Last updated on October 15th, 2022 at 05:26 pm
DIY Hydroponic Nutrients Guide
Table of Contents
So, you’ve looked everywhere and can’t find proper information on how to make Hydroponic fertilizer at home or Hydroponic Nutrients at Home or DIY Hydroponic Nutrients from appropriate raw Hydroponic fertilizers available in the market.
You must also be wondering if you can use normal fertilizer for hydroponics. I am going to share all this information in this post ahead
By learning how to make DIY Hydroponic nutrient solution yourself, you can save lots of money (almost 3-5 times) by avoiding purchasing ready-made hydroponic nutrients online or offline and make your own Hydroponic Nutrients at Home.
I will be sharing recipe of Hydroponic nutrient solution for fruiting vegetables that I use to grow various fruiting vegetables like Tomato, Bottle Gourd, Eggplant, Bell peppers, etc.
Materials Required to make DIY Hydroponic Nutrient Solution at Home
So, let’s get started……
To make Hydroponic Nutrient Solution, there are few things that you’ll need such as :-
(1) TDS meter for Hydroponics or EC meter for measuring concentration of salts
(2) pH meter for Hydroponics for measuring pH of nutrient solution
(3) Small weighing scale (like the ones used in jewellery stores) for weighing fertilizers
(4) Fertilizers ( I am going to mention those in a while)
(5) Phosphoric Acid or Nitric Acid (For pH down)
![diy hydroponic nutrients](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/hydroponic-nutrients-1.jpg)
DIY Hydroponic Nutrient Solution for Fruiting Vegetables
So, here I am trying to make 100 Ltrs. Hydroponic Nutrient Solution for my Bottle Gourd plants and the nutrient formula looks something like this –
N- 170 ppm
P-55 ppm
K- 342 ppm
Mg- 50 ppm
S- 170 ppm
Ca- 198 ppm
If you are new to chemical symbols then above mentioned symbols are for following nutrients, N-Nitrogen, P- Phosphorus, K- Potassium, Mg- Magnesium, S- Sulphur, Ca- Calcium
You must know now by the names that these are the Macro nutrients plants are fed in Hydroponics for optimum growth along with some micro nutrients such as Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Molybdenum, Nickel, Copper, Boron, Chlorine, etc.
![diy hydroponic nutrient solution at home from fertilizers](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/TDS-meter-for-hydroponics.jpg)
So now, I have 100 Ltrs of water in a container and you can see that with the help of TDS meter or EC meter, TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) of base water is around 80 ppm. Whenever you try to make hydroponic nutrient solution, make sure your base water TDS is below 150 ppm so that nutrition can be provided to plants in an effective manner
In my case, tap water at my place is around 600 ppm to I have to use Reverse Osmosis system to reduce it’s TDS
Fertilizers required to make DIY Hydroponic Nutrient Solution for Fruiting Vegetables
Below is Nutrient recipe for solution and in order to achieve mentioned above nutrient formula for 100 Ltrs. of nutrient solution I need following quantities of these fertilizers-
(1) Calcium Nitrate – 90 grams
(2) Magnesium Sulphate – 53 grams
(3) Mono Potassium Phosphate – 13 grams
(4) Mono Ammonium Phosphate – 10 grams
(4) Potassium Nitrate – 15 grams
(5) Potassium Sulphate – 62 grams
AND
(6) Micro-nutrient Chelated Mix EDTA – 800 mg
Please do note that micro-nutrient quantity is in milligrams whereas other fertilizers are in grams. Micro-nutrients are required in very minute quantities but have profound effect on growth of the plants. I have used Chelated micro nutrient mix here because it’s easy for a beginner to use combined micro nutrient mix rather than using Individual chelated micro nutrients or combination micro nutrients fertilizers
You can easily find these fertilizers online by clicking the names of fertilizers above or at Farmer seed/pesticide shops
DIY Hydroponic Solution making Process
![hydroponic stock solution at home](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/RO-water-hydroponics.jpg)
Now, take some water out from your main reservoir in a small container/jug and mix any one fertilizer first (preferable the one with least quantity required) and make sure it is completely dissolved before putting that water back in the reservoir or main container
![hydroponic fertilizers diy](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/hydroponic-nutrients-india.jpg)
![hydroponic nutrients online india](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/hydroponic-nutrients-online-india.jpg)
Likewise, again take some water from the reservoir and mix other fertilizers one by one making sure previous fertilizer is completely dissolved before moving on to another fertilizer
![make your own hydroponic nutrient solution at home](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/tds-of-nutrient-solution-1.jpg)
Once you have mixed all fertilizers, check the TDS of Hydroponic Nutrient Solution which in my case is around 1100 ppm. You can get TDS reading of anywhere between 1000-1300 ppm depending upon quality of fertilizers and TDS of water used to make nutrient solution
Also, we need to check pH of hydroponic nutrient solution as well. Preferred pH range of solution where plants can easily have access to nutrients is generally 5.5 to 6.5 and it should be made sure that pH always stays in that range. If pH is out of this range then plants are going to have hard time absorbing nutrients in right way which may lead to deficiency/toxicity
![hydroponic nutrient solution](https://smgardener.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/ph-of-nutrient-solution.jpg)
Here you can see that pH of solution is 5.4 which is slightly lower, you can raise the pH using regular tap water. Just add tap water in 500 ml increments to increase pH and reach your desired number. In my case, pH is not way off so I won’t be doing anything
Now, 100 Ltrs of Hydroponic Nutrient Solution is ready for my Bottle Gourd plants and you can also use the same hydroponic recipe / formula in other fruiting vegetables as well. It is not specific to each and every vegetable but it will give you fairly good results even if you want to grow bottle gourd or cucumber, Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Eggplants, etc.
