Latest / Hydroponics Daily / Feeding Charts: Simplifying Nutrient Management

Transcript

Feeding Charts: Simplifying Nutrient Management · Hydroponics Daily

• 0:00
  Hi, welcome back to Hydroponics Daily. Today's topic is feeding charts.
• 0:04
  Now you'll get a feeding chart or one will be available with every fertilizer
• 0:07
  you purchase and it tells you what to do at every different growth stage of your crop.
• 0:12
  So for most hydroponic crops, you'll see the growth stage, maybe it'll give
• 0:19
  you advice on the temperature, the humidity and the lighting levels and then
• 0:23
  tell you how much of the product to add at each of those time points.
• 0:26
  Now for gold leaf or as we
• 0:29
  call it in the uk liquid gold we've got
• 0:32
  very simple feeding charts because there's only one product required
• 0:35
  from seed all the way through to harvest and so
• 0:38
  we have just the one product and the dose rates there
• 0:41
  however for many fertilizer brands they
• 0:45
  love to increase their range and produce 12 different
• 0:48
  products all have to be added at different times and add different
• 0:52
  nutrients at different points and so it gets very complicated very
• 0:55
  quickly and you'll see some very complex feed charts
• 0:58
  some of the earlier early fertilizer companies like
• 1:01
  advanced nutrients made their name by having a
• 1:04
  very easy to understand feed chart you know
• 1:07
  big mike at advanced nutrients makes a lot about
• 1:10
  the fact that he produced the very first simplified feed chart
• 1:13
  and there's other companies out there like dutch pro who claim
• 1:16
  to have very simple feed charts atami and things like that but
• 1:19
  they've got a lot of products in their range that they have to put onto those feed charts
• 1:22
  no one's got a feed chart as simple as that and you
• 1:26
  need to pay attention to the feed chart because you do not want
• 1:29
  to overdose on fertilizers certainly not something like gold.
• 1:32
  Leaf or liquid gold where what's in the product
• 1:35
  is is what's in the product if you apply and what
• 1:38
  the dose rate is is what the dose rate is if you
• 1:41
  apply too much it's worse than applying not enough so
• 1:44
  definitely you do not want to overdose on nutrients if you
• 1:48
  do then you have to flush out the system with fresh water so
• 1:51
  do not overdose check compatibility of your mixing ranges so just speak to a
• 1:56
  representative of the company or a grow shop it's a good reason to go into a
• 2:01
  grow shop or phone a grow shop some additives won't be compatible people ask
• 2:06
  us can we add ph up and down to this product it's not required people ask us if we can add silicon.
• 2:12
  You can. Can we add seaweed? Yeah. You can add microbes, all these sorts of
• 2:17
  things. Check the compatibility.
• 2:18
  There's a very few things. CalMag is another often one we get asked. Yes, you can add CalMag.
• 2:22
  CalMag is a great additive regardless.
• 2:25
  But there'll be other things that are not compatible with some fertilizers.
• 2:29
  And don't double up on an additive. That's very important.
• 2:33
  Don't be adding a PK, a phosphorus and potassium
• 2:36
  product from one company and
• 2:39
  then add another one from another company and that's very easy
• 2:42
  to do because often they don't say they're just
• 2:45
  a basic pk product there's a lot of mono
• 2:48
  potassium and di potassium phosphate out there
• 2:51
  sold as you know pk bud boost and things
• 2:54
  like this and and crazy names and you
• 2:57
  look on the packet and it's just monopotassium phosphate you
• 3:00
  might buy another one of monopotassium phosphate and then you suddenly realize
• 3:03
  you've added so much potassium and phosphorus that you've
• 3:06
  got calcium lock up that's bad because calcium
• 3:09
  is very important for crop quality and plant strength
• 3:12
  so don't double up on on additives
• 3:15
  always check the nutrients on the back the nutrients
• 3:19
  should always be listed on the back here in
• 3:22
  the uk for liquid gold we have them under the uk system
• 3:25
  and spelling and and declaration of how they have to be declared and the same
• 3:29
  in the us there how they have to be registered and declared is us standard there
• 3:34
  so make sure you're not doubling up and you're using the right materials so
• 3:39
  feed charts very important and if you haven't got one for your hydroponic feed.
• 3:43
  Most companies will send you one free of charge some will be very easy to interpret
• 3:48
  and some will be will be quite complex and hard to understand thank you very
• 3:53
  much until tomorrow that's been hydroponics daily.