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Beginner's Checklist for Hydroponic Success · Hydroponics Daily

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  Hi there, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily with me, Dr. Russell Sharp.
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  Today, I'm going to go through a checklist of all the items I think you need
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  for your first grow, when you're starting out, when you're a beginner at Hydroponics.
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  And then I'm going to go through tomorrow what I would do, the techniques I
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  would use, and some tips and advice for first-time growers.
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  So I've got a list here, and I've got essential items,
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  I've got desirable items, and then
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  i've got things that are probably just too much and
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  would be over complicating it and would just lead to
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  issues in your first grow your first grow you
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  want to get through to harvest and not
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  be experimenting you want to be developing that
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  baseline that you know how to grow something adequately
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  so that you can then start tweaking
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  things later you don't want to be tweaking things in your first grow it's
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  a recipe for disaster okay so the
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  first thing is not an item the first thing is a time
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  of year and i would say that if you're going to grow indoors the
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  first you should first thing you need is winter it's very difficult to grow
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  indoors hydroponically during the summer because the high temperatures really
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  interfere with the ability to get a really good grow first time around so if
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  you're going to grow hydroponically probably best doing in the winter I am now saying that in April,
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  so unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere, that's useful as advice,
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  but just bear that in mind.
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  The first item you're going to need is a grow tent.
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  Now, you can grow without a grow tent, but it...
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  Means you can have a lot of issues with controlling the environment controlling
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  pest and disease and also the humidity could affect
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  your house if you were grown in say the south southern
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  states of the united states having a humidifier running in
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  a house that is already predisposed to termites for
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  example or in the uk mold would be
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  foolhardy you'd have to i would want it to
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  be a rental property if i was growing without a grow tent
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  in the uk and using a humidifier so grow tent good for
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  so many reasons it just helps you dial in that environment and protect
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  against pest and disease used to be that you
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  weren't advised to get an led light and your first grow you
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  would use a cheap and cheerful sodium lamp however the price of
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  led lights have gone down dramatically recently so i
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  would get a low powered led light i wouldn't
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  go for something that's really high like a 720 watt light
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  i'd go for something a bit lower so that you can so that
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  you're not overpowering the environment yep you won't get massive photosynthesis
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  rates but you will be able to just control that
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  humidity without without the need for complicated
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  equipment and the temperature and things like that the next item is an outlet
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  fan you are going to need an outlet fan just to get that hot that heat from
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  the light out of your grow room and if you're growing a crop that produces lots
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  of odors and you don't want the odors going out then you would need a carbon filter.
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  It has to be a carbon filter because that's what takes the odours out.
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  It can't just be a fabric filter.
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  So you're going to need that. You're going to need a circulatory fan to move
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  the leaves to, as we talked about in the last, if it was either yesterday or
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  the day before, circulate that airflow.
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  You're not just going to rely on the outlet fan for that.
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  Okay, then you're going to need pots and saucers.
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  Pots because you you need something for the growing media the plants
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  to go into and sources to collect the runoff and runoff's important
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  it's an often neglected thing you're going to
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  need to flush the fertigation solution through
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  that and then i would go for cocoa as
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  a growing medium my colleague matthew says soil but
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  that's not strictly speaking hydroponics hydroponics is
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  without soil so this is a hydroponic grow so cocoa it's a very forgiving hydroponic
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  medium you're not going to get algal buildup and so i would go for cocoa obviously
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  there's no nutrients held in the cocoa next up you're going to need a nutrient
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  and if this is a simple basic.
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  Hydroponic grow then i recommend our fertilizer gold leaf or as it's called in the uk liquid gold,
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  yes you can produce fantastic yields yes it's used by
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  professional growers but it's also really good for beginners because
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  you don't need to worry about ph manipulation you don't
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  need to worry about dechlorination you don't need an a and a b and mixing that
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  it's non-hazardous so you can put it in a domestic situation you don't need
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  hazardous ph up and down and all the issues that go with accurately dosing ph
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  up and down so i would consider gold leaf or liquid gold essential,
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  then you're going to need some scissors for harvesting your crop or for defoliation
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  now you could use secateurs they would be under the desirable or snippers they
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  could be in the desirable some kitchen scissors will do an adequate job not
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  the perfect job but an adequate job.
