5 Best Hydroponics Growing Medium for 2023 🌳 Media Guide | Friendly-Home.net

Hydroponics growing medium is a means of growing plants that does not require plants to absorb nutrients from the soil to germinate. In other words, the hydroponic growing medium replaces the use of soil in planting. A simple application of this new invention is enough to see through the complete cycle of plant germination.

The introduction of hydroponics growing medium has redefined farming. The days of toiling for nutrients, fertilizer application & settling for rich farmland are no longer mandatory. With these mediums, every farmer can now settle for a stress-free yet more yielding farming system.

However, there is a lot of hydroponics growing medium across marketplaces these days. One must, therefore, shop knowledgeably when buying. This article will look at the best five hydroponics growing mediums for 2021 so that you don’t end up with inferior products.

Best Grow Media for Hydroponics

CZ Garden Supply Organic Expanded Clay Pebbles

Pros

• Multipurpose
• 100% natural
• Lightweight yet sturdy
• Odorless
• Compatible with all hydroponic systems

Cons

• May not be reusable

The CZ Garden Expanded Clay Pebbles are 100% natural, meaning that the product is pH-neutral, inert, clean & designed to be decorative. These clay pebbles are thus an excellent choice for your orchids and will also do well if combined with bark, coconut husk chips, charcoal, or any other orchid media.

These clay pebbles are pleasantly packaged. The pack weighs 32oZ & the seeds are just perfect for all hydroponics net cups. These pebbles are easy to use too. All you need to do is add them to your hydroponic pots, and you don’t have to bother with anything else. These pebbles form enough space for moisture & oxygen, thereby taking out the need to water them. With good root aeration, your plants are protected from rotting & excess acidity.

The CZ Garden Supply Organic Expanded Clay Pebbles provide excellent value for money. They ease the cultivation of your orchids & are perfect for laelias & large cattleyas. The porosity of these pebbles ensures that they allow soil aeration and act as a water reservoir simultaneously.

Thanks to their reddish-brown color, these pebbles can also be used as a decorative top-layer for plants, and when this is done, they prevent the soil from drying out quickly. The CZ Garden clay pebbles are lightweight, odorless, sterile & safe to handle.

General Hydroponics Coco Growing Media

Pros

• Expands rapidly
• More than enough mediums
• Environmentally friendly
• Can be used for a number of purposes
• Does not support mold growth

Cons

• Extremely salty
• No nutrient is present — although none was promised

The General Hydroponics Coco Growing Media contains three different types of compressed Coco coir. This is a high-quality, low sodium growing medium that serves as an option for sphagnum peat moss. When hydrated, these seeds expand rapidly to save you time & effort. You’re advised to soak them for about 30 minutes before putting them to use, although you should have a container that’s about 35-40 gallons large.

They are easy to use too. These growing mediums can be used alone, blended, or with expanded clay pebbles, perlite, or topsoil. Just ensure to soak them for half an hour before using. Usually, you do not need to treat plants grown with CocoTek for the first three weeks. All you have to do is apply them to your hydroponic system & leave them be for the period. However, you may have to make your own nutrients after this period.

Note that little is a lot with Coco core. The seeds are highly salty — perhaps as much as the ocean. You have to use very little of it. In fact, this is the reason why you have to wash them, preferably with warm water. Since you’ll surely be using these seeds for a long time, I advise that you dry them out under the sun after soaking them in water. This will dehydrate them & ensure they last longer.

Overall, this product offers a commendable value for money. They expand easily as soon as you add water to them. Mold does not grow in them as long as they are dehydrated before storage. CocoTek is undoubtedly one of the most effective hydroponics growing mediums.

Grodan Rockwool Hydroponic Grow Media

Pros

• Premade holes for easy planting
• Easy to use
• Hastens growth

Cons

• Not reusable
• Too small

Grodan Stonewool is reputed for the consistency of its high-quality products & you don’t expect otherwise with its grow media. This hydroponic grow media is designed to perfectly fit a standard flat, with each plug featuring a hole to make planting seeds much easier. Seedlings grown in this have to be transplanted to a larger piece of stone wool or the soil, which is where the problem is for most.

The Grodan Rockwool Hydroponic Grow Media comes with 50 cubes, but all of which can be too small & fragile. Thus, it may be challenging to move seedlings to their permanent place when it is time to. They break very quickly also, so one has to be extra careful with them. What I did to successfully transplant mine was to do so in a couple of fours or fives instead of singularly. However, if you’d rather do the transplanting individually, maybe due to the difference in seedlings, you can go ahead — although I have to say that you have to be very careful.

