There are 5 basic types of hydroponic systems; Wick, Water Culture, Ebb and Flow (Flood & Drain), Drip (recovery or non-recovery), and Nutrient Film Technique. There are hundreds of variations on these basic types of systems, but all hydroponic methods are a variation (or combination) of these five.

All of these systems require a reservoir, and allow for simple application. Rather than calculating the acreage, you base the applications on the number of plants. 1 tablespoon in a 10 gallon reservoir will treat 90 plants. PureHYDRO can be mixed with all of your regular inputs and will also help keep your reservoir clean. You can-not over apply our products. You will need to aerate your reservoir to culture your biology properly. Generally, a fish aquarium air pump is adequate but oversize the blower to twice the gallons recommended.

If you are growing in media there are advantages to using a combination of our PureHYDRO and Rootamendary products. We have elected to include endo, ecto, and trichoderma fungi for a number of reasons. The drivers being the variety of crops, and the varying hydroponic practices.

We are very aware that in every application, in every installation, there will be a number of the fungi and bacteria with little or no relationship to the crop. We are driven to cover all the biologic processes we can to improve the health of your crop.

We understand hydro-growers remain divided on the issue of a completely sterile environment with no bacteria (beneficial or otherwise) and no fungi. Proponents of sterile growing environments argue that in hydroponics they are supplying all the nutrients their plants need in a directly accessible form and question the need for fungi, and bacteria to assist in nutrient assimilation. They also believe that the roots shouldn’t have to go out in search of water because, in hydroponics it’s being provided in abundance. The reality however, is mycorrhizae help plants uptake mineral-based nutrients, promote root branching, and massively extend the active feeding capacity of the feeder root tips. When you compare yields of sterile to biologic, the results are not even close. Biology wins every time.

Hydroponic growers suffer a host of fungal problems like black rot, club root, sclerotinia blight, wire stem, sudden death syndrome, brown spot, and charcoal rot. Opportunities for using beneficial bacteria, and fungi are the best documented approaches for improving plant nutrient uptake, plant quality, yields, and disease resistance. Pythium and Phytophthora are two of the most common fungal diseases that affect indoor growers. Pythium caused root rot is a real problem in hydroponic systems. Recirculating hydroponic systems provide an ideal environment for pythium to live and breed. Damping-off, caused by pythium, affects growers that grow in flats or in the propagation of cuttings, and can topple plants in just a few days. Phytophthora continues to plague a wide variety of crops, and the most visible symptom is in the root systems.

We are certainly not saying we can solve all the issues you may have, but we believe we offer a lot of biologic tools that will help your hydroponic grow thrive. We hope you will look at our products throughly. Please consult our “cautionary fungicides list” on our applications page to optimize your results.