As we mentioned, there are several stages of hydroponic growing. You may be in any one of these stages right now, and we are going to help you identify where you fall.
But first, you need to understand each stage.
Stages of Hydroponic Growing Level #1: Hydroponic Hobbyist
If you are in this level, you might know a little bit about hydroponic growing, or maybe you are just interested in it.
To help you out, we have a ton of free resources available online. Dr. Nate Storey has hundreds of videos on YouTube to help you out. We also have free e-books and guides, so you can learn as much as you can before diving straight into it.
Level #2: Growing Gardener
You are either growing with towers or some other system to learn hydroponics through experience. At this point, you might be thinking about possibly expanding your market, whether you can make a profit on it, etc.
It is important to pay attention to the local market, and keep reading resources about what you need to do to make this a profitable system before you jump to the next level.
Level #3: The Budding Entrepreneur
This is basically a planning phase. You are getting your business plan together and finalized. You are working on your financials. You are testing different crops in your system.
In this level you know you want to go to commercial, but you are taking all the necessary steps to get organized before you take the plunge.
Level #4: The Upstart Farmer
You are either already an Upstart Farmer or are becoming one. At this point, you are practicing innovative distribution techniques, furthering relations with your local produce manager, CSA customers, etc., and you are interacting with our Upstart Farmer Community to learn what they are doing so you can make your operation more efficient and better.
At this point you might be ready to scale up as well. If you are, get in touch with us so we can help you plan or equip you with a full turnkey system.
Now that you have a grasp on each level, let’s identify which stage of hydroponic growing you are in lesson topic 2.