Simple Hydro with Rice Hulls Experiment

[dopemine]

Hey guys, first time growing this stuff. Decided go against my better judgement and try something completely new just because... why not? Rice hulls/husks is a rather unconventional medium but it does offer some benefits such as good aeration and is a natural source of carbon and silicon. Its downside is that it doesn't hold water very well but that also means its impossible to drown a plant in it.

For the first experiment I decided to do a hydro grow with rice hulls as the medium instead of the conventional hydroton. I was curious what would be the differences in growing in its early stages. By the time the roots hit the reservoir in theory it should be the same as any other hydro grows though.

The seeds I'll be growing is Terpgasm by Solfire Gardens given as a gift from my sister. Originally I had planned to grow 3 plants in my 2x4 mars grow tent but unfortunately 2 died during the seedling stage. That was a hard lesson on how sensitive they are to water and temperature in rockwool

Here are the pics of the last surviving one:

Week 2 after germination

I realized at this point I had to place the light farther away and lessen the nutes.

Week 3

Week 4

Nutrition
For the nutes, I've made my own custom mix based from MasterBlend's Hydro 5-11-26 that I plan to use throughout the grow. You can check it out here.

 

[Creeperpark]

Hey guys, first time growing this stuff. Decided go against my better judgement and try something completely new just because... why not? Rice hulls/husks is a rather unconventional medium but it does offer some benefits such as good aeration and is a natural source of carbon and silicon. Its downside is that it doesn't hold water very well but that also means its impossible to drown a plant in it.

For the first experiment I decided to do a hydro grow with rice hulls as the medium instead of the conventional hydroton. I was curious what would be the differences in growing in its early stages. By the time the roots hit the reservoir in theory it should be the same as any other hydro grows though.

The seeds I'll be growing is Terpgasm by Solfire Gardens given as a gift from my sister. Originally I had planned to grow 3 plants in my 2x4 mars grow tent but unfortunately 2 died during the seedling stage. That was a hard lesson on how sensitive they are to water and temperature

Here are the pics of the last surviving one:

Week 2 after germination
View attachment 18890623
I realized at this point I had to place the light farther away and lessen the nutes.

Week 3
View attachment 18890626

Week 4
View attachment 18890628

Thanks for sharing friend.

 

[dopemine]

Week 5

The roots finally hit the reservoir! I added foil and a paper plate to prevent light leaks. I'll probably top it and set up the scrog tomorrow.

 

[dopemine]

Week 6

Notes
As a first time grower, I'm quite surprised how fast a plant can grow in a week's time. This particular pheno is quite short so I'm kind of debating what I should do about it. Ultimately I'm thinking of leaving it as is and just do some LST to the best I can.

Another thing is that, against conventional wisdom, I've only ph adjusted the reservoir once in the entire grow so far. Part of the experiment was to be as hands-off as possible so I've only checked the reservoir once a week. I thought for sure I'd encounter some nute problems but so far the plant's has been relatively healthy as far as I know. My theory is that this is because its a non-recirculating system and I haven't added any new water.

I made a mistake when I tried to LST in that I think I pulled too hard on the top 2 branches of the main stem. They're still attached but only barely. I didn't realize how weak the 'joints' are so I'll be sure to be more careful next time. Tonight I'll be using some garden ties and hopefully try to even out the bush.

But so far, so good, unless I'm missing something here lol

 

[Miguel83]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

 

[Mars Hydro Led]

She looks in good condition and has a healthy color.

 

[Miguel83]

¿Cómo están las plantas?