Hi.
I read the thread re : Cost effective Nutes. Have a couple thoughts for you.
Maxi is a good choice, unless you mean to use drip emitters. The powdered fertilizers have a tendency to leave mineral deposits in inconvenient places. Like anywhere small. If this happens, consider switching to a liquid fert, like Tiger Bloom, or Dyna-Gro. I have used both, and like them.
Ph (percentage of hydrogen) is something you must monitor, because when it is off, some of the
nutrients will "lock up" by combining with one another into a compound. This makes those nutes unavailable to your plants. The easy and cheap way to test Ph is with General Hydroponics Ph test kit. It is a squeeze bottle of test fluid and a small vial to test in. You may find it convenient to get a "Baby Medicine Dropper" from the drugstore to draw your sample with. You could spend long green on a meter, but, they are touchy, twitchy, easily damaged and easily lost. A bottle of test fluid costs $7.50, and lasts all season and then some. It is easy to read the results : If you see red, add Baking Soda. if you see green, add Vinegar. Then retest. You will learn quickly how much to add to get the effect you want. There are other Ph adjusters that could be used, but these are SAFE... and cheap. It is important to dilute the baking soda or vinegar with water before adding it, because the "Ph shock' that happens when you first introduce the corrective will cause "Lock up" too. Spreading it out with water reduces the Ph gradient.
Frnz 571 recommended (on the other thread) a book by Howard Resh. I will go further, and recommend ALLLLLLL of Dr.Howard Reshs' books. He really is the go-to-guy, and can teach you just about all you need to know to succeed. Here is his wiki:
Howard M. Resh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
When it comes time to discard used (unbalanced)
nutrient solution, do not overlook that the compost heap is an excellent place to do this. The process will be sped up and the compost will be better fertilizer.