Problems in Hydroponics - Avoiding 5 Common Mistakes

[@obviouslytwo4u]

This channel definitely needs more attention, great work she is doing and I appreciate her taking the time to make a video for us all.

[@obviouslytwo4u]

@@kevinboone5015 nice follow on account you got here, it's totally not obvious.

[@alvinfriesen4918]

8:32 List of the 5 mistakes

[@Adam-rw4xk]

I'm just starting out with hydroponics; this video was really helpful. Thank you!

[@tim03b_48]

It’s so refreshing watching someone who is passionate about something. In this case you with your hydroponic farming! So happy for you!

[@torrielandsman4625]

I've been growing using hydroponics for thirty five years and agree with everything in this video, Well done. A little tip: Use a HPS or some other HID light when you start your tomatoes indoors because they give off a lot of infrared and will keep your leaf temperatures up so you will get fruit in the colder times of the year.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Great idea! Thanks!

[@The_O.G_Cyber_bully_24Hr_Ban]

LED are better these days infrared is heat, infrared is not really used by plants as much as red/far red a little infrared sure it helps if temperatures are not optimum but to much infrared light (heat) will damage plants or make them bolt at the very least . The new LED lights of today are expensive but much better than HPS they have better light CRI as high as 80-95% (HPS 30%) with added far red just inside the infrared wave band as said you don't want to add heat to the grow room with the heat comes problems with water temperature the warmer the water the less oxygen it can hold and you run a high risk of root rot if water temperature is over 26c. The optimum temperature for growing tomatoes under light is 27c I have grown using HPS for 30 years and was sceptical of LEDs for a long time, but decided to dip my toe in I will never look back LED technology is starting to get light years ahead pun intended with each passing year the efficiency is around twice that of HPS at the moment a 240 true watts of LED AKA quantum board will give a 400W HPS a good run for it's money they have become so good they have taken over the cannabis horticulture market a 600W LED light bar will cover a 5x5 grow tent with full spectrum light and an even plant canopy side to side front to back it will out perform a 1000W HPS in the same area if you like tending to plants under lights it's almost like working in natural day light I could not wait to get out of the orange HPS garden 5 minutes in there sweating is not pleasurable experience

[@yungin83100]

#5 was the best explanation I've heard so far on the differences in the types of setups. Thank you

[@kayare8700]

Very detailed and straight to the facts needed. Also very clear on ways to better or fix issues. Thank you very much.

[@michaelconway644]

"Daylight Spectrum" can be anywhere from 3000K to 6500K. The higher range produces vegetation, the lower range produces flowering and fruit. Just as people will switch fertilizers when blooms start appearing, those using T5's will swap out bulbs to the 3000K for fruiting.

[@at8121]

I've been having issues...thanks for posting. Solved my problem!

[@pawsformercy1050]

Very helpful information for beginners. .thanks 😂

[@bosahvandenberg]

Great, dense, information. You're doing a great job!

[@Gzero1]

I needed to hear this, Thanks

[@yayciencia]

Thank you for these tips. The amount of wattage for the grow lights was especially helpful!

[@sanjivsinghjowata9610]

It was of great help 'thanks

[@theobillios6453]

Thanks Christie great video autom in Australia when summer will remember you r knowledge

[@pluto-world]

Very good video! Thank You! ❤️

[@michaeljenardligan6173]

Wonderful! Thank you very much for the informative and helpful content😊🙏🏻

[@mildrediawphniaw1697]

Thank you for your very clear explanations.

[@kevinchilderley1366]

Thank you for sharing this knowledge I found it really helpful. You also explained things in away that made it really easy to understand.

[@ngonadionyema8789]

Hi, Thanks a million. It's very insightful. Well done, good work.

[@roblaurens4060]

Excellent video, thank you.

