Customized Soil Nutrients

[khazoth]

Hello everyone, I am new to growing, and I have decided to take a soil-and-hydroponics-side-by-side approach to it. I have posted about my hydroponic set up in the hydro forum, but I have a question about soil nutrients here.

I have obtained the entire fox-farms nutrient family, including the water-soluble nutrient trio (Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, Cha Ching) and will be following the fox farms schedule on several of my plants with relatively few tweaks.

However, I have a desire to experiment with many different options and compare them side by side in one grow with several plants. A local orchid greenhouse uses a specialized 13-3-15 N-P-K fertilizer with additional 8% calcium and 2% magnesium. The fertilizer also contains small amounts of many micronutrients [ iron(Fe) manganese(Mn) zinc(Zn) copper(Cu) boron(B) molybdenum(Mo) ].

Obviously this fertilizer is relatively orchid specific.

I am no professional, but I believe that I am correct in thinking that phosphate is necessary for good 'fruits'.

I may be mistaken, but by researching the fox-farms nutrients and several other solutions, I have come to the conclusion that potash is helpful in encouraging flowering (multiple bud sites, quickness, etc...)

So I mixed some things and came out with a fully water soluble nutrient package with the following statistics:

nitrogen 11.55%
phospate 25.275%
potash 21.425%

calcium(Ca) 4.8%
magnesium(Ma) 1.56%

iron(Fe) 0.1462%
manganese(Mn) .0728%
zinc(Zn) .0464%
copper(Cu) .0464%
boron(B) .0188%
molybdenum(Mo) .0108%

It seems to be pH neutral, and so I was wondering if this would be a good choice to use for flowering on a few of my plants, if not just to see how it turns out.

So any input would be appreciated, as I stated, I am no professional, I am nothing more than a newbie. Any advice will further my cause greatly...

khazoth Reviewed by khazoth on 07-19-2009. Customized Soil Nutrients Hello everyone, I am new to growing, and I have decided to take a soil-and-hydroponics-side-by-side approach to it. I have posted about my hydroponic set up in the hydro forum, but I have a question about soil nutrients here. I have obtained the entire fox-farms nutrient family, including the water-soluble nutrient trio (Open Sesame, Beastie Bloomz, Cha Ching) and will be following the fox farms schedule on several of my plants with relatively few tweaks. However, I have a desire to Rating: 5

[khazoth]

Also, I have seen the original orchid fertilzer used for the entire life span of tomato plants, and it has produced monster plants. However, despite the fact that there are massive clumps of tomatos on the plants, I believe that an increase in phosphate would increase the overall yield of the plants...