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  You're going to need some seeds and i would
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  spend a lot of time researching the exact variety you
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  want so if you're growing crops
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  in america that are legal then you need
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  to do a lot of research and research places like
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  reddit would be really good for like getting recommendations on good
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  sources for seeds because there's a lot of hype in that
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  area but even things like basil you might think
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  oh just i'm going to grow hydroponics and go basil choosing the
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  right variety of basil is crucial in hydroponics because
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  it can go terribly wrong if you use the wrong one and there's
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  lots of research around photo period and stuff we'll talk about tomorrow when
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  it talks about advice for you this is just the items you need for your first
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  one you're going to need an inlet filter so for that you would want a bit of
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  ducting with just some cut up tights over the end and that's going to be.
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  Allowing the air to flow into your grow room lots of
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  grow rooms have mesh vents and
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  that could just be your inlet filter in there already
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  you're going to need a watering can to irrigate or
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  if you've got hose a hose with a shower nozzle
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  on and then controversially i
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  think you want to have an
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  ec pen and that comes back to that my number
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  one tip on all of this is make sure you flush
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  20 of your vertigation solution at least
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  out into the sources and then then either
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  suck that up or pour that away into the garden and pour it
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  down the drain because that's going to be pollution and then
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  measure the the electrical conductivity that outflow
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  because you don't want the salts building up and the fertilizer building up
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  and becoming toxic to the plant so that's
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  what i think i think you don't want a tent that's
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  smaller than one meter by one meter what's that three foot
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  by three foot and then two meters it's three and a half foot i think isn't it
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  one meter and then two meters tall or 2.2 meters tall anything smaller than
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  that and you really struggle to control the the temperature and the humidity
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  and it would be it's going to be a lot more work to have a smaller tent.
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  In the essentials items, a pH meter would be classed as essential if you weren't
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  using Goldleaf or it's called in the UK liquid gold.
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  Because if you're not using that product, then you also need to use A and B
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  and CalMAGs and pH ups and pH downs.
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  So a pH meter becomes essential if you're not using that product.
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  So they are the essential items. You can get away with that.
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  All those items and some patience lots
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  of enthusiasm and you can get your first hydroponic grow
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  now there are desirable items that
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  you could also include and i would say an inlet fan would
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  be a desirable item because then your your
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  grow tent's not getting sucked in in sucked in on itself
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  by the outlet fan and it just allows that fan
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  they're both fans to work in harmony without overstretching
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  them without overstretching the filter and so that would
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  be a good option to buy you could buy exactly the
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  same fan as your outlet fan i would
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  always recommend purchasing a hand lens because it
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  you can look for trichomes you can.
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  Study your plants you can look for pests and disease much earlier
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  and therefore control them a lot earlier which is a lot easier i
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  would recommend a desirable item would be a max min thermometer
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  and a hygrometer for measuring the humidity
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  you could have a a data
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  logger that would automatically sense this and you
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  can and download the information to your phone so
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  you can constantly look at the the current temperature and
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  humidity in your grow room however that is very much a
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  desirable not an essential and you could just have a thermometer that told you
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  what was the maximum minimum for the last 24 hours as i say a ph meter if you're
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  if you're using gold leaf then a ph meter is desirable if you're using a standard
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  hydroponic fertilizer from the you know designed in the 1970s then.
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  Which is basically everything else then you would that would be essential you're
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  going to need a sorry desirable would be a propagation tent and a propagation
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  light so you can have different veg to or cuttings and seedlings to to your
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  flowering tents and things like this but that's very much,
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  desirable and almost into too much for your first grow
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  secateurs would be desirable as opposed to scissors
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  get a much cleaner cut i like those really like small snippets the snippers
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  you can buy that you use and they spring back they're really good for defoliation
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  you could look at purchasing cuttings rather than propagating from seed and
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  you could get a good strain of a.
