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Tips for your first hydroponic grow · Hydroponics Daily

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Hi, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily with me, Dr. Russell Sharp.
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Yesterday we did a checklist for all the items you need when starting your first
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ever grow, indoor grow, hydroponic grow.
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If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and listen to this because
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this is following on from that and this is all the tips that we recommend to
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new growers take on board when they are starting their first grow.
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So it's not a step-by-step guide, it's just some handy hints.
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These are the most common issues that first-time
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growers fall into the sorts of issues and the
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first one is get yourself down to a local grow
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shop hydroponic specialist and build up
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a rapport with them if you go in there and they're standoffish
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they seem like they're too cool
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for school or they're not your type
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of person then go find another grow shop if you can and
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it's important you build up a rapport with them because there'll be
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a really good there should be a really good source of information for
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you and and expertise and if
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they're not then go somewhere else so the closest growth shop here to here you
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go in there and they know nothing about growing they it's a it's one of a business
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one of a number of businesses located at that place so we never go in there
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we always go to somewhere else so somewhere like.
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I won't name any names because you might upset other people,
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but there are a number of grow shops around here.
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And obviously don't go on Amazon and buy some crappy cheap equipment or on eBay
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and then go into your grow shop and say, how do I get this to work?
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That is one way to really annoy a grow shop is say, oh, I bought this on Amazon
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or eBay for £30 cheaper than I could get it from you.
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Because they're there, they've got the expense of retail outlets.
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They've got other expenses and they're there to to
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help you with your grow and so don't insult them by bringing in
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stuff that you've bought on amazon or even mentioning it you
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will pay a premium perhaps you might pay 10% more
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if that you might even price match to amazon it's just
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the fact that it's it's you have to go
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to the store to get it i would definitely always buy from a grow
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shop if you go if you don't know what you're doing they'll give
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you advice on something might seem ridiculously expensive but
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they'll tell you why that's more expensive than the the chinese
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led that claims to be a thousand watts on
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ebay and then you get it and it's a glorified fridge
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light something like that so um that's top tip
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go to your grow shop find one you like and build up a relationship
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with them the second tip is have patience when
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it comes to seed germination you'll see
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a lot of people recommending the paper towel technique i
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am not a fan of the paper towel technique for seed germination because i
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don't think it helps plant health all it does is
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help it gives people peace of mind that their seeds are germinating earlier
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so if you sow directly into the grow media then you will see the seeds you'll
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see the seeds emerge maybe three days later than you would with the paper towel method.
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And you might think, well, I want to know if my really expensive seeds germinated.
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It doesn't really matter. They're seeds. They're only going to do one of two
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things. They're either dead at the point you bought them, or they're going to germinate and grow.
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You looking at them and looking at the roots and exposing the roots to light,
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which they don't like, is not going to help them.
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And the transplant shock at such a young age is going to really harm them and
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could shock them and they could do things.
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They could you know if they if they were female plants they could turn into
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hermaphrodites and produce seeds if you
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didn't want to do that and things like that so don't always have
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patience don't be poking around in this in the
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growing media even if they've not appeared for a week they're
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either going to germinate or they're not and if they haven't germinated after
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two weeks then then i would
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start poking around and if the seeds are there in an un-germinated form
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after two weeks of being well watered then yeah
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you can go back to the seed company and ask for a refund or
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credit obviously you don't need to water
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your seed your germinated seeds every
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day you just need to water them once maybe again
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a few days later and you don't even
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need to soak the seeds don't don't be worried about soaking your seeds on your
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first grow i did a trial with a number of seeds and soaking the seeds didn't
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help and it's and a lot of people believe it actually hinders them so just sow
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them in the growing media and then the my next tip is once they've germinated.
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Is check for on the underside of
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your leaves for pests every single day every
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day lift a few leaves up and look for pests because
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if you get them early you'll be able to control them a lot
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easier and if you're a beginner then controlling them will be difficult
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having said that don't water every
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day so just because the top one
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millimeter of soil might be have
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dried out doesn't mean that the soil below it is dry and
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you don't need to be watering to contain a capacity the
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plants will thrive perfectly well at three
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quarters of the water holding capacity as long as they're not bone dry and then
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water every few days and then the bigger the plants get the more that thirstier
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will get so you'll soon you might think well i really want to water my plants
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soon enough you'll be watering your plants you'll get you'll be getting sick
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of watering and fertigating your plants.
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Fertigation is the word that means is fertilizer plus irrigation so when you
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mix that and do that every day that's we call it watering but you there'll be fertilizer in there.
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You'll soon get bored of doing that after weeks and weeks and weeks so don't
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be in a rush to water every day.
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Next tip is to create a stable temperature that
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will help grow your plants it'll help keep them really happy making sure you
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don't run to extremes so at night if you're growing in winter you if you don't
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have a max min thermometer you might not realize this but the plants can get
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very cold and when the lights go off and if you're on a concrete base then you're.
