I am looking to make my own liquid nutes for my new small hydro setup. Sure I could buy the stuff straight off the shelf, but, me being me, I looked at the cost of all the fancy looking bottles and flashy labels and thought, well, it’s only a few basic ingredients, why not put them together m’self and save a shed load of cash?
But, when it comes to understanding the NPK numbers, seems even our local garden centres and fertiliser distributers can’t agree what they represent exactly. So, N-Nitrogen P-Phosphorous K-Potassium, no problem. But, do the actual amounts stand for a ratio, or a percentage?
One local store said that its a percentage. So, I asked them, if thats so, and you have only 1% of each of the three primary nutrients (1-1-1), what is the other 97% of the makeup, is it all filler?
They couldn’t give me an answer.
Another company I asked said it’s simply a ratio ie 20-4-2 is a ratio of 20 parts N, 4 parts P and 2 parts K. That makes sense. So, I asked them why do some fertilisers have 1-1-1 and others have 30-30-30, because if its just a ratio, then both are just equal thirds?
The nice lady I was speaking to was lost and admitted she didn’t know.
I noted on some liquid fertilisers the NPK was expressed as percentages, which again made little sense as the values were so small (unless the missing 80% was water content?).
Yesterday I spoke with so many people about this, and no one could actually give me a straight answer, including an actual fertiliser company whom I contacted.
I'm not looking to do a PhD in chemistry as such (but I do dabble in it a little in my workshop), but just enough to allow me to understand what I'm doing with this.
So, I thought I’d throw it out here and see what you guys have to say.
I will have more questions about making DIY nutes but for now I’d just like to understand this NPK thing firstly.
But, when it comes to understanding the NPK numbers, seems even our local garden centres and fertiliser distributers can’t agree what they represent exactly. So, N-Nitrogen P-Phosphorous K-Potassium, no problem. But, do the actual amounts stand for a ratio, or a percentage?
One local store said that its a percentage. So, I asked them, if thats so, and you have only 1% of each of the three primary nutrients (1-1-1), what is the other 97% of the makeup, is it all filler?
They couldn’t give me an answer.
Another company I asked said it’s simply a ratio ie 20-4-2 is a ratio of 20 parts N, 4 parts P and 2 parts K. That makes sense. So, I asked them why do some fertilisers have 1-1-1 and others have 30-30-30, because if its just a ratio, then both are just equal thirds?
The nice lady I was speaking to was lost and admitted she didn’t know.
I noted on some liquid fertilisers the NPK was expressed as percentages, which again made little sense as the values were so small (unless the missing 80% was water content?).
Yesterday I spoke with so many people about this, and no one could actually give me a straight answer, including an actual fertiliser company whom I contacted.
I'm not looking to do a PhD in chemistry as such (but I do dabble in it a little in my workshop), but just enough to allow me to understand what I'm doing with this.
So, I thought I’d throw it out here and see what you guys have to say.
I will have more questions about making DIY nutes but for now I’d just like to understand this NPK thing firstly.