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  And protect some get some fancy genetics
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  and things like this however that's very much more on the desirable than the
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  essential seeds are the the essential one cuttings a bit of an over complication
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  because you you need to know how to transplant them and you need to make sure
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  you're aware of the the science of pest and disease when purchasing them which you may not be okay.
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  Desirable would be sticky traps for catching pests almost
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  on the i've nearly put that on the essentials list though sticky
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  traps for catching fungus gnats for catching
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  aphids for catching thrips are very much
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  almost on the essential and then dehumidifiers and
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  humidifiers if you've got a hygrometer for measuring the
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  humidity and you want to really want to dial that humidity in then you
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  can purchase a dehumidifier or a humidifier you
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  know to put water into the environment or take water out however these
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  are very much desirable you're not they're not essential for your
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  first grow but they are very good at
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  making sure that your plants are in the optimum health so you
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  want to really maximize yield and then the things that
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  i think are just too much for your first grow c and co2 enrichment that's too
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  much for your first grow because yes it will super boost growth but it will
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  only super boost growth if all your other factors all your other variables are
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  dialed in at their optimum it's no there's no good if your plants are deficit
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  in deficit of water if you've got too much fertilizer if the light levels aren't
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  super high if the air movement's not right so it's an over complication to begin
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  with and also it's expensive and you need to do a lot of research to find out
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  what is the best option for you so you could spend a lot of money and waste
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  a lot of money that could have been spent better elsewhere.
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  I'd also say that boosters, terpene boosters, or the boost product,
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  you know, we sell a lot of products like humic acids, yucca extracts,
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  seaweed extracts, all these things that can be used for various different things.
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  But it's just too much for your first grow.
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  And if you added them and your growth failed, you wouldn't know what the reason was for that failing.
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  If you had a really good yield, you wouldn't know what it was.
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  So you stack these things up or experiment,
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  and there you go from there same for uv
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  lamps uv lamps are expensive if you
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  choose a really good one there's a
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  lot of research to do into uv lamps so do
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  you go for uvc uva uvb if you're
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  going for uvc there's a lot of safety concerns around
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  uv lamps when it comes to you you could
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  harm yourself your eyes particularly there's a cancer risk
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  with uvc and and yes you
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  can control pest and disease yes you can increase secondary metabolites like
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  terpenes but you could also kill
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  your plant off with uv light very easily i would
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  on the too much list i've also included nutrient film
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  technique or nft deep water culture dwc
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  ebb and flood system or any system that
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  uses rockwell they're all fantastic they're all
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  really good they're the reason we get into hydroponics because
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  they're cool ways of growing they involve pumps they involve water rushing around
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  no soil no cocoa but they are very complicated and very easy to get wrong on
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  your first grow so i would avoid it your first grow i do cocoa in standard plant
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  pots and i say too much if you're using gold leaf or liquid.
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  Gold as it's called in the uk if you don't be bothering bothering with ph up
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  and down because you don't need it and it's going to be hazardous and yeah you
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  can mess around with pH up and down,
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  if you're using standard fertilizer but you don't need it for that one.
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  I'd also avoid silicon. Silicon can go wrong very easily. You need to know what
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  you're doing, seek advice.
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  Silicon can produce very good healthy crops with
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  really good cell strength but it's also really easy to
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  get wrong if you especially the EC tends
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  to drag up over time as well with using silicon and
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  there's lots of products on the market there's lots of claims and so
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  just avoid it for your first grow you don't need it
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  so there's a big long list hopefully jack not
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  chat gpt but the ai whatever the the
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  podcasting software we use hopefully the
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  ai will summarize that into a big long bullet point list
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  if not i'll probably transcribe it
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  myself so until tomorrow where i'll talk about what i would do in my first grow
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  that's been today's hydroponics daily a big long checklist of all the things
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  you need for your first grow your first endeavor at growing plants hydroponically
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  hopefully this has been help of help and you set up a grow in hydroponics very soon thank you very much.