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Has anyone here tried mixing their own nutrient solution?
We've been growing hydroponic vegetables for a few months and will be expanding out garden shortly. I'm looking for alternative hydroponic fertilizers. More than half of our hydro plants will be growing in stackers we purchased from a company called Hydrostacker ([HYPERLINK@www.hydrostacker.com]). That will be about half of our settup. The other part will be miscellaneous buckets and styrofoam coolers that we are hooking up to an automatic system. The Hydrostaker company supplied us with their own fertilizer - their "secret sauce." They claim that it is good for growing everything hydroponically.
I went to Worm's Way, the nearest hydroponics supply store, last weekend and looked at what fertlizers they had. It was really overwhelming to see the large selection there. One thing I noticed was that many companies have different kinds of fertilizers according to what one may be growing - some special for tomatoes, others for the growing and blooming cycles, etc. Since then, I've been reading up on this - checked out some books from the library. "Hydroponics Home Food Gardens" by Howard Resh, Ph.D says,
"While many prepared plant foods are available in hydroponic or garden centers, and even in supermarkets, it is cheaper, more versatile and more challenging to make up your own formulations. Most of the compounds needed to supply all the essential elements in your hydroponic fertilizer mix can be purchased from garden centers or directly from fertilizer companies. Some of the micronutrient salts such as boric acid (H3BO3) can be obtained from pharmacies."
He provides a number of nutrient formulations and how to mix/dissolve them.
We would like to be able to supply ourselves with as much organic produce as possible without spending a fortune on the nutrient solution.
The picture is of one of the stackers we planted last October.
Click the image for an enlarged view.
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