Hydroponic Nutrient Formula - How to Get It Right
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Getting the hydroponic nutrient formula right can be a fiddly task. Similarly using the correct amount of fertilizer for standard gardening can be hard to get right. If you don’t use enough fertilizer then you’ll have weak plants that look anemic; however if you use too much then you can risk killing your plants.
Combining fertilizers in the right proportions is vital to figuring out the right hydroponic nutrient formula. Hydroponics kits come with fertilizers, it can be quite confusing when it comes to mixing them together.
The Suitable Concentration
To ensure that your plants grow and remain healty, it is very important to mix the fertilizers that you have to the right concentration. Because fertilizers sold for use in hydroponic systems are concentrated it is important to make the hydroponic nutrient formula right.
You can begin with a concentration of 150 to 600 parts per million. But it is gernally possible to find a much more specific concentration range, most plants will do well with a hydroponic nutrient formula of 300 to 400 parts per million.
Growing Stages
Plants go through different stages of development and growth, so it is reasonable that plants need different nutrients during these different stages. When you are deciding what hydroponic nutrient formula to use you should be aware that there are now different nutrients that are available to suit the different stages of a plant’s life cycle.
‘Grow’ formulae are typically targetted toward plants in the vegetative stage of growth in the plant’s life cycle. These are commonly also known as ‘Growth’ formula, which you may have seen in garden centers. When your plants start to flower you must change to a different hydroponic nutrient formula. You should look for formulae targetted with ‘Flower’ or ‘Bloom’.
The strength of the hydroponic nutrient formula must be tailored to the growth stage and health of the plant. Common sense may suggest that you should use a stronger formula for a weaker plant and vice versa, but this is actually not the right thing to do. You should be using a weaker hydroponic nutrient formula for a weaker plant, such as one in weaker light conditions. Conversely you can use a strong formula for a plant in very healthy conditions.
If you decide on changing the strength of formula to use, you need to make small changes and gradually tweak it towards your target strength. As an analogy, a rapid change in strength is like suddenly moving your plant from a greenhouse to outdoors, the plant will suffer and likey die. On a final note, you should ensure that your plants are placed in a well ventilated environment with good levels of lighting to ensure good, healthy growth.
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