It’s one of those things that you can easily learn from books, but is best learned from other hobbyists. I learned directly from someone else, hands on, and my understanding of the technical aspects only came later. If you don’t know anyone who does this, just hang out at your local hydroponics store. The people working there will get you set up and running in no time. You can also save a lot of money searching for DIY solutions.
I suggest having a strict low budget to start, in case you figure out later that this isn’t for you, and building up to more gear later if you like it. That way you won’t throw away a lot of money. Just start really small. You can really get an entire setup going for under $100 if you know what you want to do. You can construct a very small ebb and flow system for this amount of money.
I should point out, that hydroponics is not the ideal situation for every plant. A good example of this is found in the linked article. The author of this article talks about how much they like sage, but this is one plant that does not do as well in hydro as it does in soil, and I found it extremely odd that they wasted all that time trying to grow it this way.
I’ve personally grown massive amounts of sage in a soil filled container both outdoors in San Francisco sun conditions, as well as indoors near a sunny window; I harvested more than I could ever use. It would be a complete waste of time to go hydro with this. I kind of feel bad for the author, because this is something another hobbyist could have told them before they did this.
Thanks for the in-depth reply! I guess I'll start out by copying some Hoocho videos.
>I should point out, that hydroponics is not the ideal situation for every plant.
Yes, I've also garnered this impression. On the bright side, the difference between hydroponics and a soil-filled container with automatic irrigation seems quite small.
I suggest having a strict low budget to start, in case you figure out later that this isn’t for you, and building up to more gear later if you like it. That way you won’t throw away a lot of money. Just start really small. You can really get an entire setup going for under $100 if you know what you want to do. You can construct a very small ebb and flow system for this amount of money.
I should point out, that hydroponics is not the ideal situation for every plant. A good example of this is found in the linked article. The author of this article talks about how much they like sage, but this is one plant that does not do as well in hydro as it does in soil, and I found it extremely odd that they wasted all that time trying to grow it this way.
I’ve personally grown massive amounts of sage in a soil filled container both outdoors in San Francisco sun conditions, as well as indoors near a sunny window; I harvested more than I could ever use. It would be a complete waste of time to go hydro with this. I kind of feel bad for the author, because this is something another hobbyist could have told them before they did this.