Hydroponics 101

Medical marijuana has been a major success in the United States. With millions of dollars in tax revenue, it’s a promising new industry. Opponents to marijuana speculated that its legalization would increase crime and lower average intelligence, but legalization has shown no indication of this. Many of these theories have been disproven and all research points toward marijuana being a relatively healthy and effective medication. There are currently over 20 states that have legalized medical marijuana and 4 have legalized recreational marijuana. Oregon and Alaska were the most recent states to introduce recreational marijuana, with voters passing the legislation in November, 2014. As the pro-marijuana movement continues to sweep the nation, hydroponics has emerged as an upcoming industry. With growing marijuana now legal in almost all states with legalized medical cannabis, patients need a way to produce their own supply. Buying from medical dispensaries can be costly and growing plants at home is a cost-effective alternative. However, traditional growing methods are far from ideal. So what’s all this hype behind hydroponics and is it legitimate?

Hydroponics makes it easy to mask the smell

Growing marijuana traditionally in soil works fine, but it’s messy, high maintenance and it limits your ability to hide the smell. Marijuana plants come with a pungent odor and most of the time, growers don’t want their house to smell like a kingpin’s headquarters. Even just a couple of plants can come with an overwhelming smell. Instead, growers should consider using hydroponics systems, which offers a soil free method of growing that’s low maintenance and can be easily concealed inside a grow box, grow tent, or any other secluded environment. It’s great for growing in closets and small environments, or even basements and big open spaces.

Growers can use complex setups such as a grow tent with an intake fan and outtake fan that runs the air through a carbon filter. The air absolutely must be exhausted out of the grow tent in order to keep the temperature just right and the grow conditions ideal. Carbon filters are the most effective solution for eliminating the smell before it gets to the open air.

Hydroponics is soil free and less maintenance

Getting started with hydroponics is far from easy, as it has a much steeper learning curve than traditional soil growing. However, once the grower is experienced and familiar with hydroponics, it requires far less maintenance and very rarely will the plants need to be checked on. Hydroponic systems use a reservoir of nutrient enhanced water to supply the plants with the nutrients they need to grow. This allows the plants to grow without soil. Soil’s not actually needed, it just provides the right environment for the nutrients to get to the roots. Hydroponic systems reinvented the way we grow crops and are even playing a role in organic gardening for fruits and vegetables.

Hydroponics is about as simple as checking pH and nutrients

Hydroponics comes down to two basic tasks: making sure the pH level in the water reservoir is correct and making sure you have added the right amount of nutrients to the water. These are two tasks that you will do often in the beginning. It’s recommended that you do this daily to ensure that you don’t make any mistakes with your first grow.

Faster grow times and higher yields

It’s as if hydroponics didn’t already have enough to convince growers it’s the ideal way to grow their plants, because it also provides faster grow times and higher yields. If you want to grow your medical marijuana plants up to 3X faster than how long it would take growing in soil, and if you’re excited about your plants producing better yields than soil grown plants, then hydroponics is for you. Most growers report significantly faster and better yielding crops when using hydroponic systems.

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