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You must use nutrients for Hydroponics.

Nutrients are the basis of Hydroponics and without basic nutrition, plants will not thrive.

Nutrients come in a grow solution with higher nitrates for leafy vegetative growth

Bloom/Flowering solutions have higher phosphorus and potassium which are for the flowering and fruiting stage of your plants.

Many nutrients have some simple additives in them to improve nutrient uptake, such as Powergro Grow and Powergro Bloom (2ltr $25 8L $60) which have seaweed extracts to assist the speed and availability of the minerals plants require for nutrition. We recommend this nutrient because it is concentrated, and it performs very well.

Vitamins are our Number 2 most effective way to help a plant do well.

Vitamins for plants help a plant feel better when stressed, and keep a plant healthy.

Vitamins will help with resistance to fungal rots and insect attacks for instance.

While plants manufacture vitamins for themselves, if they have a supply of them, they can turn their energy to producing other elements they need, and thereby speed up growth.

Nutriboost is a concentrate that you add to nutrients, or spray onto the plants. 1ml per 10 litres whilst growing and for high performance, increase to 10ml per 10 litres for flowering/fruiting. 50ml $10, 100ml $15, 200ml $20 500ml $40 1litre $70 and 5litre $315.

Another vitamin additive is Superthrive, but is recommended for soil as it contains a glue to make it stick to soil, and in Hydroponics it just sticks to media and makes everything go green with super vitaminised algae!

Cleaning the water that comes through the tap and the water which is recycled from any pathogen helps keep the plants strength in growing not fighting.

Have you ever been fighting a cold, not really got sick, but just been a little slowed down. If you keep your system and root zone really clean you will see an improvement in the plants vigour.

Hydroshield cleans the water with two highly effective cleansers, Hydrogen peroxide, bonded with silver. The silver builds immunity while activates the Hydrogen peroxide to react and keep reacting with any single celled organism, such as green algae, fungal root rots, viruses, bacteria, and also removes chlorine from the water. Dose at 2ml per litre to prevent problems, or dose every 1-3 days to kill any fungal outbreak until plants are healthy again.

Hydroshield comes in 250ml $10 1litre $20 5litre $80 25litre $350

As an alternative to cleaning by sterilising, you can use a high dose of beneficial bacteria to keep nasties away. Power active and Stop wilt from Nulife are great for those not using sterlising agents like Hydroshield or Pythoff. They act like a plant tonic helping the plant by creating a biological barrier for plants root system.

Silica is not silicon, it is an element that cannot be put into the nutrient formula, due to instability, but it should be part of any plants nutrition.

Consider silica like a missing link between plant vitality, strength, resistance to infection, and increased harvests.

The silica helps strengthen cells, and plants are much healthier from the continual addition of silica.

Ensure you have a highly soluble form and you will begin to see effect from around 2 weeks onwards. Budlink, Silica magic or Dutch Master silica are very good forms of silica.

Have you looked at the way fertilisers are added in commercial operations. Usually by injection of liquid fertilisers into the overhead sprinklers.

This is partly because it is quick and easy, however, you can find research that the same liquid added to the leaves (which them runs off into the soil), instead of just the soil is around 25% more in harvest yields.

Also things such as amino acids are more difficult to absorb through the roots than through the leaves.

We have made up Amino Sprays containing high quality mineral nutrients, vitamins, organic additives such as amino acids, as well a wetting agent to assist uptake and spreading.

Ready to use, just pour into a spray bottle and spray, preferably towards the end of the day, or when artificial lighting sources are about to switch off for the night.

Amino Acid Sprays come in Grow, Flowering and Harvest formulas to ensure nutrition is improved for the particular stage of the plants life.

A 1litre is $8, and 5litres is $24.

Its an inexpensive way to increase crops without increasing your system size.

Remember that spraying should be done around twice a week in cooler months, and once per week during humid hotter months. Discontinue if any chance of mould or fungus on leaves (e.g. poorly ventilated greenhouses/ grow rooms)

Some additves help the plants grow quicker by making their cells divide quicker.

Organic additives such as monsta bud, psychobud and megabud cause plants to grow faster in this way

Monstabud and Psychobud are the same except Psychobud is more concentrated.

Both are available in an additive to nutrient in separate formulas for grow, flower and harvest/final stages.

Megabud is used only in the fist and third week of flowering and is very high performance.

Bio Earth Sea Acids are a unique product that can be used alongside the other products for very fast plant meatabolism, meaning faster growth and flowering

Potassium is stored in the flower/fruit during the flowering process.

To add weight, products like weight plus use potassium to add weight

Weight plus 1ltr is $20 and is added at 1ml per litre

Other potassium products are Potash plus and Canna PK1314 but are not as pH stable as weight plus which is fully balanced and should not affect your pH

Superbud is a hobby derivitive similar to products used in stonefruit commercial farming.

It causes extremely rapid fruiting and flowering and makes fruit very firm immediately.

It stops ALL Growth, and plants will NOT grow more than 1 inch once added.

Do not add until the final height and size required.

Recirculating use 3ml of each part per litre, if hand watering or run to waste use 5ml per litre of each

Use for 7-9 days no more and no less.

It is $165 for a litre.

Bonza bud creates the same effect as ‘tipping’ a plant without removing the top growth, which would eventually produce much more branches and flower/fruit points

It blocks the hormone that causes a plant to grow taller, and instead of growing , say 5cm and producing a branch it will produce less, maybe 2-3 cm thus making a plant shorter

A shorter plant has more even light from top to bottom and thus increases yield on lower branches

Bonza Bud encourages more side growth and these branches will produce extra fruiting/flowering points per plant also increasing yeilds

50ml $25 use at 2ml/litre for extremely stetched out plants, or 1ml/litre for normal plants to be sortened slightly

Respray to improve effect as desired or every 4 weeks.

Spray over plants until liquid runs off.

A large root zone creates a healthier plant and helps uptake

Rootzone accelerant helps roots, especially for new plants/clones to get them established

Male supressants such as la femme and feminiser, used to reduce the chances of a male as a seedling is raised

Hermaphrodite treatments such as Budwise, which make male flowers shrivel up and drop off.

If you need these products, ask staff for assistance

Use additives carefully when plants are sick.

If any root rot, spray vitamins onto plant. Vitamins around roots will strengthen the fungus that is attacking your plant.

If mould or fungal attacks on leaves discontinue sprays

For any advice go to www.hydrocentre.com.au