straight up go right into the water and thats it? or does it have to be a certain way? cause if can then i plan to just make a big ass hole in the bottom of each cup and submerge the roots directly into the water (or if they float they float as she told me), then use something to keep the plant inside its pot.

what to do...

Click to expand...

all my 1.5 month old plants are in soil ... and they are 14-20" tall
somethin else is goin on with urs..... got pics ? what size pots are they in ?
dont blame the soil

Address The issue you have with soil first, Have the plants been in the cups since sprouting? If so transplant them to a larger container.

if you have them in a cup .....

for all of you who keep saying i should stick to soil, there are 2 good reasons why i decided to want a switch to hydroponics


1) space. i have none. all my plants take up all my space in their already small containers.

2) my friend grows hydro and tried to explain as much as possible to me before she went on a trip to china. i cannot contact her. but she had 4 plants in a small ass container and used a FAN to move water. literally the MOST ghetto setup and the yield was 2+oz per plant and she told me its the best way to give the plant what it wants when it wants it = fast & proper growth.

she told me i can easily have short FAT plants doing it the hydro way. and i don't think small pots are the case, i seen people who have plants 5 times the size of mine in weeny pots.

here are a few pics to show u what my situation looks like

so far these are the items i plan to use for a DWC. are they adequate?
I also need more explanation on the whole Styrafoam cover. i dont quite understand that.

and as for medium, also confused. would any small-pile-able objects be ok ? Ie: Sand, pebbles of any kind, marbles, rice?

also trying to get General hydroponics micro and bloom (using lucas form can skip floragrow). are there any better/equal and cheaper nute solutions out there?? Lmk

ALSO: the pic of the little 1.5 month(lol) old sprout... would that be ok to put into the hydro system?

what ya got for light in ther??? how big is your space

tusseltussel said:

what ya got for light in ther??? how big is your space

Click to expand...

I use 3 23Watt CFLs from Sylvania. no clue what the lumen output is or how many thousand ks there are. all i know is while im working in there the lights leave me seeing blotches of black across my eyesight so their bright enough to blind.

the picture i provided is actualy on the only surface im able to use. and that black bin reservoir will neatly fit in that space with an inch left on all corners. so yes the space is as tight as a thai... nvm

btw, that paper towel roll i placed in the picture is so you guys know the approximate size of my res.

bump? any1 to help a newb?

bump... i wanted to go to the stores today based on ur advice =(...

which i still want!**