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nutrients DWC Nutrients...

J

JustinNC

Ok so I've gotten everything set up to build my DWC unit out of a rubbermaid 20 gallon storeage container. Seems I got out relatively cheap, but then I got to looking at nutrients.

What do you guys use? I skimped and scrounged around and found everything but the rockwool, hydroton and net pots, laying around here or my parents house. Now I see most nutrients run you $25+ a quart, and a lot recommend 3 different kinds at a 1:1:1 at that price:crazy:...

What do you guys use?
 
I used GH Maxigro and Maxibloom for years and its cheap and easy. I now prefer nutes from hydro garden. They work better than the Maxis and cost less.
 
I use Tomato-tone, a granular fert I dissolve in water. It worked great on my GH toms. $6 for 4 lbs. but a tablespoon is plenty per five gallons of water.

Mike
 
Ill try it...see what happens. May use some of my more 'disposable' plants as guinea pigs before putting my superhots in it.
 
The Botanicare Pure Blend Pro is affordable as well. It is about $16 per quart and lasts quite a while. You start off with about 1 1/2 tsp per gallon for the seedlings, moving up bit by bit to about 1 tbsp per gallon. I have 4 5gal DWC's and that quart has lasted about 2 months so far and still have about a third of it left. Only problem with it is it drops the ph of the water quite a bit. It drops my water from about 7 down to about 4.4 at 1 tbsp/gal. Just make sure you have a ph test kit at a minimum if you don't have a ph meter.

Good luck!
jacob
 
treemanjohn said:
General hydroponics maxigro is available in every hydro store in the world. Its also online. Www.hydro-gardens.com supplies commercial hydro greenhouses and their stuff is great and cheap, about $2 per lb
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What size do you normally buy, and how much did you get charged for shipping? Their site is a little loose on the S&H.
 
DP, I buy nutes in 25 lb bags, but you can buy it in 5 lb's if you want to. 5 lbs will last most hobby growers for a year. Just call for a shipping charge. They're good folks
 
Growing in hydro I use General Hydroponics Flora Nova one part plant food. This stuff is super concentratesd and uses only one teaspoonful per gallon. I buy the 1 quart and that last me for years or you can buy the pint size, the bloom formula is 4-8-7. Don't use tomato-tone in a hydroponics system, get a fertilizer that is specific to hydro.
 
Ok so I called Hydro Gardens about a 5lb box. Hey, I am only running 3 maxwell house coffee tubs and a future 5 gallon bucket, so I didn't really need to start with 25lbs. Well shipping comes out to $2 per lb. Not the best but certainly $33.95 for 5lbs is better than $15.99 per 1.2lbs at the hydro store in Jacksonville.

http://www.hydro-gardens.com/41838.htm
 
I use GH 3 part (micro, bloom, grow) nutes and have been having great results so far. Here is a link to my log of sorts. As of this coming Monday it will be week 7 i believe and I provide pics for each week. Hydro Log
 
Nitrogen from urea should not be used in hydro. Check your soil ferts first.

Maxi grow/ bloom isn't available here. Nor is dry hydro ferts in small quantities.

I used GHE Flora Grow, Bloom Micro last year and this year trialling Flora mato liquid and Flora micro combo. Currently succeeded in getting massive plants so have adjusted the mix slightly for more fruit set. Flora mato cost me about £8 for the bottle and its nearly gone after a month - 10 plants.

Somebody on another forum is currently testing homebrew nutrients and has so far replicated a close match to the bloom nutrient and mato. These can be made for pence rather than Pounds (£). Grow is a little more difficult to replicate so he is still working on that. Micro is extremely hard so this one will still need to be purchased.

Chris
 
Pepper Ridge Farm said:
Growing in hydro I use General Hydroponics Flora Nova one part plant food. This stuff is super concentratesd and uses only one teaspoonful per gallon. I buy the 1 quart and that last me for years or you can buy the pint size, the bloom formula is 4-8-7. Don't use tomato-tone in a hydroponics system, get a fertilizer that is specific to hydro.
Click to expand...
I use the same thing. Despite the cost this stuff lasts a long time depending on the type of system you run. And ditto that, if you are growing hydro use a hydro nute. GH works awesome, the higher priced nutes are specialized for "other" crops.
 
What do you guys use? I skimped and scrounged around and found everything but the rockwool, hydroton and net pots, laying around here or my parents house. Now I see most nutrients run you $25+ a quart, and a lot recommend 3 different kinds at a 1:1:1 at that price:crazy:...
Click to expand...

I'm with you on the crazy pricing, I too am at the stage of firing up my homemade DWC, I found rockwool for $11.95 on sale from $19.95, (this is how cheap I am) I made containers from small yogurt cups that my wife buys, I used a knife to cut out the webbing look and am going to use the small cups that fruit cups come in to cover the containers. I have a couple old pumps and a few air stones lying around. My only issue now is nutrients and I think I am going to try using a crystal brand fertilizer(10-52-10) to start, I may add a cup of seaweed liquid I make here, once the plants start growing I'll switch to a crystal 20-20-20 or tomato fertizer. Now if I can just get my seeds to baggie germinate.

(maybe I can find some nutrients on clearance price somewhere).
 
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