Welcome to the Sensi Garden, a blog created specifically for those interested in beginning  a hydroponic garden or for those who would enjoy learning more about the different styles of growing indoors and outdoors.

For the next 10 weeks, this experience will track my first grow room from start to finish, with loads of great info in between.
Luckily I have been able to gain advice from experienced growers in my community, leading me to run a few tests of my own.
The goal is to find the greatest medium,  drain to waste vs recirculating. I will not be testing NFT as I do not have the system for it yet - perhaps next year I will conduct a test on it.

In this experiment - all test subjects are 3 weeks old (sprouted in a rapid rooter)and are all under a T5 light.
The picture is numbered from the top left as follows:
1- Recirculating
2- Purposefully stunted
3- Geopot and root inoculate
4- Liquid Nutrient & geopot
5- Plastic pot with Root inoculate
6-Yellow pest cone in geopot

There are many who will say that recirculating is the cleanest and healthiest option for growing any type of plant, with nutrients synthesized to provide ease of uptake. Although there are plenty of others who would argue that the "ease of uptake" is due to man-made chemicals that could be harmful to humans and plants alike.

Usually nutrients are derived from mined minerals which can vary greatly in purity. It
also depends on how you as a grower define purity. Some would say that a natural mineral from an underground well is more pure than what a scientist can produce in a sterilized lab. Again, it all depends on the growers opinion.

Relating to soil, I have learned that a rich soil is often the best source of potency that a plant can live in. If over fed, it could result in disaster. Taking that fact into consideration, I will only be feeding my soil plants pH'd water and a root inoculate named  Subculture M manufactured by General Hydroponics. The soil itself is a mixture of Happy Frog and a compost mixture that I have cultivated from food scraps and yard waste.

As for my the recirculating system I will use Flora Nova base nutrients in pH'd water. The recirculating system I am using is a simple one bucket/pump Waterfarm which includes a reservoir, air pump and a drip line. It also come with hydroton which are clay pebbles designed to retain moisture.

I will post pictures for observation - if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to contact me.
More info to come!