Another extremely common question when it comes to small in-home hydroponic gardening, is "Can I use organic fertilizers?"
Unfortunately, the answer, while not an outright no, is a very stringent 'it's not a good idea'. This tends to upset people if you leave it at that. But just because organic fertilizers aren't a good idea, doesn't mean your plants will be any less nutritious and healthy for you!
The problem here, and the apparent contradiction, is that "organic" has specific meanings in specific applications. It has unfortunately, however, become a 'buzz word' used by people to just generally mean 'natural' as opposed to covered in synthetic chemicals, like pesticides. In this situation, though, "organic" is really no more nutritious, and is not a particularly safer, better, or more sustainable system.
In the matter of plant food/fertilizer, organic specifically means 'from plant or animal sources', such as dead fish, bat guano (poo), worm castings (also poo) and compost. However, for the plants to be able to use the nutrients in these sources, further breaking down needs to happen within the soil by a complex web of bacteria, fungi, etc. It is also rather stinky, without the soil to 'contain' the smell.
In organic farming, it refers to a method of farming that, according to the USDA, "relies primarily on the cycling of organic matter to maintain soil fertility. The maxim to ‘feed the soil to feed the plant’ summarizes the organic approach. Compost, cover crops, plant by-products, animal manure, and other biological materials form the bulk of what is applied to organic fields for fertility. Organic farmers are also permitted to supplement the addition of organic matter with the use of other natural products, such as mined minerals." That last bit is particularly important to the topic at hand. As this suggests, however, organic farming leads to very healthy, nutritious food, but likewise to healthy, sustainable farms and soil. It is far better for the consumers of the food grown this way and for the planet as a whole, in contrast to commercial growing with heavily tilled soil and synthetic fertilizers that are the agricultural equivalent of strip-mining. (And, of course, the most important aspect that makes organically farmed produce better for you as the consumer - it's not slathered in pesticides.)
Most hydroponic nutrients, on the other hand, are blends of the actual base nutrients the plants need, taken from mineral sources, without all the extra stuff or the need to further break them down. They are not from organic (plant or animal) sources, nor do they promote soil health, since there is no soil involved; thus they cannot be deemed 'organic' by either the standard of "organic fertilizers", nor "organic farming". However, they are still natural, not harsh or potentially dangerous and undesirable synthetics – at worst, they fall under the umbrella of the 'other natural products' section allowed in organic farming, only as the primary source instead of a small percentage. Once the plants uptake the nutrients, there is literally no difference between nutrients that derive from organic sources, or mineral sources. There are a very few brands that claim to have organic hydroponic plant food, but not many, and the wisdom of using them just because of the 'organic' tag is questionable at best. Using organic nutrients in an indoor hydroponic unit will most likely make your unit stink as the ingredients break down, can promote much more frequent fungal and bacterial issues in your plants, and are likely to clog the internal workings of your unit.
Plus, y'know, decomposing fish and bat/worm poo on your kitchen counter.
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