Nutrients, nutrients everywhere

RE: Nutrients, nutrients everywhere

D_Hersey — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 10:08:25 GMT

While I am opining, let me state that for the PK components, I recommend monobasic potassium phosphate. Far more soluble than other phosphates. Use forethought as to how you dispose of the used nutrient solution. Pouring it down the sink can cause blooms in the sewer. Better on the lawn, or maybe a tree.

My plums are about ripe, just sayin'.

RE: Nutrients, nutrients everywhere

D_Hersey — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:27:19 GMT

Most won't touch it because it is salty and it smells but I won't do without fish emulsion, because it is efficacious and cheap and I use systems that rinse well. If I were to use chemical fertilizer I would use bulk NPK mixed with micronutrient salts inclucing Mo. Mo is the only element in the micronutrient salt mix that is any expensive, therefore, usually, if it has molybdenum, you got the good stuff. All as un-relabelled commodity chemicals.

The magic of nutrient uptake in green plants is due to complex mechanisms within the plant and between mycorrhizal allies and the roots. A free ion is just that to this system, the plant doesn't know/care where it came from. This system is tolerant and self-adjusting.

Aerating the soln is important. Good for the plant, bad for its enemies.

RE: Nutrients, nutrients everywhere

D_Hersey — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 09:16:04 GMT

I don't use any of that crap. The reason I don't is because I am far too cheap to allow myself to be ripped off by the fertilizer racket. I have a panoply of valid ancillary (buffering, for one) reasons, however.

Peristaltic pumps require the user to move the pump down the tube occasionally as the tube looses its tendency to recover after awhile. I find this unacceptable from an engineering standpoint. Most other pump types cannot tolerate undissolved solids, this is unacceptable from a botany standpoint.

I am not growing anything currently except out in the garden, there mostly wildflowers these days, I'm lazy. If I were to try to use higher tech to grow green stuff, I would periodically lift a pot of aerated soln into my plants, which would be growing in mesh baskets upon clay pellets. This system practically cannot clog. With it, I can use compost tea as my nutrient. I haven't done formal studies myself, but am convinced to a point of near existential certainty that compost tea is better for plants than mineral salts. So much so that the analogy I commonly draw is between eating food versus eating food supplements solely.

Plus, it costs a little better than free, as one ought to be composting anyway.

Any system you use must be cyclically run with clear water. This suppresses microbial growth. It also is an anodyne for calcium build-up.