I’ve always loved growing plants, whether they’re marijuana, veggies, or orchids.
I earned a Master’s degree in plant science, and struggled through five chemistry classes to do it.
That came in handy, because hydroponics indoor marijuana growers are dealing with chemistry when we monitor and adjust pH.
If pH in your marijuana root area and/or in your hydroponics nutrients water is out of range, your plants will have a real hard time taking in crucial nutrient elements.
Marijuana plant growth rate, health, THC percentages, and harvest weight are all affected by pH.
I used my plant science and chemistry training to examine hydroponics nutrients in the lab and in my indoor hydroponics marijuana garden.
I was particularly focused on base nutrients because they’re the foundation of your marijuana feed program.
If your hydroponics base nutrients have inferior materials, quality control, or manufacturing standards, your entire marijuana crop is at risk.
Why?
Because base nutrients can create pH problems and pH problems can also happen because of water and/or root zone material.
Some marijuana growers see a combination of some or all of those pH-problem factors at once.
To add to the confusion, the ideal pH for soil marijuana growing isn’t the same as the ideal pH for hydroponics soilless marijuana growing.
Marijuana plant pH problems show up as damaged leaves, slow growth, small buds, low THC, and sometimes even dead plants.
Almost all marijuana growers will have pH and/or nutrients problems during their growing career.
Recently I was working with several different brands of base nutrients and discovered something puzzling.
I noticed that I had to spend too much time adjusting pH up or down for most of the base nutrients products I had purchased in the last 1-3 years.
Following manufacturer mixing instructions in reverse osmosis water, my pH meters gave me readings from 5.5-6.7. This range is not ideal for hydroponics marijuana nutrients absorption.
My constant pH monitoring and graphing showed these base nutrient pH levels went up and down on their own, even with a fresh mix and especially a day or more after mixing.
In other words, the pH buffers and other ingredients in most major brands of hydroponics base nutrients aren’t stable.
If these base nutrients mixes had been fed to my marijuana plants (especially if I was a marijuana grower using regular water instead of reverse osmosis water) my cannabis plants wouldn’t have been able to intake all the nutrients they need.
I then tested a brand of hydroponics base nutrients described by the manufacturer Advanced Nutrients as “pH Perfect.”
With reverse osmosis water, these base nutrients automatically set the reservoir to 5.7 pH.
What’s more, the pH stayed there, even after several days in a recirculating system, and after I’d added a P-K bloom booster!
You don’t see that with any other hydroponics base nutrients.
These hydroponics base nutrients offer more than a “convenience factor” of eliminating your need to spend money or time on pH meters and adjusting fluids.
These nutrients give plants an easier time absorbing specific nutrient elements in the amount, time, and ratios they need them.
It’s a more efficient, cost-effective, and growth-enhancing hydroponics fertigation approach, the chemistry prof said.
As I’ve used these new type of hydroponics nutrients in my marijuana garden, I see faster crops with perfect leaves, faster-maturing crops, and no more having to monitor and adjust pH.
I save a week or more per marijuana season, and harvest larger yields.
This is an exciting new category of hydroponics base nutrients and I encourage all marijuana growers to try it.
