• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Fifth Season Gardening

Curbside Pick Up, Nursery, Garden Center

  • Stores
  • About Us
  • Tips
  • Blog
  • Hemp
  • Wholesale
  • Hydroponics
  • Homebrew
  • Organic Gardening
  • Home & Garden
  • Shop

Hydroponic Growing Media (Part 2)

March 6, 2017 by fifthseason 2 Comments

-Luis Guerra-

In my last submission for the Fifth Season blog, I spoke about three types of media used in hydroponic growing: Canna coco, expanded clay pebbles by Hydrocorn, and Sunleaves ‘Rocks.’ These are all great choices, but they are not the only options available. This post will cover three additional growing media for use in hydroponic growing.

Let’s start by talking about rockwool. Produced by heating basalt rock and chalk into a molten lava, rockwool is then spun out (sort of the way cotton candy is made) and cut into its final form. Rockwool is definitely a plant-grower’s friend as it holds its shape well and is available in various sizes, depending on your plants’ needs. It has a low buffer capacity, which means you can regulate the nutrients being delivered to your plants better. It holds water fairly well but maintains about a 25% air ratio even when over watering does occurs. Being that rockwool is alkaline by nature, we recommend soaking in a 5.5ph solution prior to using it.

Growstones are 100% Made in the USA. They are made from recycled glass bottles which makes them a 100% renewable source. Growstones are virtually indestructible and, unlike perlite, you will not find dust particles at the bottom of the bag. They are great at wicking and can absorb 30% water within the stone. They come in various sizeswhich they classify as G-1 and G-2. They also work at the root zone in eliminating fungus gnats – bonus!

A small number of growers use a 50/50 perlite-vermiculite mix to grow their plants. Vermiculite will hold water and nutrients, which are then available to the plant when needed. Perlite is mostly used for drainage purposes, meaning it creates spaces for air to reside so the roots can breathe. This media mix is an easy way to start messing around with hydro with products you can pick up at any garden store. Hand-watering a mineral based nutrient, or drip feeding works well with this media.

I hope this comparison of a variety of growing media has been helpful when you consider growing hydro. As always, we are happy to answer any questions you might have about media, systems, lighting, feeding, or anything else having to do with indoor growing. Just come on by and let us know how we can help!

Filed Under: Hydroponics Tagged With: growing media, hydroponic gardening, indoor garden, indoor gardening

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mineralwool says

    February 21, 2018 at 12:15 am

    This post was very useful. Can I use it?

  2. ashley says

    February 21, 2018 at 7:59 am

    Use it for what?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Latest Posts

  • Intro to Hydroponics Part IV: Maintaining Your System
  • How to build a Johnson-Su Bioreactor
  • 2020 in Plant Care Tips & Mistakes
  • Aging Beers
  • Fermenting for the Holidays: Basic Tools of the Trade & Easy DIY Holiday Gift Ideas

Archives

Search

Categories

  • Homebrew
  • Hydroponics
  • News
  • Organic Gardening
  • Uncategorized
  • Urban D.I.Y.

Footer

Quicklinks

  • Home
  • Buy A Gift Card
  • Brew-On-Premises
  • Wholesale
  • Employment

© Fifth Season Gardening, 2021
Sitemap | Privacy Policy | Site by The Splinter Group

Find a Store

  • Asheville
  • Carrboro
  • Charlottesville
  • Greensboro
  • Raleigh