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"Hydroponic Fertilizers in Soil: A Growing Guide" · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to Hydroponics Daily. I'm Dr. Russell Sharp,
• 0:03
  your host, and this is your podcast for everything soilless cultivation.
• 0:08
  However, we're looking at soil today,
• 0:11
  specifically answering the question that often gets asked when we talk to customers
• 0:18
  about our hydroponic fertilizer, and that is,
• 0:21
  can you use hydroponic fertilizers when
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  you're growing plants in soil so specifically plants
• 0:29
  that are growing in the ground in your garden or on
• 0:32
  a farm but also plants that are growing
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  in containers plant pots where people have
• 0:37
  put soil or loam-based grow media so loam is another word for mineral soil as
• 0:45
  opposed to non-soil-based grow medias which we normally think of as being hydroponics
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  so can those hydroponic fertilizers be used in soil either in the ground or in pots.
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  So we're going to the potential pitfalls and potential benefits of using hydroponic
• 1:01
  fertilizers in that situation on today's episode.
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  So the short answer is yes, but the actual how we can get to that situation
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  has some nuances and it's not yes in every situation.
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  So a hydroponic fertilizer contains all the nutrients that the plant needs.
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  Now in hydroponics, most people use an A and a B fertilizer because they don't
• 1:23
  want the ingredients to react.
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  Whereas in gold leaf, as it's called in the US or liquid gold in the UK.
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  Our hydroponic fertilizer is a unique one-part fertilizer that contains all
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  the nutrients without them reacting.
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  Now that's very different to a garden fertilizer or a farm fertilizer,
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  which normally is just NPK plus
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  one or two micronutrients they don't need every single essential nutrient that's
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  why they are cheaper and that's why they're a one part normally so yeah if you
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  were to let's look at it this way it you couldn't use a garden fertilizer in
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  hydroponics because you'd get a nutrient deficiency.
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  But you and those fertilizers you don't get
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  nutrient deficiency when you're growing in soil because they're relying on
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  the soil to provide some of those macro and
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  micronutrients however if you apply a hydroponic fertiliser
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  into soil yes you can use it and you
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  are then not relying on the soil for any
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  of the nutrients so the plant might absorb nutrition from the soil that was
• 2:27
  already there and in addition to the nutrients you use so yes you can use a
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  hydroponic fertiliser you might not need to use a hydroponic fertilizer though
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  and it might be too expensive to do that but in certain situations you might
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  think that it's the best situation.
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  And i don't know if you can hear that that's the rain against the window it's
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  really coming down here we've got a storm in the uk at the moment so you
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  can use hydroponic fertilizer it's not always essential but
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  it's not going to do any harm specifically there
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  is nothing in a standard garden fertilizer that
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  makes it suitable for garden soil or
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  for farm soil it's just that it they're cheaper
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  because they don't require it there's nothing specific specific formula that
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  makes it stand out and works really well in synergy with the soil particles
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  and mineral nutrition two important important points to consider are that hydroponic
• 3:20
  fertilizers are designed to be applied every time the plant gets irrigated in a hydroponic system.
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  You don't do just water and then hydroponic nutrients once a week, for example.
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  Whereas in a garden or a farm, you may fertilise the soil once a week with a
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  fertiliser, once a fortnight, or even once a year in a farm-based system.
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  So the instructions on the hydroponic fertiliser will
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  not apply in that situation in all cases
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  so you may need to quadruple the
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  concentration you apply if you're only applying that hydroponic fertilizer
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  once a week so consider that
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  don't say this is one time where you
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  can actually apply more fertilizer than it states on the bottle hydroponic fertilizer
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  in for gold leaf or liquid gold as it's called in the uk we have full instructions
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  for soil applications so you just need to consult them don't guess when it comes
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  to that because always better to apply less than it is more when it comes to our fertilizers.
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  The other thing to consider is if you're looking to get that extra yield bump
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  from dechlorination, if you're applying once a week or once a fortnight,
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  you're not going to get that bump from dechlorination if you're,
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  irrigating or watering your plants with tap water in the time in between.
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  So you could use a dechlorinator. In the UK we recommend Dr Hydro dechlorinator
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  or if you're using liquid gold already, then we'll.
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  Email me next time that you order a bottle and we will provide you with a free
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  sample that will do more than enough water for those times in between you're using the liquid gold.
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  So liquid gold and gold leaf, it dechlorinates instantly and it's inbuilt technology.
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  So you don't need to worry about dechlorination.
