The hydroponic plant can take mineral salts in at a lot faster rate than soil grown plants because of the solubility of the materials used. Think of a plant's root zone cell wall as a tennis racket, and a fertilizer grade material is as a bit like trying to get a tennis ball through the tennis racket; technical grade mineral salts are in effect like a marble which easily passes through the tennis racket.

You may have plants that will do well initially in a hydroponic situation by using a fertilizer grade material but the time will come when they will exhibit minor mineral deficiencies, eventually leading to major problems until even changing to a specific hydroponic nutrient will not save your crop. You have, (as they), been warned!

The other concern for the grower is to do with nutrient strength or concentration. If your nutrient is too strong or too weak it will ultimately lead to deficiencies or toxicity and cause the eventual death of your plants. For an example, if your nutrient is too strong it puts too much pressure on the cell wall of the root zone thus inhibiting the ability of the plant to take up, lets say calcium, (and remember, this is only one element I'm talking about), and this will show up in the plant as a deficiency. It's like trying to get 6 front row forwards through a door at the same time... it won't happen!

On the other hand, if the nutrient is too weak the same deficiency will show up due to insufficient calcium... and just think if this happened to all 24 elements! I often think of the old adage when explaining hydroponic principles, and that is 'killing them with kindness'. It is not necessary to throw huge amounts of salts, hormones and vitamins at the plant to achieve a truly excellent result. If you are using a recognized full spectrum nutrient and you follow the directions on the pack you will have a successful growing experience. For the first time grower I would suggest that you follow the game plan and dose your tank as per instructions on the nutrient pack. Once a week feed and top off with water daily, dump tank weekly and repeat the routine. For the more experienced grower who has invested in digital testing equipment, dose the tank daily to the max level recommended, letting the plant take in all the nutrients until the C.F (nutrient strength) levels falls back to the recommended minimal levels before re-dosing the tank.

In indoor plant growth as discussed on previous pages, you are mother nature, so don't over feed your plants. There is a very defined area within which you can operate, it has its lower level as well as its upper level, and if you add too much of one element it will show up as a toxicity problem. However, if you take the attitude of some extremists in our industry, and starve the plant, then feed the plant again, it will suffer undue stress and not be able to reach its full potential. My advice is to treat your crop like you treat your kids, your pet's or even yourself, when it comes to nutrition: a balanced diet of a wide variety of foods is always best. If you treat them badly and try to reinvent the wheel and make your own 'concoction', then you are headed for disaster as hydroponic grower.

Nutrient (plant food) plays an important role in the overall health and well being of the plant, but it's only about 5% of the equation. If you really want to get down to the nuts and bolts of the growing experience I would suggest you concentrate on the air quality, ambient temperature and humidity, which plays much more of a role in determining whether you get a good result or a great result.

The nutrient solution structure and strength governs health, height, leaf and flower production and has a bearing on all aspects of the plants growth. Granted it has a small part to play in the overall development of the plant compared to light, but an important one none the less. As a general guideline for leaf development, run CF levels between 10 to 16 and for flowering a CF of 22 to 28 is desirable.