[@reggiem3187]

We have a large open, airy house and keeping the temperature at a reasonable level is difficult. Thermostat says 68 but im guessing its below that in plenty of places. Any ideas for keeping the air temp constant and higher around the plants? Are plastic bags useful for this? Also, what are those 'bean' looking things in your net cups, around the plant base? Ultimately my hydroponic plants (after about 4-5 weeks), are underperforming. I have watermelon, sunflower, lavendar, cilantro, and an assortment of plants. If the temperature isnt the issue, what should i troubleshoot next? Im changing the water out about every month and adding plant food. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Lack of heat can be an issue with some plants that need more heat to grow well, like beans and tomatoes, but with lettuce and other leafy greens, you should be fine at the temps you already have in your home. I keep my house at 68 and the only trouble I've had at times is getting the seeds to germinate. Beans are particularly temperamental in this regard as they do better with a constant 75+ temp. What I do to bring temps up around my warm season plants is use heat mats. You can place those seed sprouting heat mats below your units (and you can get them on Amazon or a local grow shop near you). You'll also see in some of my videos my seed sprouting in a grow box which I feature in my video on creating a Solar Powered Hydoponic Unit video (Found in my Off Grid Playlist). That system uses light strips in the lid which add plenty of heat to the box without the need of heat mats. In fact, I found that box getting too warm with the lights so I had to vent it 1-2 inches when my bean plants were sprouting. Other issues you might be facing is lighting. My tomatoes, for example, would grow green well into the summer with my full spectrum lights, but would never produce any fruit from their flowers because I didn't have the right warm spectrum lights for fruiting. You could also be facing a lack of pollination for self pollinating plants if you don't manually brush the flowers each day of your self pollinating fruiting plants, like strawberries or tomatoes inside your home. Another issue you can be facing, especially with herbs like cilantro is the type of grow system you are using. Herbs in particular are temperamental in that they don't like their roots immersed in water all the time. I found they do best in a aeroponics system that uses sprayers instead of DWC or Kratky system. So you might try building an aeroponics unit for these types of plants to see if they grow better. I have build plans for that type of system on my website at greenlivingoffgrid.com. So these are my suggestions. I hope they help.

[@randallhilton]

Excellent presentation!

[@compubyte2010]

Awesome info !! THANK YOU

[@XaYaZaZa]

I learned a lot, thanks!

[@davidrandall5743]

Great information and video, thank you!

[@thrownmeteor1848]

This video was an awesome KZbin recommendation. You just gained a subscriber! Phenomenal.

[@livefreeordie5033]

Awesome and helpful video thank you so much🌹😊👌💐👍 Cheers 🇪🇬

[@CapnK023]

Very informative!

[@xXKasper2007Xx]

U you deserve more followers then any famous youtuber

[@rosesallotmentadventures9365]

This is a very helpful video, thank you. Best wishes from the UK

[@valeriesanchez3074]

Got a Mars hydro ts1000. Was expensive but worth the investment. Lights covers a wide area

[@cristianeferreira9574]

Thank you so much!!!

[@theobillios6453]

Thanks great video

[@CCNA911]

Thank You for sharing this.

[@twoplustwo07]

Thank you

[@jamesdonnelly8888]

This was very useful content for me, thanks. You have a lovely warm smile which is infectious, and makes watching enjoyable

[@kaletsugas]

Thanks for this very informative video!

[@arubaguy2733]

Talking about "watts of light"? The watt is a unit of power consumption or dissipation. Different types of lights, even different LEDs consume watts of power in vastly different ways. For example, I have 10-watt LED lamps that are much "brighter" than 100-watt incandescent bulbs. The typical measure of light intensity is expressed in "lumens" per area (square foot, etc.) Color temperature (hue; yellowish, bluish, etc.) is also as important as intensity. Every kind of light has a color temperature (Expressed in "Kelvin") that corresponds to intensities at various wavelengths, which can vary widely depending on the light source. Around 5,000 kelvin is average outdoor daylight. 3,000k is "warm white", while 7,000k is more bluish "cool white". Those yellowish street lights are around 2,200k. Watts of light means nothing.

[@arubaguy2733]

(Light intensity can also be expressed in "lux" or foot-candles, two older terms)

[@idealdirecthomeimprovement1639]

Great video! You’re such a sweet person! Best of luck!

