There are a lot of good quality nutrients on the market. How do you know which nutrients provide best performance? Growing productive and healthy plants is a bit more than picking a good quality brand of nutrients for the type of plants you want to grow. If you are not getting the results you should, there are some things to consider before blaming the nutrients for causing the poor plant performance. The quest for the "holy grail" of nutrients can be expensive, time-consuming and unnecessary.
Let's look at your nutrient reservoir
It is important that you have the appropriate volume of nutrient solution, in your reservoir, for each plant in the system. The larger the plant, the more water and nutrients it requires. As a rule of thumb, you will want to consider that large plants like tomatoes need at least 2.5 gallons of nutrient solution per plant and medium size plants like basil or peppers need at least 1.5 gallons of nutrient solution per plant in the system. Smaller plants such as strawberries or lettuce need at least 1/2 gallon of nutrient solution per plant. Multiply that by how many plants you plan to grow in order to give you a minimum reservoir size.
Larger volumes of nutrient solution will have less fluctuations in their nutrient concentrations as the plants use them up. This helps keep the nutrient solution evenly balanced as the plants deplete the nutrients from it. Remember, in warmer environments, plants will use more water than they do in cooler environments. When plants use up more of the water from the reservoir than usual, the nutrient levels (EC levels) in the solution, can become more concentrated. Smaller volumes of nutrient solution have a much better chance of nutrient levels soaring to toxic levels. If you regularly top off with fresh water to the original volume in smaller reservoirs, there is still a lot of fluctuation of the nutrient concentrations that are not healthy for your plants.
Let's look at the manufacturer's recommendations
Start with the amount of nutrients (dosage) that the manufacturer recommends (MRD) - they are experts in their nutrients, after all. Some variables that can affect the MRD are plant size (seedlings, young plants, mature growth), the plants growth phase (like vegetative growth or flowering/fruiting growth) and the type of growing medium used.
Whether the system is recirculating or non-recirculating systems can make a difference as well. Manufactures generally assume that your plants will be grown in favorable conditions. You need to take into consideration these variables and adjust accordingly. A good example would be to go slightly under the MRD for warmer environments to minimize the fluctuations as the plants use more water.
Let's look at your mixing steps
When you are mixing nutrients or additives, add at least 3/4 of the total volume of the water to the reservoir first. There is a reason that two- and three-part nutrients are separated. You do not want to pre-mix them in concentrated form or with small amounts of water first because some of the elements in the solution that were separated now have a chance to bond - a white precipitate (calcium sulphate) may even be seen forming in the solution making the solution unusable to the plants. If you thoroughly mix each concentrated part of the nutrient or additive, one at a time, into the larger volume of water they will remain diluted enough to avoid this situation.
Let's look at your nutrient solution
Your nutrients must remain mixed up in the solution. We do not want the minerals to settle and concentrate at the bottom of the reservoir. For most systems that recirculate the nutrient solution, this will not be a problem. Also, using an air bubbler in the reservoir will easily keep the water moving. Keeping the water moving will also prevent areas/pockets of high or low pH levels - plants cannot utilize the minerals when the solution is outside of the plants pH range.
Let's check your pH level
You should check your pH daily. Plants can only use the nutrients in the solution if the pH is in the right range. You should always check the pH immediately after mixing your nutrients and make any necessary adjustments. Keep checking until the solution is in the correct range. Once you have the correct pH, a daily check is a good idea. If you allow the pH go out of range, you will deprive your plants of nutrients. If you let the pH to rise above 6.5 a white precipitate may be seen in nutrient reservoirs as well.
So, it's not necessarily just selecting quality nutrients - how you use these nutrients will determine how well they perform. If you get into the habit of following the above recommendations, you will get the most out of any nutrients you choose to use. Growing healthy and delicious hydroponic plants is well worth the extra effort (which is still much easier than weeding, if you ask me!).
Hydroponic Advantage continues to help you grow and eat delicious, natural and quality food while minimizing your exposure to pesticides and other pollutants. By providing a good selection of quality products at honest prices and supplying important information about hydroponic gardening, we hope you will have a quality online shopping experience that will bring you back again and again.http://www.hydroponicadvantage.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paula_Fehringer
No comments:
Post a Comment