Hydroponic Nutrients

Perhaps, the most important element for a successful growing adventure is the use of hydroponic nutrients.

Hydroponics is a practice of growing plants with the employment of mineral nutrient solutions in exchange for soil; it originated from a couple of Greek words: hydros meaning water and ponos meaning labor. But the idea of growing terrestrial plants in a mineral nutrient solution is only feasible if there is an inert medium, such as perlite, mineral wool or gravel, present.

A major factor to growing successfully without soil is using quality hydroponic nutrients. It's not always advisable to use commercial garden fertilizers because they do not normally contain the 13 elements required for the plants to remain healthy. This is because the growing medium they're designed for (soil) provides a large percentage of them.

Nutrient (or fertilizer) is food for plants. Plants need a certain amount of food in order to grow healthy. The primary nutrients in plant foods are Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), as well as Potassium (K). In addition to nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium, plants require a lesser amount of secondary nutrients and trace quantities of other elements. Examples of secondary nutrients are magnesium, calcium and sulfur. Trace elements are boron, molybdenum, iron, manganese, copper and zinc. To get you through all phases of growth, all-purpose hydroponic nutrients solution with secondary elements as well as trace elements (like the ones listed above) is needed.

For optimum growth, you can vary the different nutrient levels at different times, in different stages of growth. For instance, nitrogen is very much needed in the vegetative stage. Fair amounts of phosphorus as well as potassium (for example 20-10-10, 30-15-15) as well as trace elements would also be helpful. During flowering, the plants need more P (phosphorus) and more K (potassium) than they did during vegetative stage. They need some N (nitrogen) but not as much as they did during vegetative growth. They also need calcium.

Thinking that plants shall grow faster by giving them extra nutrients is a bad move. Too much will destroy your plants. If you under fertilize, plants will take longer to grow but they won't perish. Follow the mixing instructions on your hydroponic nutrient package, if you are not sure, use less instead of more.

Whatever you do, make sure of two things…first, that you have a lots of fun growing hydroponically and second, that you consult a professional for all of your hydroponic nutrients needs. Happy growing!