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The cold can come up through the through the roots
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now create a stable temperature is one of
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the easiest things to do and it's the most beneficial creating a stable humidity
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that can be more difficult and you can
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fly from one extreme to the other if you're
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not careful and as long as it's not noticeably really
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really damp or really really dry in your growing environment then
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i wouldn't worry too much about humidity on my first grow
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and then if you're using gold leaf as your
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fertilizer or liquid gold as it's called in the uk i wouldn't
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be worried about ph just ignore that for now
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because gold leaf will take care of that it'll always be in the
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sweet spot and because if
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you start messing around ph they can fly if you're using
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standard hydroponic fertilizers the ph can fly
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from one extreme to the other as well really quickly trying to
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ph water that chemist will tell you trying
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to ph water is extremely difficult and you just fly from one extreme to the
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other so don't don't try and do that i would get an ec pen as i've talked about
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numerous times on this podcast electrical conductivity that measures how much
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nutrition is in the water so you can benchmark that when you've added your fertilizer.
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And always add that certain amount or go up as the
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plants mature but ec pens are more important
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for measuring the electrical conductivity of the water coming
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out and you always want to get 10 to
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20 percent of what you add in volume of water
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or fertigation solution coming out the bottom as runoff because that means that
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you're getting fresh nutrition going through the roots it might seem wasteful
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but it prevents you building up salts in the root system and stunting growth
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and that can be a that's really common in the first-time growers over fertilizing and and.
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Over first yeah over fertilization over salting is more far far far more common
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than under fertilising and overwatering far more common than underwatering.
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When you are watering, be really careful of exposing roots, so don't just get
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a watering can and then just plonk it down as fast as you can on the root system.
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If you expose the roots, then walk away, those roots will dry out and die.
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So be careful, use a rose if you've got a rose on the end of a watering can
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that spritzes into rain, or water from the bottom, and then the roots will soak that up.
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But be careful not to leave the plants sitting in water in the sources for more
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than an hour or two because they'll soon develop anaerobic conditions and harm the roots.
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If you've got a photoperiodic plant and you need to flip from vegetative to
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flowering, do that earlier rather than later.
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You're in a world of pain if you've
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got a plant that's going to grow really high and hit the LED lights or even
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worse sodium lamps and you haven't flipped the photo
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period too early enough so you'll
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see people on reddit saying is it ready to flip to flowering and
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you go oh you are in for a world of
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pain there you might as well start and start stop and
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start again really and then again people a
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lot you see on reddit in hydroponic threads that
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is it ready to harvest am i ready to harvest and really
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you need to consult an expert and really do your research
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on that and do your research on trimming and and
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formation and harvesting and all this that's very
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very complicated or can be it's not a
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simple it's not a simple horticultural it's more
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it's post-harvest technology and i'll
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stay well out of that for now then the final
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two tips are with safety as i've
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said you've got two major well you've got
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a few dangers in the ground room that you need to be aware of even if you're
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a beginner the first being the electricity i've talked about this on the previous
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podcast make sure that your sockets are away from your water making higher up
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away from your plants this is this is the one thing that can kill you so you
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know show it a good deal of what's the word.
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Good grace no is that word i don't know reverence there's the reverence the
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electricity and water don't mix well lights high powered leds or sodiums don't
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look directly at them and get yourself some specialist glasses or at the very
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least some good sunglasses so that you,
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you protect your eyes because they can
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be extremely powerful and your retinas and your your
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eyes can be dilated and still receive a lot of light
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because they're not the same as sunlight light another safety
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issue is always if you're
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using a humidifier be wary of legionnaires and
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biofilm build-up regularly clean it out
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and use a sterilizing agent something like clear
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mist in the uk to clear out the humidifier
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and make sure it's not got legionnaires legionnaires is a big issue
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in grow rooms and it's underappreciated in
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hydroponics you've got remember especially warm grow
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rooms you've got lots of moisture that's being kept constantly
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close to to body temperature and
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that's the perfect environment for legionnaires to
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thrive and then imagine a humidifier there's then
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sprinkling air droplets into the air that
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can then be breathed into your.
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Lungs that's the perfect example as perfect conditions
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for legionnaires and legionnaires is a horrific disease
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it's one of the worst ways to die along with paracetamol
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overdose absolutely horrific painful death he's
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once described to me as you know legionnaires is everywhere it's
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in the environment but it's like normally
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it's like a toddler hitting you on the leg and then
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when you get the perfect conditions for legionnaires growth it's like
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mike tyson hitting you in the forehead with a hammer
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it's you know it's really
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gonna absolutely knock you and kill potentially
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more than likely kill you so always show
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good deal of reverence to electricity the lights
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and anywhere where you're going to get mist a
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warm mist constant mist so that's been
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my top tips for beginners oh and
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then there's one from my colleague matthew and his top tip is don't overthink
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it so don't overthink controlling the environment don't overthink everything
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if you if you're trying to if you if you think you've got an obscure micronutrient
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deficiency you probably haven't.
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You know you can you can quickly get
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overcome with so many interactions and
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what happens if this impacts this and that impacts that and that impacts
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that just keep it simple and you'll have
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a good grow so if you need any more tips if you're getting if
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you want any advice on your first time grow then please do contact us we're
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always happy to help and answer any grower questions thank you very much for
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listening and please follow so that you can build up your knowledge from your
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first grow and many multiple grows thereafter thank you very much for listening goodbye.