What Are The Most Likely Problems With Hydroponics?

Hydroponics can be an exceptionally successful way to grow many herbs, fruits and other fast growing productive plants however there can be some drawbacks if you are just starting out and don't have much experience with this form of growing. We cover here some of the possible drawbacks with hydroponics and how best to avoid failing unnecessarily. 

  • System Leaks
  • Not Keeping Everything Clean
  • Using The Wrong / Inadequate Fertilizer
  • Not Adjusting / Checking The Ph Of Your Water Source
  • Using Inadequate / Wrong Lighting For Your Specific Plants
  • Not Monitoring Plant Health Correctly
  • Water Temperature

1. System Leaks: The worst thing that can happen to your plants is drought! Whatever you do don't let your plants dry out. Most hydroponics systems utilise pumps and if one of these fails, certain places could get flooded or plants die due to not having a water supply. NFT trays getting clogged up can cause system leaks too.


2. Not Keeping Everything Clean: Failing to keep your grow area and systems clean is asking for a world of problems. Pests and disease thrive in dirty & unclean areas, regular cleaning protocols can help stop living organisms establish themselves in your systems. Algae is unwanted in most growing applications, most commonly found in reservoirs and pipes, regular water changes and pipe flushes are effective in the control of algae.

3. Using The Wrong / Inadequate Fertilizer: Using the incorrect fertiliser can lead to nutrient deficiencies as well as toxicity causing your plants to become ill and potentially die. With todays technology there is many different growing mediums which all require slightly different fertilisers. Using a soil based organic nutrient in a drip feed system would lead to clogged pipes which could starve your plants of vital water. Always match your nutrients to your medium to ensure tip top performance and compatibility.

4. Not Adjusting / Checking The Ph Of Your Water Source: One of the smallest tasks can also be one of the most fatal to your crops if not regularly done. Soil acts as a buffer to stop fast changes to the pH level of the media, however when growing hydroponically there is no buffer, so keeping on top of your pH level daily is a must. To monitor this, you will need either a pH Pen or for the more experienced growers out there a Bluelab Guardian. Measuring this level and then adjusting your solution with pH Down or Up within a digestible range for your plants will allow them to have maximum nutrient uptake.

5. Using Inadequate / Wrong Lighting For Your Specific Plants: Plants require different amounts of light during the various stages of growth. Not giving the plants the correct light can cause many problems such a light bleaching from too intense light, or leggy seedlings from too little light. Buying the right light is an important task, one we can help you with at Doctor Blooms. LED technology has come on a long way in recent years and has overtaken HPS as the industry standard grow light. For propagation, vegative growth and bloom stage, LED is the choice.

6. Not Monitoring Plant Health Correctly: Monitoring the health of your plants is an important daily exercise you should undertake. With these daily checks you can catch any problems early on and fix them. Nutrient deficiencies and pests can be handled a lot easier if dealt with at first signs of problems. The use of a magnifying glass or a microscope can help identifying those pests even earlier, make sure to check on the underside of the leaves as this is where they love to hide.

7. Water Temperature: Water temperature. Controlling the temperature of the water is massively important in hydroponics. The amount of dissolved oxygen that can be held in water is dependant on the temperature. At around 10°c the ppm of oxygen in water is 13, where as at 30°c it is around 7ppm. Oxygen is one of the, if not the, most important part of a plants photosynthesis cycle. Giving plants oxygen rich water helps stop slow growth and oxygen starvation which will kill roots. Keeping the temperatures down is essential in fighting off Pythium which is more commonly known as root rot. This can be accomplished with a chiller and pump. On the opposite side you still want to keep your nutrient solution between 18°c - 26°c as to not shock your root zone.