by James
How much nutrient solution
1:29 pm in Uncategorized by James
Hi everyone,
We’ve just started our seedlings in a V3.0 MAMA bottle setup, and we’ve got 12 tiny plants growing. Four buttercrunch, four black seeded simpson lettuce, two basil, and two swiss chard.
We’re using the 3-2-4 pure blend vegetative formula that came with the kit, and we’ve been feeding the plants twice a week.
My question is: how much nutrient solution should I be feeding these plants? The online instructions say: Phase 1- First ten days after plants develop roots) 1 teaspoon per gallon 3-20-20 (+ pinch=0.1 teaspoon epsom)= 1/2 teaspoon per bottle twice a week for 6 weeks= 4.75 teaspoons.
Does that mean 1 teaspoon of 3-2-4 formula per column, twice a week? And is 3-20-20 the same as the 3-2-4 that came in the kit?
Thank you!
James and Nicole
The bottle of nutrient solution should have a chart on the back that gives the ratios of solution to water. The water amount is given in gallons. If you divide the solution amount by the number of quarts or even ounces, you can determine the amount of solution per quantity of water running in each column. I just started some seedlings today and this is how I am calculating nutrient addition. Good Luck!
I’m not that familiar with the exact set up you have, but you should be mixing your water, nutrients, & PH adjuster outside of the system. Every day or two you should check the PH of the water in the system, and make sure it’s still in range for your plants. And every week or two, or 10 days (you’ll work out a schedule for yourself) change the water out for a new mix.
Don’t add new nutes to old water. Plants will use up some chemicals, and not others. This will lead to very high levels of what ever the plant doesn’t need.
Great tips, thanks Owen!
As Owen said, mix the solution in a container outside the farm. Empty the system and add the new solution. Follow the instructions exactly on the label. Too much or too little can be harmful to the plants either way.
I use an A&B mixture from my local shop. You have to mix them into the solution separately to avoid a reaction and it requires very little nutrient solution total (basically 200ml per 5L of water).
Hi ! A funny thing is that I also have Buttercrunch and black-seeded lettuce, plus basil and swiss chard in my assortment. I didn’t buy a kit, though, as they are not available in Canada. I feed my plants from worm compost tea twice and seaweed natural fertilizer the third time. My plants seem to grow just fine with this. Bu I don’t know what I’ll need to give them during the flowering stage.
Thank you everyone for the quick feedback!
@Ruth I was trying to decipher the online windowfarm instructions, when I should have simply looked on the back of the nutrient bottle! I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that, but thanks for the tip.
@Owen & Hardware: I read somewhere that the plants should be fed about twice a week. Does this mean you guys empty your entire system every three days? Or do you only feed your plants once a week?
@Louise that’s a funny coincidence. We live in Vancouver, but we ordered our kit and had it shipped to Washington state. We brought it across the border around New Year’s. Did you buy genovese basil, rosemary, and romaine lettuce too? Those are the other seeds that come in the kit
With hydroponics you are continuously feeding them, until the plants have eaten all the stuff out of your water.
The timing all depends on the size of your nute tank, and the size of your plants. If you had 150gal tank you’d only have to change it once a year, if that. The best way to tell how long they are lasting is with a PPM meter, but you can just look for signs in the plants. With a gal per column you could probably get away with a change every two weeks, until the plants get really big.
If you see any signs of nutrient deficiencies you should start changing it more frequently.
I replaced my nutrient solution every 7 days on my old V1 farm – mostly because half of the nutrient solution was absorbed or evaporated by then.