420 Growing Plants Nutrients Guide

Nutrients

All plants, whether grown hydroponically or in soil, need 16 basic elements to grow. Most of us are familiar with the top three that are consumed by plants. These elements are called the Macro-Elements and they are Nitrogen Phosphorous and Potassium, they are abbreviated N P K. You probably have seen these letters on bags of common fertilizer. The other 13 elements are grouped together as the Micro-Elements. Most people are not familiar with these elements because we have always counted on them being present in the soil, which works for the most part.

Preformulated Nutrients:
This is really the best option for the hobby to small farm hydroponic grower. You can be assured that all of the necessary nutrients are present and available to the plants. All you have to do is mix a predetermined amount of concentrate with water and add it to your system. If you want to be successful as a first time hydroponic grower, use a ready made nutrient specifically for hydroponics. Preformulated Nutrients come in the forms of 1-part powders, 2-part powders, 1-part liquids, 2-part liquids, & 3-part liquids. I have found that nutrients are pretty much nutrients, with the exception of the General Hydroponics 3-part flora series. This one nutrient system really stands out above the rest, it gives the best results by far. You can customize the mix for specific crops and different phases of the crop (i.e. one mix for vegetative growth and another for flowering/fruiting phases of growth). Formulating your own: Once you have some experience with hydroponics and you are producing large crops of a specific plant, you may want to look into formulating your own nutrients. Since all plants do not consume the same amounts of nutrients (individual elements) you can possibly save yourself some money by making very specific formulas for your crop. This involves a good amount of chemistry knowledge, some lab equipment and each of the 16 individual elemental nutrients. Many crop specific formulas exist from others' research, all you have to do is find the right recipe and mix it up. Over time you will probably adjust this formula to match your growing conditions and crop more closely. Mixing your own is best left to the more experienced who are producing large amounts of one crop (i.e. 1/4 acre on up).

Miracle Grow:
Many people insist on tying to use miracle grow plant food as a hydroponic nutrient. It is true that this is great stuff for soil, I personally use it on my flowers and man do they freak out. Let me stress though, this stuff is not a complete nutrient for hydroponics. It does contain some micro elements, but not all. Your plants will start out fine using this, but eventually they will suffer from deficiencies. In the long run it is not worth the cost savings over a real hydroponic nutrient. The analogy would be something like buying a brand new corvette and then having the cheapest tires put on it and filling up with the cheapest Circle K gasoline. You will not even come close to getting the performance that is possible.