[@keeper9921]

Great info. Thanks!

[@divinekingston1290]

great video!!! Enjoyed!!!

[@TM-we6eg]

I agree @Obviously , thank you for the video and the information. I subscribed.

[@gorillamacgyver7411]

Great Content THanks !

[@somaraju8631]

Very good video.

[@TomboiTravels]

Thank you 💚💚

[@dsperbs]

Hello, love your videos! I have been growing hydroponics tomatoes, eggplants, lettuces, peppers and soon zucchinis--- I'm hooked! I was wondering if you could give me suggestions for my fertilizer nutrient mix. We mix tomato fertilizer, epsom salt, and calcium nitrate in tap water. It is all dissolved when we mix but after a day, a rust-like 'scum' develops at the top and even in the water you can see small dark particulates. As background,the nutrients are added to ph-corrected water and each nutrient is completely dissolved in water before it is added to the water container. Thanks so much!

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

It is normal to have some type of scum develop on the bottom of your hydroponic containers. It all depends up on your PH levels which affects how well the nutrients stay suspended in the water, but ALL Hydroponic nutrients leave some type of scum, no matter how well you mix it up. If you have everything in balance, they should grow just fine.

[@jeanachang]

Do you actually get tomatoes from the plant? How do you keep them from growing too big? I planted a tomato plant, and it got over a foot tall, so I wanted to transplant it into a regular pot for the deck. Unfortunately, I was not able to get it out of the plastic sponge holder because of the roots. The roots mostly ended up breaking off, leaving me only about two inches of roots. I put it into the soil pot anyway, and I'm hoping it survives, but I just didn't know if I could have kept it in the hydroponic system and just pruned the roots a bit?

[@proudILOCANO2022]

Thanks for sharing, i have learned a lot. I just started my hydroponics (kratky). Newly subscribed here! More videos 👍🙏

[@christopherjuarez7039]

I'm using an idoo hydroponic all in one that I got as a gift. It has a small pump and a telescoping light hood that adjusts as the plants grow. Its been doing well as I'm just growing basil,cilantro,thyme,dill and parsely. I noticed the water level was low so I mixed up some solution and toped it up and a week later the roots looked brown and slimy. Can I save these or do I have to start from seed again? Thanks for any help.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

There's a couple reasons your roots may be turning brown. One could be nutrients, if you didn't dump your old water before mixing up new solution, that can cause nutrient imbalance which can crash your PH and/or burn your roots. Do you have any browning or curling on the leaves? That is a sure sign of nutrient imbalance. You could try dumping your old solution out and mixing up new solution to see if that will bring your plants out of their root rot. There's a 50% chance that won't work, but it's worth a try. Another possible reason you're losing your herbs could have to do with the design of your setup. I have found that some herbs don't do well in a Deep Water Culture system like what the Idoo hydroponic system is setup to provide. These herbs are more temperamental, especially cilantro which I have found prefers aeroponics (sprayers ) over DWC. Other facts that contribute to root rot is PH. If you're PH is too low, that can contribute to root rot, but again, if nutrients are out of balance, that can crash your PH anyway. My suggestion is that if they were doing well before you topped off with additional nutrients, a complete water change with new nutrients might just fix everything for you, assuming your plants aren't too far gone. I would try the water change and if it doesn't work, start over. Hydroponics is a growing process where we often learn by trial and error, so don't be afraid to try again. I hope this helps.

[@natedontremember2423]

So when you see the first truss flower fully, then stop the Calcium Nitrate? Or sooner/later?

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Yes for most vegetables you can lower the calcium/nitrate to about about 25% of your formula when you're wanting to encourage flowers and fruit.

