Using calcium sulfate in hydroponics
Calcium is a very important element in plant nutrition and can be supplied to plants through a wide variety of different salts. However, only a handful of these resources are…
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Can you use regular soil fertilizers in hydroponics?
If you have just started your journey into hydroponics you’re probably wondering why you need to spend your money in hydroponic specific nutrients when there are so many cheaply available…
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Accurately preparing large quantities of concentrated hydroponic nutrients
When preparing concentrated solutions for hydroponics it is important to have a reproducible process that always generates the exact same results. If this is not done, you’ll obtain different nutrient…
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HydroBuddy has now been updated to v1.70: New features and modifications
My free and open source hydroponic nutrient calculator has been available since 2010, going through many iterations and changes through the years. The latest version as of May-24-2020 is now…
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How to prepare a low cost chelated micronutrient solution
Micronutrients constitute only a small portion of a plant’s nutritional requirements but are still vital to growth and development. They are mainly comprised of heavy metals (Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu,…
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Why TDS is NOT equal to Total Dissolved Solids in hydroponics
Electrical conductivity is a very commonly used measurement in hydroponics, yet a very poorly understood one. I have written several posts about conductivity in the past (1,2,3) and today I…
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Understanding the carbonic acid/bicarbonate buffer in hydroponics
I have written several articles before about pH and it’s importance in hydroponic culture (1, 2, 3, 4). However I have yet to write a detailed explanation of one of…
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Hydroponics nutrients and microgreens
One of the most important goals in microgreens is to maximize the amount of weight gained by shoots from seed to harvest. Since the entire upper body of the plant…
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A guide to different pH down options in hydroponics
The control of pH in hydroponic nutrient solutions is important. Plants will tend to increase the pH of solutions in most cases – as nitrate uptake tends to dominate over…
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Nutrient solution conductivity estimates in Hydrobuddy
People who use Hydrobuddy can be confused by its conductivity estimates, especially because its values can often mismatch the readings of conductivity meters in real life. This confusion can stem…
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