Hydroponic cultivation of crops allows more efficient water and fertilizer use, better climatic setup, as well pest control. Hydroponics means growing plants without soil and using different hydroponics mediums. Hydroponics allows you to perfectly deliver nutrients and optimize plant growth. Hydroponics increases crop quality and quantity which is highly regarded for investment and production.
Plant nutrients and their feeding schedule is the most important factor. Simply follow the direction in the nutrient chart of the respective brands for better results.
The proportion of nutrients will changes depending on factors:
- Plant type
- Plant growth stage
- Part of plant like leaf, fruit, root
- climatic reasons like season, weather, light,temperature.
- Some plant types and their nutrients
Even if you decide to use one of the standard nutrient solutions, make sure to use the nutrient concentration as a guideline, and not the fertilizer recipe that corresponds to them. The initial composition of the raw water that you use will affect the actual nutrients that have to be added with fertilizers.
| Crop | Nitrogen | phosphorus | Potassium | Calcium | Magnesium |
| Tomato | 190 | 40 | 310 | 150 | 45 |
| Cucumber | 200 | 40 | 280 | 140 | 40 |
| Pepper | 190 | 45 | 285 | 130 | 40 |
| Strawberry | 50 | 25 | 150 | 65 | 20 |
| Melon | 200 | 45 | 285 | 115 | 30 |
| Roses | 170 | 45 | 285 | 120 | 40 |
- Plant and their different stages
Plants have different stages like initial stage, growth stage, flowering phase. A detailed description about that can be read on the feeding schedule.
- Factors considering when choosing nutrients
Macro and microorganism are both essential for plant growth. The nutrients are namely, Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur, Iron, Manganese, Copper, Zinc, Molybdenum, Boron, Chlorine. For hydroponics systems, the three main fertigation combinations are N-P-K mix, Calcium nitrate, Epsom salt (magnesium sulphate).
- Importance of temperature and water quality in hydroponics
All plants need to maintain environmental conditions like weather, season and temperature. Hydroponic water temperature is critical among. The ideal water temperature is between 18 to 26 degree celsius. When you mix the nutrient to water, the temperature should be steady. In winter, you can use a heater so your nutrient solution is warm, keeping off water from getting too hot.
- The pH of the hydroponic nutrient solution
In nutrient solution between 5.8 to 6.3 (lower pH levels), micronutrients are more available but when ph level drop below 5.5, micronutrient toxicity level increase. Roots are affected by dropping level pH. Every nutrient is absorbed by the plant at greater or lesser rate depending on the pH level of the nutrient solution.
- Hydroponic nutrient chart, formula for growing plants
(EC) Electro conductivity can be expressed as millisiemens (mS). The higher the concentration of salt, higher the electrical conductivity.