Hydroponic growing is more popular than ever in the UK. This isn’t exactly new or revolutionary. Ever since indoor gardening supplies became publicly available for hobbyists and up and coming businesses, hydro growing has become an essential part of a grower’s arsenal. Whilst outdoor growing is season-dependent and prone to attracting wildlife and open-air disease, hydroponic growing is more controlled and adaptable. And this tells us everything we need to know about why more and more gardeners, florists and hobbyists are making the switch from traditional growing methods to more modern and dependable means.
Having over twenty years of experience in the hydroponics industry, the Senua Hydroponics team have developed a certain knack for understanding what you need for your growing. Right now, the chief concerns are keeping home growing as pure as ever in the most cost effective way possible. And whilst this may seem like a tall order (trying to get the best quality possible at the lowest price,) make no mistake that budget hydroponics is not only possible, but also very easy when you keep a few of the following tips close to heart when you’re starting your next grow.
How to save money on hydro
Now that we’ve taken a look at why you might want to start saving money on your home growing, let’s take a look at how you can go ahead achieving that. Of course, how applicable each tip is to your hydro growing can vary. The reality (and greatest part) of home growing is how diverse it can be. From fostering exotic plants in an indoor greenhouse to growing your own pure and fresh fruits and vegetables for meals. The needs of your growing need to be adapted to the specific needs of your plants and, as a result, not every cost-cutting tip in this guide will be applicable to you.
That being said, there are universal ways to cut down on costs when it comes to home growing. First and foremost is choosing the right fertilisers and nutrients.
Starting from the top (and tackling the largest piece of the hydroponics puzzle head on,) selecting the right chemicals for your growing is essential. Blooms, Boosts, pH Ups and Downs and Flushes… It’s enough to make your head spin.
One of the key things that deters new growers from putting up the grow tent is the sheer amount of choice when it comes to nutrients. All of which have specific measurements that are needed at specific times and specific conditions. As you can imagine, this can be quite a daunting process. This is especially true for those of us who start home growing as hobbyists looking for something interesting to get into.
Walking into a hydro shop and seeing the rows of different nutrients and feed tables can be disheartening. However, there is an upside.
With so many options on the market many brands and shops are looking to make their prices as attractive as possible whilst improving the quality of their products. Especially during the current cost of living crisis. Whilst this may seem dull, there is no mistaking that there are plenty of opportunities to “shop around” in hydro nowadays. Studies indicate that hydro growers are very unlikely to switch brand or try anything new after a successful grow and this can cause a bit of a rut.
Trying something new in hydro
Show of hands: how often do you mix up your growing routine? How often do you consider other brands outside of the ones you were introduced to? How often do you try growing anything other than you typically grow?
These may be rhetorical questions, but they’re well worth considering. Because you’d be surprised how often growers come to Senua Hydroponics and don’t realise that their grow could see better results and (more importantly) keep more money in their wallets. Taking the time to evaluate and do a little bit of research into all of your options when your next grow starts is a great way to find savings and (potentially) an improved way of growing your plants, fruits, veggies and herbs.
Nutrients always provide a great opportunity to experiment and with the best brands by your side at affordable prices, you can make serious savings by performing small and controlled experiments in your next grow. It’s important to remember that, above all else; hydro is a science. With this in mind, approach your next grow with an open mind and experiment with the newest formulas and nutrients to maximise your yields and reduce your overheads.
Energy bills in hydro
Environment is essential to ensuring great yields in hydro. This is no great secret as hydro growers strive to create the best grow tent set up and invest significantly in filters and irrigation for their indoor growing. Not only does this make a better environment for growing in (in terms of comfort and convenience) but also creates a better environment for your plants which helps produce far greater yields in the future.
In the hydroponics industry, investment is crucial. Securing the highest return on investment is one of the most rewarding aspects of outfitting your growing environment with the best equipment. However- with all of the technology available in hydroponics- energy costs can be one of the largest overheads for your home growing. In fact, many beginners in hydro are often taken aback by the energy usage of their growing environment.
As you can imagine, the first impulse may be to scale back your growing. By having less electronics involved in your growing, surely you’ll be able to save on your energy bills? Well, this might not necessarily be the case. By reducing your tools, you’ll also be negatively affecting your yields. So how else can we combat rising energy costs without sacrificing the quality of our crops?
Energy efficient grow lights
One of the most important parts to your environment is lighting. As you may expect from traditional gardening- making sure that your plants are getting enough light is crucial to ensuring a successful harvest. So how do we save money on our lights?
First thing’s first: research. Lighting is a huge part of hydroponic growing and making sure that you have the best light for your plants (covering the spectrum that you need) as well as your space and your budget is critical to getting the right light for you and your harvest. A lighting rig that makes things comfortable and usable for you and your plants is crucial and there’s plenty of hydroponic communities that can illuminate the answer for you.
But the best way to find a light that best suits your growing is to do research. Find out dimensions, prices and functions before settling on the rest of your set up. The best advice that Senua Hydroponics can give is to build your growing environment around your light. Not the other way around.
Doing things this way allows you more flexibility in the one piece of equipment that you can’t grow without. With said flexibility, you can spend more time analysing energy usage. On most grow lights, you’ll see a number in the name (usually followed by a “w” which indicates “watts.”) This is usually a really good indicator of how energy efficient a lighting system is. Especially if used alongside a wattage per hour calculator which should be able to give you a rough estimate of how much a lighting rig will cost to run for an hour. Again, this all comes down to research.
At Senua Hydroponics, we’ve started making strides towards supplying our customers with the best investments possible and that’s where we get onto the subject of LED lighting.
The big secret behind LED grow lighting
As hydroponics has become more and more mainstream, technology has advanced and adapted. There is no greater example of this in the modern hydro industry than with grow lights. Long gone are the days of heavy and flimsy lighting rigs that require constant work and maintenance. Now, with the rise of brands such as NokoTech and LUMii and many, many more; we are starting to see a significant shift towards sturdier, lightweight and- generally- more fun and interesting lighting rigs.
But the real reason you want to at least consider the change to LED grow lights is because of the reduced energy consumption and thus lower energy bills associated with LED grow lights.
So what’s the difference between LED grow lights and other forms of grow lighting? Well, for starters, LED lights are typically a lot more vertically concentrated. In other words the measurement of the lighting rig is usually the measurement of the affected plants beneath it. This allows for a much greater degree of control especially when paired with adjustable ratchet hangers that allow the light to move vertically- which increases or decreases the area of lighting.
However the main difference is the savings you’ll be making when you make the change. LED lights are simply more energy efficient and more tightly designed especially for hydroponic growing. This leads to a solid starting point for any grower and also allows more budget to be used in perfecting other aspects of the grow environment (such as irrigation, nutrients, etc.) For beginners in the hydroponics world, this is a great way to get a feel for setting up their first indoor garden. For hydro pros, the energy savings alone should really speak for themselves.
All of this is before we start to talk about the difference in environment impact that LED lights make. Unlike most other forms of lighting, LED grow lights do not produce significant heat to cause a major impact on your harvest. Again, this is perfect for home growing beginners as LED grow lighting removes the need for obsessive temperature checks and adjustment- which takes a lot of hard and tedious work out of your home gardening.
