Hydroponics nutrients are a type of plant food used for feeding plants grown without soil in a technique known as hydroponic gardening. Hydroponic growing nutrients are available in synthetic as well as organic nutrients, and come in a wide range of formulas so that there are many options of food available to enhance certain desirable plant traits. Hydroponic nutrients are typically used as a hydroponic nutrient solution, which is a mixture of the plant food with water, and delivered in a variety of ways to the roots or foliage of the plant. There is some initial information that, once gleaned, will help you to purchase the right hydroponic growing nutrients for your plants.
Plants, including those that are grown hydroponically, rely on several macro- and micro-nutrients for their supply of nutrition. Macro-nutrients include nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are listed on nutrient labels by their chemical initials of N, P and K respectively, as well as calcium, magnesium and sulfur, which are used in lesser quantities by the plants. These are the major nutrients that a plant uses for growth and development. Micro-nutrients are no less important to a plant's health, but are used in much smaller quantities than macro-nutrients by the plant. Micro-nutrients include boron, copper, iron, chloride, manganese, molybdenum and zinc.
All plants need all of these nutrients, but you can get different growth and development results with different proportions of certain chemicals when compared to other chemicals in the hydroponics nutrients' blend. For inducing a plant to produce more foliage, for example, you would want hydroponic nutrients with a higher percentage of nitrogen to phosphorus or potassium, because nitrogen is used by the plant to grow foliage or leaves. This would be important if you were growing a plant where the leaves were the prominent feature, such as lettuce. Younger plants, called seedlings, also benefit from this type of hydroponic nutrient solution because they need to grow stems and foliage before they mature enough to produce any flowers or fruit. If you have a mature plant that you want to grow lots of flowers, you will need hydroponic nutrients that feature a higher percentage of phosphorus as compared to nitrogen or potassium, which will also improve the plant's root growth. If you want plants that are resistant to diseases and have excellent quality of fruit, then a hydroponic nutrient solution with a higher percentage of potassium to nitrogen or phosphorus will be in order.
You can choose to use synthetic or organic nutrients. Both are chemicals, but while organic nutrients come from plant or animal sources, synthetic nutrients are manmade. There are a huge variety of hydroponic nutrients available with different nutrient blends so that you can find the plant food most suitable for the plants you wish to grow.
Author Resource:
Collin Roydon has been working in the field of Hydroponics and indoor gardening over 10 years. In this article he writes about Hydroponic Nutrients and Organic Nutrients .
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