[@rockyalvarez520]

I have been thinking about converting a big barge two house multiple hydroponic gardens on the ocean. But after doing a lot of research I have some problem that I don't know how to solve or if it can be solved and that is the issue of pollination. That is how can my crops get pollinated when they're out in the middle of the ocean? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this. One idea I had was too also how's a small bee farm on the barge.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Great ideas. As far as pollution, perhaps you can come up with a filter system to use. Obviously, you'll need something to remove the salt water too. I like your idea of a bee colony, but something to note is that bees often drown when they're trying to get water from a pool or puddle, so I would think you might have a lot of bee loss on the barge as they're not used to ocean conditions, with winds that might also blow them into the water. Another option might be fans to pollinate, if you have self pollinating plants. You can also create a netting to keep the bees contained to your system and out of the ocean. You could also consider butterflies for pollination as they may be easier to keep contained in a netted system.

[@rockyalvarez520]

@@GreenLivingOffGrid I have also since learned how many large farms is artificial pollination which also helps to increase the crops yield so I sure you don't need beans at all you can just artificially pollinate your crops yeah as far as shorting saltwater they have very good water makers that they currently use on luxury yachts they are desalina shun watermakers so they will convert the saltwater to freshwater for you

[@jdb6026]

This woman is a goddess. I've understood more from her than from others. God bless this woman.

[@shyamyelamarti3113]

So true.

[@sparkymikey25]

Aquaponics means you are using fish to fertilize your plants not that its a drip system. Strawberries grow great in DWC.

[@dave101t]

i just use standard flower food for my tomatoes, in my apartment one plant has over 120 flowers on it. eep!

[@heathhunter5306]

Those tetra heaters are a big NO. Sometimes they stop heating, if you are lucky. More often, they stick on. A 25 or 50watt can take a 20 gallon tank over 100 degrees, so 100 watts in a 5 gallon would sous vide the fish in no time. If you are looking for a good deal, eihiem jager is comparably priced, reliable, and adjustable. You should also look into keeping seeded media, instead of trying to rely on chemist in a can gimmicks. Unless you sanitize everything, the bacteria is already there. You just need to feed and grow the colony. Bottled bacteria does little to nothing to speed it up. Adding bioload and surface area is what really gets it going.... also raising the temperature a bit will grow the colony faster, so if there's no fish in there, getting the water warmed up will only help you out, then drop the temp back down and add fish.

[@dianepotter8956]

Does the unit come with seeds. Because I do not have any.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

You make the unit so if you want seeds, just buy some and plant them. Again, you're not buying a "unit" you are buying training in how to make one yourself from items found at your local Walmart or online stores.

[@ummmjustsayin]

I'm trying to do kratken method and keep the plants outdoors. Will it be okay even if they don't get artificial lights cuz they will get natural sunlight?

[@RusticRaver]

usefull thx!

[@Phoenix38m]

ne subscriber....great infrmation....proud of you/!!!!

[@cruikshank]

Thank You for this video. I’m very new to this. I have 2 tomato plants in Kratky buckets. The grape tomato plant is doing great, the Big Boy not so well. I started both in pond water. Then the big boy started yellowing. I ordered Masterblend starter kit but it won’t be here for at least a week. So I mixed up some tomato soil fertilizer & Epsom salts per web suggestions. The roots started thriving on big boy but leaves still yellow and the flowers all died. Any suggestions until the Masterblend gets here. Both buckets do have an air stone for the last 2 weeks and are getting 6-8 hours of sun. It has been very hot, 90, but the water is not as hot. Thanks for any feedback.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Have you seen my video on yellowing leaves? You can try the Calcium Nitrate15.5-0-0 blend I used in my system in that video - kzbin.info/www/bejne/j6rJepWbiJWCrKc

[@cruikshank]

@@GreenLivingOffGrid I did see that video. I thought once tomatoes got past the growth stage to the fruit stage they needed less nitrates like 4%? Did I misunderstand? Thank You.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

@@cruikshank If your leaves are still yellowing, you probably still need some, maybe try half the dose and see how they do.

[@nalingosalia7667]

great video, should get more viewership then loud talks with little matter. Please do more uncomplicated videos

[@Anonymous.stream24]

Can I turn it off during night? (It’s on my room and makes a lot of noise and light)

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Yes, it's better that you do. They only need 10 hours a day.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

But if you have a air or water pump, you should keep that on all the time. Just the lights only need to be on 10 hours a day.

