I wanted to ask if there is currently any interest in the use of organic hydroponics in cannabis cultivation here. By this I mean, using soilless media - coco, rockwool, perlite - or a hydroponic setup to grow cannabis using only OMRI certified raw inputs, without using any insoluble amendments to media.
If you have any interest or experience in doing this, please let me know 
I have done extensive aquaponics. The only additions were calcium/potassium carbonate, my fulvic acid for iron/micros. The gallic acid it contains also prevents fish stress. I guess fish food could be considered an input as well.
As far as only organic inputs- when bacteria like bacillus are cycled properly and break down the inputs, it is a rather smelly proposition. I have done it with soilless and deep water culture successfully and would only suggest doing it outside.
Thanks for your input. However I’m no inquiring about aquaponics, but about using straight organic hydroponic inputs to grow cannabis plants directly, without any other plants or animals involved in the process directly. Also without any soil or amendments but just with soilless media.
Have you had any experience doing this? Or any interest in trying it?
I’m trying to move back to recirculating flood and drain, most likely in hydroton, and would be interested in learning more @danielfp
I’m sorry if I wasn’t more clear- I also did only organic inputs in soilless as well as deep water rafts.
I used leached manure, insect frass, comfrey, kelp, soybean waste, gypsum, lime and rock phosphate as the base. Beneficial bacteria were introduced (the reservoir was open-air as well. Solids were skimmed daily and it was successful until first frost.
Are you suggesting a direct “tea-like” input for soilless, or some sort of digestion to make inputs more available?
Thanks for clarifying. A lot of the inputs seem rather insoluble so I would indeed expect a lot of insolubles. I have a few questions if you don’t mind.
I wanted to gauge the community’s experience with this sort of growing tactic. Thanks a lot for sharing.
I never did test the composition of the inputs. It was always a blend of several inputs. Leafy greens, strawberries, peppers and even tomatoes never showed deficiencies.
Large solids were filtered out with cheesecloth before “topping up” the reservoir for EC/pH adjustment. Because of the action of beneficial bacteria, there was biofilm/sedimentation that needed to be skimmed off the tank and cleaned from plumbing.
I grew vegetables like tomatoes, but I’m sure cannabis could be grown with proper calcium supplementation.
It was slower growing, but the produce quality was great. I could smell a pepper from the next room when they were cut into.
At least the way that I conducted the organic hydro experiment, I wouldn’t consider it indoors. If there was a cleaner/less smelly version, I’d definitely read along.
Some links for readers:
Thanks for your reply! Do you happen to have a micro mineral analysis for your fulvic product you could share?
The last time I looked into organic certification, they told me that everything the nutrient solution touched had to be made of food safe plastic. That includes the pump. The funny thing is, AFAIK there is no such thing as a water transfer pump made of food safe plastic.
Peristaltic pumps can use food-safe silicon tubing, I believe.
@danielfp I sent the COA, organic acid and flavonoid analysis to your e-mail.
This was for omri lettuce years ago, but I read their rules to say every piece of plastic in the pump must be food safe. Pump aside, they still made it impossible if a grower builds their own setup. There’s politics involved in that a lot of people who believe in organics also believe that it has to involve dirt. For aquaponics to not be organic is just ridiculous.
Got it, thanks
I’m sure you’re aware of it, but if not: BioAG FulPower is probably the best source of FA. It’s what I use for foliar and root applications.
Rather than obtaining FA by alkali dissolution and acid precipitation of the raw material or chemical degradation with strong acid, Dr. Faust uses a cool temperature fermentation process.
Dr. Robert Faust developed the method, and BioAG is his company. He has been researching and working with FA and humic acid since the 70s.
If you contacted him through the technical inquiry form, I’m sure he would provide a full micro mineral analysis.
While it’s very unlikely I would do it, I’m very interested in what you got.
I have considered this, and would use various fermented plant extracts as the fertigation, drain to waste to an outdoor garden…
Would use peat moss with pumice(20%) and rock dust
Living mulch for the win, maybe micro greens or herbs
I’ve been using hp mix and earthjuice sea blast line.
I add in old age kelp, Agt-50 and some of the roots line.
Both these are solid ime, I have used them both with amended soil on my outdoor (I know I know, not exactly hydro, but figured I would share them since they are organic and soluble). You can get them in bulk fairly well priced. Currently using both in the veggie garden as well. The whole “active” line is solid, they have a few different options of npk ratios available. I feed these with agt-50, epsom salt, agsil, and yucca extract. I have used ful power as my source of fulvic in the past but prefer the agt-50, way cheaper, unless the price of ful power has come down a bunch. I can also give the agt to my animals which is a huge plus for me. I tried the organic alive brand too, worked well but It is more expensive than the above nutrients.
As far as water soluble organic nutrients i also like seaweed extract and soy amino aa90
Thanks for all your replies
A key difference between organic growing with soil or even aquaponics and a pure hydroponic/soiless grow, is that the nitrogen needs to be present as nitrate, because there are no native microbe populations that can do the Protein->Ammonium->Nitrate conversions.
For example the FertiCell active, contains nitrogen mainly as ammonium and protein (mostly as proteins), so it is not useable if there are no microbes to perform the conversions. If you tried adding the microbes and the Ferticell directly to a nutrient solution - in a recirculating system - the pH is bound to reach 8+ quite quickly as nitrifying bacteria try to buffer pH in this zone to facilitate their job.
Furthermore, many of these inputs. For example Corn Steep Liquors (CSL) contain a lot of food for microbes (in the case of CSL, it is almost 30% lactic acid) so adding that to a formulation without microorganisms would likely breed pathogens in the solution and make the ORP of the nutrient solution negative.
The solution to the above is either to find an organic input that is high in nitrates or to perform some fermentation process beforehand (which is what @AgTonik suggested). Fermentation converts N to nitrate and destroys a lot of the carbohydrate content, increasing the ORP and making the solutions more suitable for plants.
If going the fermentation route, then the question becomes what to ferment and for how long. The problem of these processes being extremely smelly in some cases, makes it even more difficult doing this indoors.
The other is to use already high nitrate, fermented, commercially sold products to carry out the growing.
Plants can sidestep the biological conversion of proteins to nitrates and feed off amino acids or peptides directly.
N derived from fermenting protein rich biomass would fit the bill for what you want to do.