Hahaha electrolytes... Hell yes! This is the first forum I joined and quite recently! I have however been a medical merijuana patient since 1996 and grew up in northern Cali bay area. thus I have seen first hand hundreds and hundreds of grow rooms and outdoor scenes. This site is excellent! I have never been able to find strain info that is picture provin... People around here have gotten into a rut and grow such a small selection of genetics it is sad! Vertigons are the big in thing around here.... I like a nice small horizontal garden. And I really enjoy organic grading and creating an ecosystem. Much like having a reef aquarium
I am also interested in learning how to push the boundaries with regards to plant growth/ production and ecofriendly gardening. Hydroponics has shown a huge savings in water and nutrient consumption as compared to conventional row ag.
My undergraduate degree is in biology, however my masters is marine bio and unfortunately not horticulture : ) My understanding is thus; enregy is neither made nor destroyed. A system, be it plant or animal, consumes a quantity of energy and then uses said energy to preform a verity of functions. When plants are grown hydroponically the root system is much more efficient then the root system of a soil grown plant. This is because of the abundance of oxygen, water, and nutrient in the solution/surrounding media. No soil can accomplish this ideal. A system saves energy when it doesnt have to work as hard to gather said energy. This is exemplified by the prolific growth of plants utilizing NFT and aeroponics (a very minuscule root system providing for a very large amount of foliage and fruit/flower). This savings in energy is transferred to growth in foliage/fruit.
Plant growth is a product of a group of limiting factors. While growing in ambient atmospheric conditions many times the limiting factor is a lack of Light shortly followed by lack of Co2 (or the converse). Temperature and humidity fall into this group but are easily controlled. With all other limiting factors taken in to account for it is the water
xygen:nutrient that becomes the issue. While a proficient gardener is able to judge the moisture level and achieve a near perfect ratio, that ratio is available only for a specific amount of time between waterings. With hydroponics one is able to achieve the ideal consistently through the plants life, morning noon and night, 24/7. This puts us back to light, temperature and Co2 which can now be increased for much faster growth.
I am not tring to start a flame war but I am a scientist first and foremost. There is much and well documented research on the limiting factors experienced by plants. I was looking for specie specific personal experience as this particular plant has had very little scholarly research applied.
Thanks and all the best!