The Perfect Hydroponic Nutrient Formula

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Making a hydroponic nutrient formula correctly can be a fiddly business. Just as using the correct quantity of fertilizer for ordinary gardening can be hard to get right. You risk having weak, malnourished looking plants by using not enough fertilizer; on the flip side you kill off your budding plants by overusing fertilizer.

Combining fertilizers in the right ratio is the key to figuring out the right hydroponic nutrient formula. Hydroponics kits include fertilizers, it can be a bit confusing when it comes to combining them together.

Getting The Right Concentration

To mke sure that your plants grow and stay healty, it is very important to combine the fertilizers that you have to the correct concentration. The fertilizers sold for use in a hydroponic system are concentrated, you will have to dilute and mix them correctly.

Begining with a concentration of 150 to 600 parts per million is a good idea. Usually though this concentration can be made even more specific, for most plants you can adopt a hydroponic nutrient formula of about 300 to 400 parts per million.

Stages of Growth

Plants go through various phases of growth and development, so it makes sense that plants need different nutrients during these different phases. There are different nutrients available that are specifically targetted toward the different phasess of the plants life cycle.

During the vegetative growth phase of a plant’s life there are numerous formulas out there that are typically named ‘grow’ formula. These are often also known as ‘Growth’ formula, which you may have come across in garden centers. When your plants start to flower you need to change to a different hydroponic nutrient formula. You should look for formulae targetted with ‘Flower’ or ‘Bloom’.

The strenth or concentration, of the hydroponic nutrient formula, you use will depend on the plant’s health and stage of growth. If you have a weak plant that is being grown in low level lighting then you should use a weak hydroponic nutrient formula, not a strong one. A strong formula should be used for healthy thriving plants, even if common sense would tell you to do the opposite.

If your plants are thriving and you would like to increase the strength of the formula, you need to do this very gradually. Too quick and you risk killing your plants. On a final note, you should ensure that your plants are placed in a well ventilated environment with suffcient levels of lighting to ensure healthy and effective growth.

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