NPK, what does it stand for? There are always these three numbers displayed on the pack, NPK, which stand for Nitrogen, Potassium & Phosphorous and the three numbers displayed indicate the percentage of these minerals contained in the fertiliser. This should be clearly displayed on any fertiliser you buy. These three micro nutrients are essential and without these your plants will be unable to thrive.
Nitrogen is the green-up nutrient. It makes your plants grow big and strong. Nitrogen is listed first because it the most important nutrient for your solution.
Phosphorous is essential for blooming. It helps with all reproductive phases of your plant, so this is an important nutrient during flowering stages.
Potassium plays an essential role in plant photosynthesis as well as CO2 uptake and activation of plant enzymes and regulating water uptake. It will build healthy stems as well as producing viable seeds.
Since they list NP & K on the front of your bottle of nutrient solution, you may think this is all that your plants need. You would be wrong.There are several micronutrients which play pivotal roles in the production of plants, which are just in smaller quantities. Most complete and balanced fertiliser solutions will always contain other micro nutrients and other elements in the solution for complete and total plant growth. You may notice that the three numbers displayed on the fertiliser do not add up to a hundred percent, these are the percentages of your solution. If it is a liquid fertiliser the carrier would be water, and essential microelements also make up a portion of the solution.
Typical Analysis:
Do check out all the Ingredients in the fertiliser, to be sure you are getting what you need for your particular grow. They may contain Nitrogen 9%, {2.9% Ammoniacal Nitrogen, 6.1% Nitrate Nitrogen} Phosphate [P205] 3.0%, Soluble Potash [K20] 6.0%, Calcium [CA] 2.0%. Magnesium [Mg] 0.5% {0.5% Water Soluble Magnesium [Mg]}, Cobalt [Co] 0.0005%, Copper [Cu] 0.05% {0.05% Chelated Copper [Cu]}, Iron ]Fe] 0.1% {0.1% Chelated Iron [Fe]}, Manganese [Mn} 0.05% {0.05% Chelated Manganese [Mn]}, Molybdenum [Mo] 0.0009%, Zinc [Zn] 0.05% {0.05% Chelated Zinc [Zn]}. These are derived from ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate, mono-ammonium phosphate, mono-potassium phosphate, cobaltous sulphate, magnesium sulphate, molybdic oxide, copper, iron, manganese and zinc Disodium Ethylenedinamine Tetra Acetate(EDTA) These products are chemically derived.
If you are looking for an organic option, these too are available, but there are some trade-off going organic with a Hydroponic set-up. You will need a very strong microbial community in your nutrient solution. The microbes are what drives organic growth, they recycle the nutrients and make them available in a format plants can use, in a synthetic solution they are already in that format. So, if you don’t have a strong microbial community an organic grow won’t work. A drawback is that it takes time to culture microbial community, so if you go organic it is recommended to let your reservoir set-up, culture and begin to cycle those nutrients so by the time you add plants nutrients are available. If it has not had time to culture and cycle nutrients, there will be nothing available to the plants. A drawback of organics and hydroponics is that some solutions smell and anaerobic microbes can produce horrible smells.
Comments