Also, one thing to note here is that this nutrient solution is full strength nutrient solution which is meant for mature plants. If you wish to use it for seedlings or younger plants make sure you dilute it with plain water, adjust the pH and then feed to the plants
For e.g. Seedlings require nutrient solution TDS below 500 PPM so you need to dilute one part of full strength solution (1100 TDS) with two parts of plain RO water or any water with TDS around or below 150 ppm to get low TDS nutrient solution for seedlings.
The full strength hydroponic nutrient solution I mentioned above is 1x concentrated hydroponic nutrient solution. It is not hydroponic stock solution which is highly concentrated and is made to quickly make large batches of diluted nutrient solution
100 Litres is just an example and you can make less or more nutrient solution as per your requirement by keeping the ratios of fertilizers same
If you want to learn how to make hydroponic stock solution or hydroponic nutrient solution from scratch for multiple vegetables and be fully equipped with nutrient making knowledge, you can always enroll for our single session short online training and reach out to me at smgardener99@gmail.com OR WhatsApp me on +9172062-34611
Hydroponic Nutrient Short Online Training Information
Before, proceeding, if you want in depth knowledge on how to make nutrient solution for multiple plants and vegetables and also get multiple hydroponic nutrient solution recipe (s), you can try our short online training session which will help you in following –
(a) How to prepare Hydroponic Stock Solution for larger requirements
(b) How to increase or decrease any particular nutrient(s) as per plant requirement
(c) How to reduce costs of Hydroponic nutrients
(d) You will exactly know what you are feeding to your plants
(e) Prevent/Treat deficiencies at earliest with most effective methods
(f) Avoid huge pH fluctuations in Hydroponics, nutrient burn, EC/ TDS issues
You can also check out my Hindi YouTube channel (link below) for more information on Hydroponic Nutrients and how I grow plants hydroponically
FAQ
How do you make a DIY Hydroponic Nutrient Solution?
To make Hydroponic Nutrient Solution, you need
1. Hydroponic fertilizers that contain both macro and micro nutrients needed for plant growth, i.e. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Sulphur, Iron, Copper, Manganese, Molybdenum, Zinc, Silica, etc
Some water soluble fertilizers for this purpose are Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Sulphate, Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulphate, Mono Potassium Phosphate, Mono Ammonium Phosphate and Chelated Micro-nutrients mix
2. Small Weighing Scale like the one used in Jewellery Stores
3. pH meter
4. EC or TDS meter
5. pH down and pH up solution
Can I make my own Hydroponic Nutrient Solution?
Yes, absolutely! All you need is right hydroponic fertilizers that are water soluble and contain all macro and micro nutrients required for plant growth such as Calcium Nitrate, Magnesium Sulfate, Potassium Nitrate, Potassium Sulfate, Mono Ammonium Phosphate, Mono Potassium Phosphate and Chelated Micro nutrient mix. These hydroponic fertilizers contain all nutrients required for plant growth such as Nitrogen, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Sulphur, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Molybdenum, etc
How often do you change water in Hydroponics?
It depends on Climate, age of plants, number of plants in a system, etc. But usually water is changed when you have topped up enough times to make 100% of the original quantity of the solution. Usually, every 10-15 days nutrient solution is changed and replaced with fresh one
Can I use regular fertilizer for Hydroponics?
You can not use all readily available fertilizers in the market as they can be harmful for plants in Hydroponics. For instance, it is very important to know nitrogen source of a fertilizer as Urea or Ammonia sources of nitrogen are not preferred in Hydroponics as they can become toxic for plants
Is Tap water OK for Hydroponics?
It depends. If TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) reading of water is below 150 ppm OR EC reading is below 0.3 ΞS/cm then you can use it, otherwise you will have to use water from Reverse Osmosis System which has low TDS/EC
What pH should my hydroponic water/Hydroponic Nutrient Solution be?
Between 5.5 to 6.5
Should I pH my water before or after adding nutrients?
Always adjust pH after adding nutrients because nutrients alter the pH of water when added and if you adjust pH before adding nutrients then you won’t know what pH value you are going to end up with. Therefore, first add nutrients and then adjust pH of nutrient solution
Can We Use Normal Fertilizer For Hydroponics?
You should avoid Normal Fertilizers that provide Nitrogen from Urea/Ammoniacal Sources and prefer Nitrates as Nitrogen Source.
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