Hydroponic Guidance

What is Hydroponics?

Hydroponics is the Soil-free method of growing plants.

Normally, plants pick nutrients from soil, and make their food using sunlight.

In hydroponics technique of growing plants, nutrients are supplied through water (instead of soil).

Most of the plant diseases come from soil. No soil means no need for pesticides, and no insects / no worms / no mess.

Hydroponics is easy, and best suited for urban growing. It just requires some initial learning.

With Hydroponics, you can grow vegetables even in your balconies or terrace.

With Hydroponics, plants grow much faster & much healthier. You can practically see the growth on daily basis.

Hydroponics saves water. It consumes only about 10% of water consumed in normal agricultural practices.

How does it work ?

Water+Nutrients are kept inside a hydroponic system.

Roots of the plants are submerged in this nutrient solution.

Plants drink water & nutrients from the nutrient solution.

Roots need oxygen also. Air pump is used is introduce air in the nutrient solution.

Almost any plant can be grown this way. Leafy and Veggies are most popular.

Basic steps for hydroponics :

Buy or build a hydroponic system. We strongly recommend you make “GreenLoop Easy-DWC system” by yourself. Or use our Beginner’s Method.
Grow & transfer saplings into your hydroponic system.
Make the Nutrient solution, and use it in your hydroponic system.
Top up the Nutrient Solution with plain water on daily basis. Takes 2 minutes.
Replace the nutrient solution entirely once every 3 weeks. Takes 15 minutes.

Usage Guide for GreenLoop Hydroponic Nutrients

Nutrient management is the heart of hydroponics.

Thankfully, GreenLoop has made it so simple.

Step 1 : Dissolve in water to make Stock solutions A & B. A is dark blackish in colour, B is yellowish.

Step 2 : Add small amount of stock solutions to water as per Instruction sheet, to make your hydroponic nutrient solution.

That simple.

LEAFY-200 suits all plants, and especially good for Leafy plants.

TOMATO & VEGGIES is better for tomatoes, and suits all plants also.

Nutrient solution - Some Important points

Use soft water (low TDS). Municipal Water and RO water are soft water. RO water has TDS less than 50, municipal tap water is generally 100-200 TDS. But Ground Water is generally high in TDS – as high as 1000 - 2000 in several parts of India ! By using soft water, you can use the nutrient solution for longer time. You can use hard water also, but it will require more frequent replacement of nutrients.
Keep out the light from your nutrient solution. Light promotes growth of algae. If algae develops, you’ll have to completely clean out your system.
Keep your nutrient solution cool, below 30 deg C approximately. On hot sunny days, shade your hydroponic system.
Keep your nutrient solution well oxygenated. Root zone require oxygen.
Completely replace the solution after 12-14 weeks. This is a very good insurance against toxicity buildup and algae development in nutrient solution. Toxicity builds up due to selective uptake of elements by plants. Nutrients are small proportion of hydroponic costing. For example, one set of GreenLoop Leafy-200 nutrients serves an average of six months, for a eight plant system. Of course this depends type of plants and usage pattern.
Do not overdose nutrients in hydroponic system. In Hydroponics, “more” is not better. High concentration of nutrient solutions exerts reverse osmotic pressure on roots as it increases the TDS.
Using lower concentrations of nutrients is good for most plants, that’s our experience. For example, in gerbera, geranium and tomatoes, nutrients can be reduced down to 50% without any adverse effect on biomass and quality.
Keep enough nutrient solution per plant. Your hydroponic system should have around 3-4 litres of nutrient solution per plant. High nutrient volume means less fluctuations in nutrient concentrations.
Should you regularly monitor EC, TDS, pH of nutrient solutions ? Our experience is that plants have remarkable natural resilience, and need not be handled as laboratory subjects. Just monitor the TDS. Electrical conductivity (EC) is directly related to TDS, so no need to monitor EC. Monitoring pH is important for commercial growers.

Understanding & managing TDS of Nutrients.

TDS is the most important parameter to check in Hydroponics.

TDS = Total Dissolved Solids.

TDS of Hydroponic Solution can be measured easily using a TDS simple meter.

TDS tells us how much salts are there in the solution.

TDS of Hydroponic Solution = TDS of water + TDS due to addition of nutrients.

When you are using Hydroponic Nutrients Leafy-200,

When you add 1 ml of Leafy-200 Stock A & B to 1 liter water, it adds 117 TDS to the solution.

