Nitrogen Fertilization in Hydroponics

linkedinrssyoutubeinstagram
image_pdfimage_print
It is a common mistake in hydroponic gardening to assume that the chemical forms of nitrogen that can be used in hydroponics are the same that can be used in regular soil gardening. Don’t get me wrong, plants in soil and plants in hydroponic media use the exact same chemical forms of nitrogen as nutrients, what changes dramatically from hydroponics to soil gardening is the environment in which the plant is.
Let us talk about the available forms of nitrogen first. Plants absorb nitrogen either as NO3(-) (nitrate) or NH4(+)(ammonium) ions. Both of these ions supply nitrogen to the plant but they have dramatic differences inside the plant’s metabolic pathways. Nitrate is absorbed by the plant slowly and provides the materials needed for the synthesis of amino acids and other structures while ammonia is absorbed rapidly and causes immediate plant toxicity if present in highly enough concentrations.

This is the main difference between soil and hydroponic gardening. In hydroponics, most of the nitrogen must be supplied as NO3(-) because the hydroponic media allows ammonium ions to become toxic exceedingly fast. For example, hydroponic plants can withstand concentrations of nitrogen (as nitrate) up to about 250 ppm while concentrations of nitrogen as ammonium are only withstood up until about 30 ppm. This is the reason why urea cannot be used as a nutrient salt in hydroponic gardening to supply all the nitrogen needed by the plants.

So if plants in soil and hydroponic media assimilate the same nutrients, why can plants in soil be fed nitrogen as ammonium but hydroponic plants cannot ? The answer is quiet simple. Bacteria present within the soil are able to efficiently convert ammonium ions into nitrate ions, effectively reducing the amount of ammonium the plant “sees”. In fact, plants in soil also absorb nitrate, the only difference is that there are bacteria that can convert ammonium to nitrate, reason why nitrogen can be supplied as ammonium to plants present in soil.

So next time you are searching for a nitrogen nutrient for your hydroponic plants, remember to search for nitrate salts as more than 90% of your total nitrogen source. The most important salts for providing nitrogen as nitrate in hydroponic gardening are potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate. This is important to remember, as using ammonium salts to provide your plant’s nitrogen will ultimately kill them in hydroponic media ! (below, an image showing the effects of ammonium fertilizer in hydroponic plants)

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedin

7 Comments

  • hydroponic
    February 2, 2010 @ 11:53 am

    Thanks for the post, we will post your "do it yourself hydroponics" article. I will post for our customers to see your articles on your blog do it yourself hydroponics

  • munabbir
    January 11, 2011 @ 3:38 pm

    thank you very much to respond. i like to introduce hydroponic vegetable culture in Bangladesh. so i want to every details about hydroponic preparation. can you help me?. it gonna make a real business opportunity here. good luck.

  • July 5, 2011 @ 2:34 pm

    hi,
    i am from India and new to Hydroponics and studied some on the net. I found your above article quite informative. I am 52 years of age having good business, now I wish to do some work for Human and presume Hydroponics is a good idea to impart with people for well being of human kind.

    I will appreciate if you can send me literature as much as u can so that I under stand the same and impart my knowledge to people

    regards

  • November 23, 2016 @ 8:34 am

    Hi,

    Where do I buy the different nutrients that I need for my hydroponic system. I don’t want the pre mixed once. I want to mix my way. Does one buy lets say the Nitrate Nitrogen in 100% concentrates?

  • May 14, 2019 @ 7:44 am

    Thanks a lot, got a lot of answers i was looking for

  • Arun Dixit
    December 30, 2020 @ 4:12 am

    Grate to read.
    Can we use ammonia/ urea and nitrifying bacteria instead of KNO3 and Ca (NO3)2

    • admin
      December 30, 2020 @ 11:00 am

      You can! However, the process of turning ammonia/urea into nitrates is slow, so the results will generally not be as good as those that can be achieved with pure nitrate sources. You also need to do it slowly, because ammonium is taken up too quickly by plants and can easily become toxic. Another possibility is to use protein sources instead, to avoid ammonium over-fertilization.

Leave a Reply to Pieter de Wet Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe Today!
Receive our FREE blog post updates and monthly newsletter
Thanks for signing up. You must confirm your email address before we can send you. Please check your email and follow the instructions.
We respect your privacy. Your information is safe and will never be shared.
Don't miss out. Subscribe today.
×
×
WordPress Popup Plugin