Just like humans need proper food
packed with healthy nutrients to help us grow strong and vigorous, your plants
also need the right foods.
Feed your plants the right foods in the
right ways and you too could see consistent yields of 3-plus pounds per grow
light, like many growers today who follow these feeding guidelines.
To help you on your path to successful
growing, in this article we’re going to cover everything you need to know about
plant food and what you need for your high-value plants and specialized
strains, including:
1. What
plant-specific nutrients do and why they are so important for high-value crops.
2. How to know
exactly what to feed your plants during every stage of their growth cycle to get
maximum yields, potency and performance.
3. In addition,
common feeding mistakes, along with how to fix them as quickly as possible.
Let
us start with the basics…
What are plant nutrients, what do they do, and
why are they so important?
Just like food for people, your plants
need food to survive, thrive, and grow into the high-value performers you want
them to be.
Nutrition and food can be broken down
into three categories: macronutrients,
secondary nutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients are the big nutrients that are required for health
and growth, secondary nutrients are
slightly less important, and micronutrients
are the small nutrients.
For example, with people food,
macronutrients are protein, carbohydrates and fats. These are the most
important nutrients you must have to be healthy and to survive.
For plants, there are 16 important
nutrients that can be broken up into macro-and micronutrients:
1. Macronutrients: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P),
Potassium (K).
2. Secondary Nutrients: Calcium (Ca),
Magnesium (Mg), Sulfur (S).
3. Micronutrients: Iron (Fe), Boron (B), Chlorine
(Cl), Manganese (Mn), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu), Molybdenum (Mo).
The bottom line is your high-value
plants need macro-, secondary and micronutrients to thrive.
A Quick
Guide to Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (N-P-K)
Once you get into growing strains of
high-value plants, you will find that nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are
also commonly referred to as N-P-K.
That’s because these are the three most
important nutrients for plants. Without these three nutrients in the proper
amounts, your plants will eventually die.
Early on, growers of high-value plants
recognized the importance of these nutrients in combination and so began
formulating plant food with specific ratios in mind. When you pick up a bottle
of base nutrients, you will often see the three numbers on the label:
Proper plant feeding tips: understanding N-P-K
ratios
These numbers stand for the N-P-K ratio
in the product. The first number is nitrogen, the second is phosphorus, the
third potassium.
Keep in mind, these are the ratios –
not a specific amount in the product.
If N-P-K are all essential nutrients
for your plants, at this point you may wonder why the ratios in the bottle
would make any difference at all.
Why your plants need specific nutrients for each
phase of growth
Your plants not only need the right
nutrients, but they need them in the right ratios, only at specific times in
their life cycle.
To keep things simple, there are two
main stages to your plant’s life and they each require a specific ratio of
N-P-K for optimum performance:
1. Vegetative Stage: high nitrogen, medium
phosphorus, high potassium.
2. Flowering Stage: low nitrogen, medium
phosphorus (much less than most growers have been led to believe), high
potassium.
If all this seems confusing, don’t
worry, the important thing to remember is this: You have to make sure your
plants are getting the optimal levels of nutrition and the nutrients they crave
during these times in order to keep them healthy, growing, and later enjoy a
great harvest. That’s why scientific testing, research and development with the
distinct strains you grow (as opposed to other typical food plants) is so
important when choosing your nutrients.
How often do you need to feed your plants?
Both the type of growing medium and the
nutrients you are using will determine how often you nourish your plants. For
example:
1. Soil Growers: Some growers who plant their seeds in
nutritious soil in a vibrant outdoor area may find they hardly need to feed
their plants at all. You will have to keep them watered, though, and can add
nutrients as needed when you water.
2. Soilless Mediums: Using a soilless medium such
as peat or sphagnum-based mediums, you’ll have to water and feed your plants
often. When the top of the growing medium feels dry, it’s usually the right
time to give them water.
3. Coco Coir: Using coco coir, you’ll want to feed
often, with ample runoff. Coco should remain wet and usually be fed at least
daily. You’ll also want to use coco-specific nutrients.
4. Hydroponics: Your plant’s roots are interacting
with water constantly, which also contains your nutrients. In some of these hydroponics setups, your plants are feeding
all the time.
As you might imagine, answering the
questions of when to water and feed your plants at this point can get complex
and there are many variables based on the strains you’re growing, where you’re
growing, the strategy you’re using, and the medium you’re growing in.
How to know if the nutrients you are using were
designed specifically for your high-value plants
Many growers are not aware that there
is a huge difference in fertilizers that were designed for traditional
agricultural crops such as corn, soybean and wheat, and fertilizers that were
developed for high-value plants.
A study conducted by the University of
Mississippi demonstrated the dramatic difference specialized fertilizers can
make when growing specialized strains. It is the only scientific study of its
kind, proving that the Advanced Nutrients fertilizers delivered 21 percent
bigger yields when compared to regular fertilizers. You can download the free
white paper to see the science for yourself.
The fact is, in this day and age, there
is no reason to use regular fertilizers for growing high-value plants.
And whatever you do, don’t make the
common beginner mistake of using something like Miracle-Gro for your high-value
plants.
Miracle-Gro nutrients and Miracle-Gro
soil (or any “extended release” soil, really) will leave you with all kinds of
nutrient problems — everything from burning your plants to starving them. Your
best bet is to leave those plant formulas for the tomatoes and flowers they
were intended to feed.
Here are some common feeding issues and how to
fix them
While growing great plants is not
always simple, here is a quick and simple list of some common feeding issues
and how to fix them:
1. Underfeeding: If your plants are looking pale green
instead of vibrant, then you could be underfeeding them. You need to give them
more nutrients.
2. Overfeeding: Likewise, you could be overfeeding
your plants and not know it. This is often accompanied by nutrient burn and could
be caused by problems like nutrient lockout.
3. Nutrient Lockout: This occurs when the nutrients
you’re feeding your plants are unable to be absorbed and so they can’t feed.
Discover what you need to know about nutrient lockout here.
4. Nutrient Burn: When you give your plants too
many nutrients and they end up with brown/black/dark burn spots on the tips of
their leaves. This can happen if you don’t recognize signs of nutrient lockout
and think plants are underfed, so you add more nutrients.
5. Overwatering: Your plants can be drooping because
they’re starved of oxygen if their roots are sitting in stagnant water caused
by overwatering. This is one of many plant root problems you can run into.
6. Nutrient Deficiencies: Often looks
like underfeeding in the form of droopy, sad, sick-looking plants. Goes hand in
hand with underfeeding, but you could be lacking specific micronutrients even
if you’re feeding them enough.
7. pH problems: Your pH levels are critically
important to your plant feeding program. Click
here to see why pH affects everything you do.
Do not forget to flush! Many nutrient
and feeding issues can be fixed by knowing how and why to flush your plants.
Don’t forget to do this.
Feeding your plants the right nutrients at the
right time and in the right amounts will give you the results you want
Plant food and proper nutrition is so
important that it can mean the difference between losing a harvest or enjoying
the most bountiful, potent yields of your life.
It’s that important.
So take the time to educate yourself on plant nutrition. Use the tips in this article and check out the recommended resources to see what a big difference the proper plant food and fertilizers can make and you will be improving your growing results in no time!
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