5 Hydroponic Tips to Increase Your Yields

When growing plants, you want to be able to get the most out of what you plant. By having a hydroponic system, you can easily increase the yields of your plants. Because the system focuses on providing the plants directly with the nutrients they need, they will grow faster. As well as being able to have more plants in the same square foot. In this article we discuss 5 hydroponic tips to increase your yields. These tips will help you grow faster and more efficiently.

What are Crop Yields?

If you are new to growing, you might be wondering what a crop yield actually is. The crop yield is defined as the measurement of the amount of a crop that is harvested per unit of land area. It is also referred to as ‘agricultural output’. Typically, you will use crop yield to estimate the amount of corn, cereals, grains, legumes and many other plants. 

You will normally estimate your crop yield per year or season. And it will be estimated in Kg (kilograms) or Ha (hectare).

A crop yield is important to many growers. They want to get the highest yield possible. And not put much effort into increasing their crop yield. If you are unsure on how to estimate your crop yield, take a look at this online calculator.

How Can I Increase my Yields Easily?

There are many ways to increase your yields of the plants you are growing. Some require a lot more effort than others. However, we are going to show you the easiest ways to do this.

The main focus of any grower is to get bigger plants with even better yields. There are a variety of different ways you can encourage your plants to grow better. If you are new to growing, you should firstly focus on having a healthy and happy plant. However, if you are wanting to maximise your yields and get more at each harvest, then we cover this in our top 5 tips below. 

Some of the tips are focused for people who are using their hydroponic system indoors. However, most of the tips can be applied if you grow outdoors as well. Our hydroponic system is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. And with the compact system, it can fit into the smallest of places.

The 5 Hydroponic Tips to Increase Your Yields

We want to provide you with the best ways to get more plants out of your crops. We have put together the best tips to increase your yields with the MEGAPot Hydroponic System.

1. Increase the Light Intensity on Your Plants

If you are growing indoors or outdoors, this is a very easy way to speed up the process of your plants growing. Any plant needs a good source of light to grow. And light acts as food for your plants.

When growing indoors, a simple way to increase the light your plant receives is to increase the UV rays from your lighting system. Some plants require darkness during certain times, and you can use timers on your lights to do this. 

However, when the light is on, a process called photosynthesis happens. This is when the plant produces sugars to help the plant grow. So, the more light the plant receives, the faster it will grow as it is producing more sugar. And then when the plants are in darkness, flowering plants will produce florigen. This is a hormone which will allow the plant to flower. 

You should try and find the right balance for your plant. By doing this you will have a plant that grows fast and flowers correctly as well. 

You might be wondering what happens if you grow outdoors? There isn’t much you can do in regards to the amount of light your plant receives if it is outside due to night and daytime. However, you can be careful about where you plant your crops. Try and find a spot where your plants will receive the most amount of light during the day. And get enough darkness to allow them to flower.

2. Prune Your Plants

One thing that you can do to help increase your yield for your plants is to prune them. 

Pruning is where you remove any dead or dying parts of the plant. This can include leaves, buds, branches and stubs. By doing this you are allowing room for new growth of your plant that is healthy.

A plant that has rotting or dead parts is using more energy and nutrients to try and grow. Due to the plant trying to promote new growth in the dead areas, it will slow down the overall growth as it is a lot harder to grow over dead areas than healthy areas. 

This is why pruning is so important. By taking away the dead and damaged parts, your plant will not be wasting energy on trying to grow over dead areas. Instead it can focus on growing in healthy areas. And in turn, using less nutrients overall. This will result in an increase in crop yield as once it is pruned, it will be able to grow quicker.

3. Use the Right Hydroponic System

This might sound strange or silly to you. But using the right hydroponic system for the plant you are growing is vital. If you use the wrong system, this could lead to slow growth or no growth at all. 

Hydroponic systems are here to increase your yields, not make them worse. So when choosing your hydroponic system, you should consider the plants you are going to be growing first and foremost.

Then you should be choosing the right container type and size for your setup. There are many different hydroponic systems available. They vary from retailer to retailer. Here are the main reasons you should pick the right system for your plants:

• If you have a pot that is too big for your plant, you are likely to overwater your plant. This will lead to slow growth as they can’t get the right nutrients quickly. And are more likely to be drowned.
• If you have a pot that is too small for your plant, you are constricting its growth. When your plant starts to get too big for its smaller pot, you should move it so it can carry on growing!
• We recommend that you start your plants off in smaller containers. And then later transfer them to larger ones. This will help keep a steady growth for your plant. And allow them to grow as large as they want without any constrictions. 
• Some plants will grow faster in containers that let air in from the sides. These containers are air pots and fabric posts. They allow more air to get to the roots quickly and this results in faster growth.

4. Try and Use Coco

MEGAPot’s hydroponic system is different to other systems. We recommend that you use coco to grow your plants. Most other systems won’t use coco or other forms of soil at all. And they will just use water with the nutrients inside it.

However, we know that growing certain plants in coco will help increase the crop yield. It is able to access the nutrients needed quickly and this stimulates the growth of the plant. Also, it is one of the easiest methods to use in a hydroponic system. And is best suited for beginners.

5. Control the Temperature

Unfortunately you can not control the temperature of your plants if you are growing outside. However, you can control it if you are growing inside. Being able to control the environment in which your plants grow in is important to ensuring a better yield.

Typically, plants that have been exposed to cold temperatures will grow slower. This is not what you want. So it’s time to fix that! If you maintain a good temperature of the room your plants are growing in, your plants are more likely to grow quicker.

However, if you set the temperature too high, this will damage the plants. It will slow down the growth of your plant. As well as show visible signs on your plant. The signs vary plant to plant. You should look out for any leaves that are starting to wilt or turn a brownish colour.

You must be vigilant in keeping the temperature controlled and maintained. The most important stage of the growth of the plant is the flowering stage. If your room is too hot, the growth will slow down. Normally, anything over 26 degrees centigrade will be too high for your plants.

To Conclude: 5 Hydroponic Tips to Increase Your Yields

There are many ways to increase your yields for your plants. Throughout this article we have discussed the 5 hydroponic tips to increase your yields. These tips will help you easily improve your plant rate and growth.

At MEGAPot we have the best hydroponic system in the UK. It was made with hydroponic growers in mind and with the main aim to increase your yields. We know how important it is to get a good growth rate for your plants. If you have any questions or would like some more guidance, feel free to Contact Us.

MEGAPot’s Hydroponic System

Our system has many benefits including: 

• Compact system, so it can fit anywhere. Inside and outside.
• The ability to expand it with multiple different options in our shop.
• You will use less chemicals and pesticides on your plants.
• You can use the system indoors. So that means you can grow plants all year around, whatever the weather.