[@Jarazek]

Ok, I hear one mistake, you say you were using "daylight" bulbs for the tomatoes, and did not get them to flower, typical daylight bulbs are around 5000k, for flowering try switching to a warmer tone bulb, around 2700k..... Yes you could just use the daylight bulb and lower the amount of hours per day they get light and achieve similar results, but naturally the light plants get during early Summer is more like a 5000k fluorescent, and as Summer gets closer to being over the light is warmer in tone, more like the 2700 fluorescent. Indoors we are doing are best to simulate nature, but it is never going to be as good as using the natural sun outdoors... Also, some grow hydro outdoors, myself for example.... Otherwise your points were well made.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Excellent! Thank you for your insight. I figured my problems were based on my lighting and possibly heat issues too as I had no way to warm up my grow room which was also in my home laundry room. Your tip about the 2700 fluorescent lighting is very helpful. Thank you!

[@Jarazek]

@@GreenLivingOffGrid Happy to share what I have learned also, I spent like 8 years helping other do soil/organic growing, and while I was at it I studied a little hydro... Right now I have some cherry and roma tomatoes indoor hydro with a 1000W HPS, which color temps are kind of like a CFL's 2700k, and they are blooming like crazy. It is like 78F to 80F in there also... I need to transplant them to bigger totes though, transplanting hydro is harder than soil, at least as far as minimizing root damage during transplanting goes.. Thanks for sharing your video.

[@mariangie1544]

This was great!! Thank you!

[@MrKulufield]

Hello. Can you please tell me about the bulbs you use? From your homepage is see amazon basics A19 bulbs. What about these CRI? I have understood that CRI should be above 90. I would like to start with DWC and move on to NFT

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

LED Daylight A19 bulbs from Amazon are what I use. The key is having at least 5000K ("daylight") color temperature. A CRI of 90 would be best, but I have never had any trouble with lower CRI. You should be fine either way as long as you're matching Daylight color temperature of at least 5000K.

[@The_O.G_Cyber_bully_24Hr_Ban]

CRI is not really what plants use to grow by, CRI is used in photography colour spectrum the higher the CRI the closer you get to natural light 100%. you can grow with HPS lights and they have a CRI 25-30% CRI but have strong red light that plants use for photosynthesis and have been used for a long time, the colour or kelvin temperature is what you are looking for the higher the colour the more blue/cold the light looks to us. the lower the kelvin the more yellow or orange it looks to us, but to a plant if they could see it would look blue and red. indoors under lights blue light is used for vegetative growth and yellow or orange is used for blooming or fruiting. The best lights today are called full spectrum lights around 3500k or kelvins with added far blue and far red LED to us they look like normal house light colour but are very, very intense light ( if you look at them you will see green dots for 10 minutes after do not look in to them! you will damage your eyes!) but they have far red far and blue led chips that we can hardly see they look very dim to us, but super strong to the plants, plants respond highest to these lights. so why not use all red and blue LED? well next comes the light intensity or LUX or lumens we can not make LEDS very intense l in this spectrum so we bombard the plants with very intense light from white light (all light contains full spectrum blue - red ect.) so by adding intensity from white light helps with light penetration of the plant canopy so basically full spectrum with extra added blue 400NM and red 700NM nanometres as humans we see things in the green spectrum of light plants look green to us because they do not use green light and reflect it back while the red and blue light is absorbed and used to grow. think of a nice sunny day and looking down from a mountain in to the sea why does it look blue? because red, orange and yellow are absorbed more by water than blue light so the reflection is blue bit more to it than that as the sun moves the atmosphere bends the light which changes the colour low sun in winter as more red, high above sun in summer as more blue. starting out in hydroponics I found EBB and FLOW or flood and drain much easier than any method I have tried and still use today other methods take a bit more work topping up with water messing with the PH, but for shear explosive growth DWC then NFT then F&D but as I have said you have to be on the ball if you are pushing the plants to the maximum the faster they grow the more time monitoring the E.C /PH water temperature is more of a problem in DWC and NFT than F&D water temperature is very important crops fail because of root rot if water gets to warm it can't hold enough oxygen in the water and the plants will drown also high temperatures are a breeding ground for Pythium the hydro growers worst nightmare if you get that and total crop loss I have had to throw away complete hydro systems once Pythium as invaded the thing lives in pipes buckets, trays and air stones for ever just add water and warmth and it will be back 100% guaranteed

