Hydroponic Nutrients

In a previous post I wrote about new nutrients I had purchased because I wanted to get away from the General Hydroponics Flora series. The primary reason I wanted to switch was due to a 25% price increase last summer due to "the price of fuel." Yeah, sure. My intention was to try dry nutrients thinking: why pay to ship water?

The dry nutrients I purchased on Ebay are no bargain. The pH is not stable and, they require a lot of pH down to make an adjustment. Additionally, the nutrients do not completely dissolve, and they must be mixed with very hot water, which means you have to mix them quite sometime before you can use them. I suspect the person selling them buys a large bag from a local grower, and repacks the nutrients in zip lock bags and sells them on Ebay.

Today I decided to try the nutrients I purchased from the commercial dealer in Florida. They come in two parts, a two pound bag of each part. Each bag is poured into a gallon jug and water added to fill the jug. The jugs are agitated until the powder is completely dissolved.

That gives you a gallon each of concentrate; part one and part two. Part one is 5-10-25 and part to is 15-0-0. The guaranteed analysis includes everything a plant could need. When using the nutrients the recommended amount is .5 to .75 oz. per gallon of water.

The ebb and flow system with chard needed changing so I decided to try the nutrients in that system. It holds seven gallons of water, so I filled it and added 3.5 oz. of concentrate. After mixing I checked the TDS and it was perfect for chard at 1370. Much to my surprise the pH was right on the money at 6.0.

To make it easier to use I filled two pint bottles with concentrate, and stored the gallon jugs in the cool dark basement. The best of both worlds, dry nutrients that become liquid concentrates, just like General Hydroponics, and at about a third of the cost.

And I am becoming far less concerned about the pH sliding. If you look at the charts, different nutrients become more available at different pH levels. Iron, manganese, boron and copper are more available at 4.5 and 5, and calcium, magnesium and molybdenum are more available at 7 and above. I am convinced a slight slide in either direction is more beneficial than harmful.

Below is a link to the site where I purchased the nutrients. The person I spoke with was Tim Carpenter, and they are nice folks to deal with.

http://www.vertigro.com/profile.php

Customer Service: (352) 347-9888
Toll Free Ordering: (800) 955-6757