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  If you're using a standard A and B, then you're not getting that dechloration technology anyway,
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  whether it's the time you're fertilizing or the
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  time you're just irrigating with water i always recommend dechlorination
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  because it is a significant yield bump you can get
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  from just applying a very very
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  few small drops to your to
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  your tank or your watering can or your spray or
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  anything like that so i definitely recommend it potential pitfalls
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  can also include overdosing if you're not careful if
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  you just if you apply hydroponics fertilizer every single time you
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  water you might get a build-up and you
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  might leach pollution into the waterways and
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  the water system and that's not cool so don't be
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  applying hydroponic fertilizers every time you water your
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  plants unless you really know what you're doing and it's a low level if
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  you're using a standard fertilizer that's not liquid gold
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  then you could disrupt soil ph as well
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  so the sweet spot ph 5.5 to
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  6.5 many soils are higher than
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  that or lower than that if you're using a hydroponic fertilizer then
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  that that won't correct the ph a standard
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  a and b fertilizer won't correct the ph gold leaf
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  or liquid gold as it's called in the uk that will correct the soil ph that's
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  really good and then the tap water as well you you you if you've got really
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  alkaline water then that might be an issue as well so there's certain situations
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  where using handioponic fertilizers make really good scents.
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  If you're using loam-based grow media in containers, hanging baskets,
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  things like this, seedlings, propagation trays.
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  Really high value, high density situations where you might be using soil or
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  loam-based fertilizers, loam-based grow medias, definitely I'd use a hydroponic
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  fertilizer there rather than a cheap and cheerful miracle grow phosphogen,
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  tomorite type products or plants that
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  have got a need for lots of calcium so if
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  you're growing tomatoes in the ground i wouldn't use tomorite because
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  it doesn't contain calcium and you could have issues such as
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  blossom end rot as a result so i would use
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  a hydroponic fertilizer and obviously i would use one of
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  ours so for that but you can use anyone else's
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  a and b fertilizer for growing tomatoes peppers tomatoes
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  even potatoes and there's anything that loves loves a lot of calcium you you
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  could get nutrient burn if apply too much remember hydroponic fertilizers always
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  contain a lot of potassium and especially the additives as well so you're doubling
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  up on additives as well if your soil has already got good levels of potassium
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  that's a potential issue.
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  And what else do we consider? We've talked about environmental considerations, talked about pH.
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  Well, what else could we think about? Maybe if you were growing on a green roof.
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  You had a living roof and you were seeing poor growth, you could use a hydroponic fertilizer.
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  So on a green roof or a living roof, there's not much soil there.
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  There's a small amount, it might be sand-based to allow quick drainage
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  so in that situation you might get
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  poor establishment and you really do want to have good
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  establishment so that the grow media binds together doesn't
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  get washed or blown away and so that would
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  be a really good situation where you could use a hydroponic fertilizer
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  so there's been a whistle stop tour
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  of whether you can use hydroponic fertilizers in soil it's
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  something we get asked a lot about and we
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  recommend yes you can obviously you don't want to be applying fertilizer every
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  time you irrigate so um
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  i would only apply once every week
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  or every fortnight and only during the growing growing season
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  don't apply fertilizer after september in
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  the uk and then all the way through to march really i
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  wouldn't bother applying any fertilizer it's only going to
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  cause it's going to waste money and it's going
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  to lead to nitrite accumulation things like this nasty
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  things like this so but during the growing season applying
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  hydroponium fertilizers is a really good idea and then in between the fertilizer
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  you might want to use a decolorinator as well when you're just watering your
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  plants just to get an extra yield bump and so you can use an a and a b just
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  be careful with ph correction and things like that in very alkaline or acidic
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  soils they won't correct those issues but something like liquid gold leaf wood.
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  So it's a very common issue we get asked a lot about.
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  In the US we often get asked to release our pH perfect and dechlorinate the
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  technology on its own without the nutrition because of this issue because so
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  many people do only fertilize their plants once a week when they're grown in soil.
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  It's something we looked at, it's something we may consider in the near future as well.
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  So if you're interested in that, a product that just corrects pH
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  and dechlorinates then let me know and
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  we can i can put that through to the people in charge of
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  actually delivering that in the us or north america
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  in general so that's been hydroponics daily for
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  today if you've got any questions let me
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  know speak to us at utreema you'll find
• 10:09
  any of the emails will come to me eventually if you want to spell utreema it's
• 10:13
  latin for wasabi and we're a british based company and we make unique specialist
• 10:19
  fertilizers and inputs so if you've got any questions about any of those products
• 10:23
  as well or anything about groany in general then get in contact thank you very
• 10:27
  much for listening until tomorrow goodbye.