Impact of water hardness

TDS of Hydroponic Solution = TDS of water + TDS due to addition of nutrients.

So, if you use water with high TDS, it means your solution has lesser capacity to accommodate nutrients.

TDS of Hydroponic Solution = TDS of water + TDS due to addition of nutrients.

So, if you use water with high TDS, it means your solution has lesser capacity to accommodate nutrients.

TDS Calculator

GreenLoop provides a Unique TDS Calculator to its customers.

This calculator is useful for large scale hydroponic growers, as it tells how much of useful and non-useful nutrients remain in your solution.

For hobby users, its not important, though can be used.

Nutrient Deficiency symptoms

Nitrogen: Stunted growth and light or chlorotic foliage. Leaves are yellowing, especially the older ones. Plants are slow growing.
Phosphorus: Stunted, very dark green foliage; lower leaves may become yellow between veins; monocots may have purple veins.
Potassium: Lower leaves with interveinal chlorosis; browning leaf edges; brownish mottling. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color. Older leaf margins appear burnt out.
Calcium: Tip of shoot & roots dies; interveinal chlorosis on upper leaves. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color.
Magnesium: Lower leaves with interveinal bleaching or chlorosis and dark green veins; leaf margins may curl; leaves eventually die. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color.
Molybdenum : Stunted growth and light or chlorotic foliage. Leaves are yellowing, especially the older ones. Plants are slow growing.
Sulfur: Light green upper leaves with veins lighter than surrounding tissue. Young leaves yellow.
Iron: Upper leaves develop interveinal chlorosis with green veins. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color.
Manganese: Interveinal chlorosis of upper leaves but veins have wider green bands; upper leaves may also have necrotic spots. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color.
Boron : Stunted growth. Leaves and stem become brittle.
Zinc : interveinal chlorosis. Interveinal chlorosis is evident when Leaves pale between the veins. The areas between the veins appear yellow in color.
Copper : Stunted growth, distorted leaves, shoots die.

Nutrient Toxicity (Overdose) symptoms

Nitrogen: Long internodes; crispy stem. Plants are very dark green. Fruits may not come.
Phosphorous : Results in Iron & Zinc deficiency.
Potassium : Results in Magnesium deficiency.
Calcium : Results in Magnesium , Potassium deficiency.
Sulfur : Premature leaf death.
Iron: Dark leaf edges.
Manganese: Dark brown leaf veins; also iron deficiency symptoms because too much manganese inhibits iron uptake. Older leaves may show small brown spots with yellow rings.
Boron: Necrosis of leaf edges. This symptom appears in many forms, from dark watery spots on leaves or fruit to dry papery spots that may be tan or black. Leaves die from tips inwards.
Zinc: Similar to Copper deficiency symptoms.
Copper : Causes Iron deficiency.

Recommended EC, TDS, pH for various plants

click here to check

Sowing Chart for India

click here to check

Make your own Easy-DWC Hydroponic system

You can build a simple yet extremely effective system, by yourself. We are providing all the help here.

We call it GreenLoop Easy-DWC Hydroponic system. DWC = Deep Water Culture.

You can make it yourself, or with slight help of a carpenter, using commonly available flower pot planters & other materials.

Best part is : it works well in hot sun – in balconies, homes, terraces…

See the youtube video : https://youtu.be/ubNez4Tx_4Y

Benefits of this GreenLoop Easy-DWC design :

Wooden cover – It insulates the nutrient solution and prevents it from getting hot. No risk of over-heated solution. Biggest problem in hydroponics is that most hydroponic systems are made of plastic – and plastic gets very hot when sun rays fall on it. That heats up the nutrient solution even in winters ! Hot solution is not good for plants. Wooden top prevents heating of solution.
Very high aeration of the hydroponic solution. Air layer is maintained above nutrient layer (which is not possible in raft system).
Compact, aesthetic and very easy to operate/maintain. No need of separate nutrient tank. No need of water pumping for nutrient circulation.
High performance – similar to professional hydroponic farms. Low maintenance, low cost.
Made using materials available easily in the market.
Works well in balconies, terraces, anywhere.
No need to do any complicated stuff. No risk of TDS, EC getting out of control. Just keep topping it up with water daily, and replace entire nutrients after 3 weeks.
Several different veggies same be grown in same setup using GreenLoop Hydroponic nutrients. Possible with GreenLoop Hydroponic Nutrients – due to its special formulation