The Essential Hydroponic Nutrients
Michalis 'BIG Mike' Kotzakolios


Defined Tag: Hydroponic Nutrients.

While not all plants require the exact same growing conditions (as evidenced by different plant yields in different parts of the country and the world), all plants do require a fairly similar and uniform combination of nutrients. Most of the time, plants will find this combination of nutrients in the soil; however, in the case of hydroponics, the grower must add the hydroponic nutrients into the solution or into a feeder system.

So what type of hydroponic nutrients should you add to your solution? While there a number of different mixtures on the market, each nutrient solution, without exception, should contain the following: calcium, magnesium, potassium, sulfate, phosphate, and nitrate. If your solution does not contain a robust amount of each of the aforementioned nutrients, your plants may stuffer stunted growth, as each is a crucial ingredient.

Each of the nutrients will come in ionic form—in either the form of cations or anions. Rather than extracting these nutrients from the soil, as a plant normally would, your plant will extract these hydroponic nutrients directly from the solution in the form of ions.

In addition to the big six nutrients, most solution recipes will come with other important nutrients, which may be plant-specific. Some essential micronutrients, such as copper, zinc, boron, and manganese are also added into many solutions; and will often yield healthier, plants that are more nutrient rich at harvest.

One thing you will want to consider when you purchase hydroponic nutrients is whether or not your plant will consume an inordinate amount of one specific nutrient. Is actually is the case with most plants, which means you may want to find plant-specific hydroponic nutrients—or at least a solution that provides the best nutrient mix for your plant, whether they are tomatoes or tulips.

BIG Mike is a well known author, developer and Adsense expert as well as the owner of Niche Maniacs - a unique Adsense Marketing System designed to build long-term passive income streams from Adsense, Amazon, YPN, Chitika and other PPC services.