Aside from this slight difficulty in transplanting, I wouldn’t change anything else about the Grodan Stonewool Hydroponic Grow Media. Seeds planted in the mediums start sprouting right after 24 hours, and that’s remarkable. You may need to add some nutrients to the cubes to foster continuous growth, though, as they do not come with a lot of fertilizer. For easier use of these cubes, you should soak them in water for a while before planting with.

GROW!T Clay Pebbles

Pros

• Good for aeration
• Great drainage system
• Can decorate your plants
• Works well in aquaponics
• Easy to apply

Cons

• Oddly shaped clay pebbles

GROW!T Clay Pebbles are 100% natural clay, much like the CZ Garden Expanded Clay Pebbles — there are, therefore, a handful of similarities between both. These pebbles are pH stable, clean & provide excellent drainage & aeration in hydroponic systems, particularly in drip feeds, deep water cultures & flood & drains. Thanks to their fantastic structure, these pebbles can easily spread over an area, so they make the ideal conditions for good bacteria to grow in roots, resulting in naturally healthier yields.

Using GROW!T Clay Pebbles is very easy. All you have to do is put in your hydroponics and plant your herbs. I don’t think anyone would find it difficult to do this. For so much ease, the result is impressive. The mediums are so absorbable that you’ll be lucky to find them at the roots of plants after applying them. They are therefore not reusable, but for a good reason. Thanks to their ability to aerate the soil and retain moisture until plants need it, these pebbles ensure that you yield excellent produce. In fact, from the roots of your plant, you’d expect a massive harvest.

Speaking of value, GROW!T pebbles offer a mind-blowing return for money. They can be used to decorate your plants, as they look attractive, serving as a top layer while helping to prevent evaporation. They also work great in aquaponics, so expect no problem with your aqua systems. You may want to note ahead that the last thing you’ll get from GROW!T Clay Pebbles are perfectly round pellets. I urge that you expect a lot of irregular shapes in the box, but they never affect your hydroponics, plus they work very fine.

Rockwool Starter Plugs

Pros

• Sturdy
• Absorbs nutrients easily
• Does not break
• A lot of planting plugs

Cons

• May be biodegradable

The Rockwool Starter Plugs are produced by spinning molten rock into cotton fibers with a candy-like structure, after which they are compressed into cubes. If you’re familiar with these fibers, you’d be aware of the solidity of Rockwool products. This hybrid fiber has a most outstanding ability to absorb nutrient solution & so retain a lot of oxygen to hasten up plant growth. This product is used to nurture seedlings or cuttings until they are transplanted into their suitable planters.

The Rockwool Starter Plug comes with two sheets of 100 plugs each, so you have 200 holes to plant in. It’s as easy as planting in mounds. Just dip seedlings into the plugs. However, before you do this, you should mix the plugs in some plant food & dip in a pH5.5 mix, and then voila! The package of this product is everything to write home about. You should know that molten rock does not break easily, so transplanting your seedlings is quite an easy thing and can be done individually.

The value in return is quite impressive. The plugs are easy to use & will yield excellent plants. Unlike other products like this, the measurements of these plugs are ideal & will conveniently fit in all hydroponics. Also, they don’t split easily like other similar products when transplanting. That’s that. Crops grown in the Rockwool Starter Plugs are fed a lot of nutrients without even trying to. You are assured the finest yields, providing you transplant into an equally healthy growing medium.

What To Look For When Buying Grow Media For Hydroponics

Easy to Use

The essence of a hydroponic growing media is to do away with the difficulties of sourcing for the ideal soil type & nutrients. Settling for a hydroponic growing media should not replace these issues with technical challenges. It is advisable to choose a grow media that does not require a lot of expertise on your part. Think of this: some media need you to use extra fertilizer on your plants while others have enough nutrients for your crops to grow. Which would you prefer among them?

Packaging

The packaging includes the grade of the packaging and the quality of material used in making the media. An easy-to-use grow media can be utterly useless if it was made with a poor package. A media that spoils easily either because of a fall or when it’s time to transplant was made with poor packaging. So, settle for a grow media with good packaging to put it to good use.

Value for Money

The value for money is the benefits you stand to gain after buying a hydroponic grow media. It is necessary to buy a product that does indeed improve yield instead of just buying for fancy. Do your research to ensure that the media you choose will make things easier, hasten up plant growth, aerate the soil, absorb moisture & lead to healthier yields. Some hydroponics have a lot of purposes. If you can afford them, buy them.

Summary

Selecting an excellent hydroponic grow media can be tricky due to the many substandard products available for purchase these days. However, you shouldn’t have problems with this anymore, thanks to this review of the five best hydroponics growing mediums for 2021.