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  #1  
Old 03-22-2014, 03:01 PM
creedua creedua is offline
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Wanting to try strawberries in a a-frame setup basically a NFT system. What would be the best nutrient for strawberries? And what would be the best medium for them?

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Old 07-01-2014, 02:07 PM
DanHass DanHass is offline
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As an experienced strawberry grower, I am glad to answer your question here. Let me tell you the most interesting thing about these plants is that they give you several hints when they require fertilizers.

If your plants have begun to give clues such as pale leaves or immature fruits, you can maintain them using natural compost. Why you should prefer compost to commercial fertilizers is because they are organic and contain decomposed leaves and plant materials that are good for plant growth. Also, if leaves still remain yellowish, consider using a quality nutrient additive such as golden Tree. You’ll notice the difference after just a few days of use.
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Old 07-01-2014, 07:05 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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DanHass,
This is a Hydroponics forum. We grow plants hydroponically, not in soil. The growing medium in hydroponics doesn't have any nutritional value for the plants. It's designed that way because the plants get all their nutrition from the balanced nutrient solution. Mixing soil in a hydroponic system disturbs the balance of those nutrients, leading to nutrient toxicities.

creedua,
I prefer using coco chips almost always as a growing media. For the nutrients I would use the Verti-gro nutrients.
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Old 07-25-2014, 07:05 AM
Caelan Ware Caelan Ware is offline
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Hi, in my husband's province in the Philippines specifically Tagaytay there are lot of lettuce grown hydroponically. Whenever we visit I always buy it and seems it's more fresh and crunchy for me.
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Old 07-25-2014, 07:14 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Caelan Ware,
I'm sure it does. Their are a lot of benefits to growing hydroponically. Taste and flavor are just two among many.
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Old 07-27-2014, 07:34 AM
CAPT38 CAPT38 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GpsFrontier View Post
DanHass,
This is a Hydroponics forum. We grow plants hydroponically, not in soil. The growing medium in hydroponics doesn't have any nutritional value for the plants. It's designed that way because the plants get all their nutrition from the balanced nutrient solution. Mixing soil in a hydroponic system disturbs the balance of those nutrients, leading to nutrient toxicities.

creedua,
I prefer using coco chips almost always as a growing media. For the nutrients I would use the Verti-gro nutrients.
Golden tree is a hydroponic nutrient GPS
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Old 07-27-2014, 07:53 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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It's true that I am not familiar with any nutrients called 'Golden tree" (and still don't). However that wasn't what lead me to the conclusion that they were talking about growing in soil. There were three statements that lead me to believe that:

1. "using natural compost" (that's not a nutrient solution)
2. "Why you should prefer compost to commercial fertilizers" (again compost is an amendment, not a nutrient solution. even as a compost tea that was never mentioned)
3. "consider using a quality nutrient additive" (a nutrient additive isn't a replacement for a nutrient solution, it's an amendment even in soil)
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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 07-27-2014 at 08:24 AM.
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Old 07-29-2014, 06:54 AM
CAPT38 CAPT38 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GpsFrontier View Post
It's true that I am not familiar with any nutrients called 'Golden tree" (and still don't). However that wasn't what lead me to the conclusion that they were talking about growing in soil. There were three statements that lead me to believe that:

1. "using natural compost" (that's not a nutrient solution)
2. "Why you should prefer compost to commercial fertilizers" (again compost is an amendment, not a nutrient solution. even as a compost tea that was never mentioned)
3. "consider using a quality nutrient additive" (a nutrient additive isn't a replacement for a nutrient solution, it's an amendment even in soil)
You may want to read about the Golden Tree product before you commenting then.
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Old 07-29-2014, 07:28 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I don't have time to research everything anyone mentions. I don't get paid to do so, and like you I only post and reply because I want to try and help people. If there are any things I don't obviously understand, their more than welcome to correct me. But it's not my job to research every statement that people post.

I simply left a comment, and they never replied to it. Your reply/s simply haven't changed a thing so far either. Other than you let me know there may be a hydroponic nutrient that I don't know about. But that's no surprise, there are thousands of manufactures making nutrients. I'm not an Encyclopedia of hydroponic nutrients and I'm not paid to be.

