Photo by Marra Sherrier
“The best fertilizer is the gardener’s shadow.” It’s a common saying among gardeners and attributed to a Chinese proverb.
And it’s true. One of the most important things you can do for your garden is simply showing up and being there. Maintaining a hydroponic garden requires monitoring of multiple elements, including water levels, temperature, nutrient levels, and more.
If it sounds like a lot of work, well yeah, it can be. But creating a daily routine helps you to save time by knowing exactly what you need to do.
So if you have to make time for your indoor garden around work and other responsibilities, try out this quick morning grow room routine to help keep your plants healthy and on track for growth.
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Quick temperature and humidity check
You can feel the air in your grow room without having to even look at your thermometer or hygrometer. If you walk in and it’s immediately hot and stuffy feeling, you need to make an adjustment before setting out for the day.
If everything feels fine and you have time, you should go ahead and check those monitors anyway to note the conditions. If you track conditions in your grow room, now’s the time to enter that data (apps like GroLog work great for this, but if you’re still using a notebook and pencil, it gets the job done).
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Make sure all fans and lights are on and functioning
This one’s a pretty easy step that’s super important. Just take a quick look around the grow room and make sure everything that regulates your environment is turned on and functioning.
While you’re checking the lights, it’s a good idea to also peek at the tops of the plants and make sure they haven’t grown up too close to the heat source.
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Give plants a physical exam
Inspect the leaves on your specimens and keep an eye out for any early signs of disease, overwatering, or nutrition deficiencies. Touch the grow medium to make sure it’s not dried out. If your medium gets too dry, you get salt buildup around the roots, and that can make it difficult for plants to absorb water and nutrients down the road.
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Test pH levels in the nutrient reservoir
Keep your pH meter stored in a convenient location so you can come in and do a quick check in the morning. It’s a critical step to keeping your plants on the right track.
If you want to get really lazy (without sacrificing results) you can get a pH monitor that stays plugged in and constantly takes readings.
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Visually inspect pumps and aerators
These are the things that keep your water (and thus, nutrients) moving through the system, so you want to make sure they’re all running and don’t have any clogs, buildup, or damage. They also prevent the water from becoming stagnant, which can lead to the growth of fungus and harmful bacteria.
Don’t let your garden get taken over by disease just because you skipped a simple visual inspection of the systems.
Hydroponics Indoor Grow Room: 10 Daily Tasks by Just4Growers
Tidying up the grow room
The morning is a great time to sweep up any dead leaves and check for bugs in the grow room. Decaying foliage is a breeding ground for fungus and pests, so get them picked up to keep your garden healthy.
Obviously, if any of the systems you checked come up with an issue, you’ll need to take a little extra time to make adjustments or decide how urgent the issue is and plan a time to address it. You can also use your morning garden routine as a time to take notes on what tasks will be priorities when you get home in the evening.
Follow Indoor Cultivator for more hydroponics tips.
Special thanks to Everest Fernandez at Just4Growers for sharing his morning grow room routine. You can watch his full video below.