Choosing a Feed Hydroponics is big business all over the world and consequently many excellent feeds are available, and like plants everybody has their favourites.
Choosing a feed to suit your growing medium It is very important that you choose an appropriate nutrient for your method of growing.
Whilst it is possible mix and match hydro nutrients with organic growing mediums or even organic nutrients with hydroponic substrates we do not recommend that this is the best course of action for most growers.
There are so many feeds designed specifically for certain uses/growing media that you should be able to find an appropriate feed.
Using the wrong kind of nutrient for your growing medium can cause more harm than good - for example using a mineral based hydroponic feed with an organic soil will negate the benefits that soil growing can offer.
You would be much better choosing a good organic feed in this instance.
Broadly speaking there are three media types when talking about nutrient formulations: Hydroponic Nutrients: suitable for rockwool, perlite, vermiculite and clay pebbles.
These nutrients are mineral based and are formulated for direct uptake by your plants.
Organic Nutrients: suitable for organic soils.
These nutients are designed to feed the soil rather than the plant.
They encourage biological activity and take full advantage of natures own methods.
Coco Nutrients: suitable for coco coir medium.
These Nutrients often utlilise the unique properties of coco as a growing medium better then hydroponic nutrients Choosing a Hydroponic Feed As there are so many good feeds, we encourage you to switch nutrients every now and again in case you find one that you or your plants prefer.
They are all good and all have their slight differences, and it is good to try the various products available in the hunt for better yields.
Just because you are getting good results with one package, doesn't necessarily mean that that package is the 'best' for you.
Constant experimentation will help you to refine your complete growing style and methods, and we highly recommend it.
Below we try to give you some practical information about each Hydroponic feed to try and help you pick one in relation to water suitability.
First we look at the three main categories of feeds, soft water, hard water and universal feeds.
These relate to the type of water you have.
You can get a good idea of water hardness from the pH level and to keep things simple in this article, we will use pH to guide you as to feed suitability.
Soft Water Feeds - Soft water has little or no dissolved minerals in it and consequently a low pH.
This water is ideal for soft water feeds.
Soft water feeds can be used in any type of water although pH adjustment may be needed.
Mixing soft water nutrient solutions does not usually affect pH.
Soft water feeds are ideal for water with pH between 5.
5 and 7.
8 Hard Water Feeds - Hard water has some dissolved mineral elements already in it, mostly calcium and magnesium and consequently it has a high pH.
Hard water feeds are only for very hard water.
Mixing hard water nutrient solutions automatically drops the pH quite a bit.
Ideal for water with pH 7.
8 and above.
Universal Feeds - Good for water that isn't too hard and isn't too soft.
Automatically drops the pH a bit.
Usually at full strength a universal feed will drop the pH approximately 0.
8 e.
g.
from 6.
8 to 6.
0.
Ideal for water with a pH between 6.
8 and 7.
8