Fertiliser question

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Mo.Ali
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Hello all, i am new here and new to hydrophonics.
I need some advice on what fertiliser to use, been wstching
I lot of youtube vids and thinking of using the kratky method set up, but stuck on on which fertiliser to use?

Is there a all in one available in uk? on the vids i’ve seen, people have used a all in one but it is is US and Australia.
Can someone please tell me what to use or mix?
Thanks in advance
Mo
Stravaig
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Hi Mo,

Welcome to the forum - hope you find it enjoyable and useful.

I was hoping someone else would reply to this as, although I've been dabbling in hydroponics for a couple of years, I'm far from being an expert in any gardening subject. The kitchen is more my department!

Can you please explain a bit more about what you're trying to achieve? That might make it easier to give you a useful answer.

Are you growing quite large-scale outside or, as I do, little pots with lights indoors? What medium are you using to put your seeds or seedlings in? I don't know quite what you mean by "fertiliser" - I've never used any. Unless plant food counts as fertiliser. (This truly does show my lack of knowledge about gardening. maybe someone else can help with that.)

After a while of just living on water, the plants do start to look like they need a feed so we just add "universal" plant feed to their water. I've no idea what that is exactly as the label is in the Ukrainian language and I can't speak Ukrainian. I assume it's not poisonous as we've been eating the plants for a couple of years now and don't seem to have any ill-effects.

Good luck!
Mo.Ali
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Hi, thanks for your message, i am a complete newbe and just thinking about growing a few plants outside with hydroponic system, dr kratky set up= Container with hydroponic fluid and plant sitting on top in a pot. Plant food fluid was what i was referring to and on further research have seen fluids which come in A and B which you mix, as you can tell i am very green behind the ears lol! I think i have now found the answer to my question but now looking at how to use the tap water and this is becoming complicated as from what i see, you can’t use tap water straight out of tap?
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Primrose
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I think tap water may vary from location to location due to its sterilising techniques but i wonder whether boiling it and allowing it to cool would resolve the issue. Or using bottled spring water which obviously long term makes it a more expensive operation.
Afraid I don,t know anything about hydroponics so this is only a very uneducated suggestion.

If aI was growing by this method without any technical guidance I would opt for adding a little diluted liquid fertiliser to the watering mixture, either seaweed or a liquid tomato fertiliser of some kind. These seem to suit most vegetables and plants.

I,ve learnt over the years not to be intimidated by some of the technical stuff you read. I'm no scientist but but have been growing perfectly satisfactory veg for over 50 years and have learnt that often following common sense rules does your products no harm. Treat them as you would do your own body under a good health regime and apart from a few difficult plants that fall outside normal parameters, your plants will do oK.

If you're a
Newbie, don,t be discouraged by any fai,urea. We,ve all been down this route and the joy of garde I g is that there,s always another season and a new chance to try a different method. This is how most of us have learnt from any mistakes.
Mo.Ali
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Thank you all for your kind advice, looks like i will be doing a bit of experimenting lol!
Stephen
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Welcome Mo.Ali
I wish you luck in what you are doing but can not help as I haven't tried hydroponics.
Nothing is foolproof to a sufficiently talented fool.
Stravaig
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We had a medium-sized outdoor system in Kent, and used the A and B plant food "pellets" in a mix for the water reservoir. We just used tap water.

Here in Kyiv, where we have little indoor systems, as a default we just use tap water with liquid plant food. We're strongly advised not to drink the tap water here - we only drink or cook with bottled. But the plants don't seem to be suffering from the tap water, and nor are we after eating the plants. That said, the plants are only small things such as herbs and baby leaves, so we're not eating a large quantity of them.

Why not get back to whoever sold you the hydroponic system you're using and ask them? Then you can report back here and educate us all about the subject!

Hydroponics really are worth getting into. I needed to be convinced so when I first tried it in Kent I did a bit of split testing. Using the same packets of seeds and in exactly the same environment, I planted half the seeds in the hydronic system and half of them in containers with purpose bought compost. The hydroponics totally outperformed the conventional growing method. I have photos somewhere showing the different rates of growth. Will try to dig them out sometime and post here.

It can seem all very complicated at first but I'd recommend people to give it a shot. You soon learn and the results can be impressive.
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