I'm always looking for alternative cost effective nutrients, but I'm simply really only interested in "COST EFFECTIVE NUTRIENTS". But keep in mind that I have a LOT of things going on in my life right now , and many things on my plats, so researching something mentioned in a random post is well below the bottom of the list right now (regardless of if I have heard of it or not). If the poster isn't able to let me know how or why I may be wrong or misunderstand their comments, then sorry. That's their problem, and they may be to busy to do so as well. But It's still simply not my job to spend hours researching every post. That's their job.
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Old 07-29-2014, 08:41 AM
Stan Stan is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CAPT38 View Post
You may want to read about the Golden Tree product before you commenting then.
After seeing the price of the Golden Tree product ($290 for 1 gallon) I don't even want to know how it works. The "cheap cost" nutrients I have been using the past 3 years have worked just fine for me.
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Old 07-29-2014, 10:53 AM
CAPT38 CAPT38 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stan View Post
After seeing the price of the Golden Tree product ($290 for 1 gallon) I don't even want to know how it works. The "cheap cost" nutrients I have been using the past 3 years have worked just fine for me.
A gallon is expensive, but I think that most people wouldn't need a whole gallon, as per the instructions you only use 2 ml per gallon of water.
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Old 07-29-2014, 07:10 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Assuming the stuff is a complete hydroponic nutrient, and not just an additive, and/or need other parts to work well. If the stuff costs $290 per gallon, that's not what I would really consider cost effective. That comes out to 15 cents per gallon of nutrient solution.

237mL per cup
16 cups per gallon
237x16= 3792
3792 divided by 2 (capt38 said 2mL per gallon)= 1896
$290 divided by 1896= $0.15 per gallon

I don't know if that even includes tax and shipping, If not it would just cost that much more. I prefer to use nutrients like the verti-gro and/or JRPeters nutrients that cost around $0.02 per gallon of nutrient solution. Going by the price Stan gave of the Golden Tree stuff, It's more than 7 times more expensive. Not to mention you need to shell out a large chunk of money right up front.

Even if I wanted to pay as much as $0.15 cents per gallon of nutrient solution. I would just use GH MaxiGro/MaxiBloom nutrients. Depending on the size and price where you get it, the Maxi nutrients come out to between $0.10 and $0.15 cents per gallon of nutrient solution. And you don't need to shell out $300 all at once. You can just buy the small 2.2 lb quantity for about $15 or less.
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Old 07-30-2014, 01:15 AM
CAPT38 CAPT38 is offline
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I've always heard .... You get what you pay for.

The golden tree product in question is an additive.

But if you want to go cheap you should start brewing compost teas. And if you haven't tried compost teas I would suggest you give it a try.
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Old 07-30-2014, 06:17 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Quote:
I've always heard .... You get what you pay for.
Yes, but have you ever heard "theirs a sucker born every day?" Fact is the raw chemical elements that make up the nutrient solution are very cheap. Your not paying for better quality by paying more, your just paying for flashy packaging, being sold on manufactures propaganda and marketing, and higher profits for the company. The ingredients themselves are actually cheap. Some places mark up the price as much as 80-95%. The shipping cost more than the ingredients. Bottom line the plants don't know how much money you spend on them, they only care about how you take care of them. You just need to know what to look for, where to find good cost effective hydroponic nutrients, and how to use them.

That's why I don't bother to make my own nutrient solution recipes, good cost effective nutrients are out their, and it's simply not cheaper to make my own if you know where to get them already made. But you wont find them on the shelves at your local hydroponics shop vendor. They only want to put high profit products on their shelves. You need to get them from the manufactures making them. I'll let the chemists that know what their doing do that for me, and just buy what they make.

You don't think that commercial hydroponic farms pay those high prices do you? Commercial farms aren't going to use low quality products either. Their livelihood depends on producing the best possible product. No, your just paying for flashy packaging, being sold on manufactures propaganda and marketing, and higher profits for the company when you pay high prices. Unfortunately that is a big reason a lot of people don't continue to grow hydroponically, or never start. Because they don't know any better, and it seems to expensive to do so with what the hydroponic store's want to sell them.

Also if you have and are using a well balanced nutrient that's designed for the type of plants your growing, additives are unnecessary. If you need an additive, then your base nutrient solution is missing something because your using the wrong type, not fallowing directions, not mixing correctly, or to weak in general. And/or your growing to many different types of plants with the same type of nutrient. None of that is because it's not a good quality nutrient.

Essentially additives just make your nutrient solution stronger. If you read mixing charts they reduce the base nutrient strength, and want you to use many different additives to add as well. The reason is they make much more money when you buy all the extra additives (that's called up-selling). But if you don't reduce the strength of the base nutrients, your nutrient solution would be to strong when you add all the EXTRA products you bought.

P.S.
I plan to experiment with compost teas, I even wrote an article a few years back about them for this blog "Organic Compost Tea for your hydroponic system" So it's nothing new to me, but With all the things I've got going on, it's just one of those things that's on the "TO DO LIST" that's on the back burner for now. Though I'm not interested in buying any. Like the article talks about I would make my own. However I would want to do some side by side tests to see if their were any real benefits.

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Last edited by GpsFrontier; 07-30-2014 at 08:38 AM.
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