[@Name-js5uq]

Okay I can't take hearing you say that improperly anymore. The actual word you're trying to say is aeration not Airy Asian it's three syllables not four that's all I wanted to say and I love your videos and I think you do a great job and thank you for your knowledge.

[@ashleyjulies9546]

Light is not measured in watts

[@shyamyelamarti3113]

This was the best video presentation I ever watched on plants. I generally am skeptical towards women as they tend to go too much into details and also put in all sorts of distractions. This was the first video I watched of yours and it is made excellent. Looking forward to enjoy rest of your videos. A big thank you for the hard work you put in. From New Delhi India.

[@at8121]

That was a rather back handed compliment, and honestly rather offensive...I guess I shouldn't go into details why and post distractions as to why since women do that. Wow.

[@shyamyelamarti3113]

​ @Andrea Tyree When I said distractions I don't mean anything sexual or enticing the opp genders. I just meant that they being they, many feminine ways of doing things merge in, which I find a bit distracting and generally stay away from watching, unless necessary. I don't look down on women and have no problem working under women and travel in cars or planes piloted by them. We need to appreciate who we are gender wise and celebrate our differences rather then compete. Well I don't know what the view in the west and where your society is heading but here we have a different view and I am neither here nor there. But if I may put it again in different words. I am thankful for the hard work you have put in. I believe you did your home work to ensure it is understood well and useful to your viewers. I have learnt in a flash many things which I could not have learned going through hours of watching dragging and boring videos. Thanks a lot and best of luck for all your venture.

[@raymondfluharty8877]

its not aquaponics its nft hydroponics.....aquaponics is using fish to make your solution instead using hydroponic nutrients

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

The lower shelf of my greenhouse is 100% aquaponics. The higher shelf is DWC Hydroponics. I actually do not use fish at all in my inside Hydroponics garden I was showing in this video, but my Aquaponics system is out in my greenhouse and yes it has fish and is solely dependent upon fish for the nutrients in that grow system. Check out my other videos to see my aquaponics system.

[@wja731]

ruts

[@gorillamacgyver7411]

this one time at grow camp.......

[@yashjoshi456]

you need bgm

[@SeamusHarper1234]

Arg, "Watts of light".... Makes me cringe. Other than that, great vid =)

[@Thought_Crime_Criminal]

Wont all that plastic leech into your plants

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

It is possible as plastic leaches into a lot of things. You can of course create a similar tray with glass tubs although I don't think these dimensions exist anywhere. Glass (if covered with dark paper to keep algae from growing in it) will likely work just was well.

[@lonewanderer2894]

Nothin says off the grid like Google/KZbin.

[@obviouslytwo4u]

how else does she show us?.

[@bluemustang5002]

Off grid gardening, as in off the electric grid...

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

@@bluemustang5002 Yes, I want to get into doing off the electric grid gardening, but right now I don't have the funds to build that system. Hopefully in the future I can do that as well. In the meantime, we're off the grid in that we are gardening off the normal food system (grid) of the standard market. I hope you enjoy my videos and stay tuned for future growing ideas when I have enough saved for that type of system. Enjoy!

[@wasreallygoodnikka]

she should probably have someone else speak for her. super un-natural in front of the camera.

[@tsilb]

This video has 2 minutes of content, 3 minutes of repetition, and 5 minutes of the extra time it takes to speak because you're talking at half speed. Clearly padded to reach the 10 minute threshold. Still enjoyed it.

[@GreenLivingOffGrid]

Thank you for your feedback. I'm always looking to improve as a presenter.

[@drumh1221]

Me das mal rollo. Ponte mas lejos.