Nutrients

Getting to know plant nutrients

What nutrients do I need to know about and what is important to know about them?

There are three main nutrients that are required for cannabis cultivation. Although there are plenty more nutrients that will be discussed there is a huge emphasis on the three nutrients NPK or Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.

Firstly when looking at nutrient schedules, feeding charts, and various other references it is common to come across nutrients described in numerical values such as " 2:1:2, 10:5:7, 4:2:3, 7:7:7 ". What are these values describing? These values are parts of NPK. These amounts describe ratios of what are called macronutrients. NPK are the macronutrients in the Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium order. Knowing things like this will allow a person to make nutrients themselves to fit particular plant needs or just supplement a preferred all in one nutrient program.

What other nutrients are important for cannabis health and growth?

Cannabis nutrients are classified into three groups typically macronutrients, secondary, and micronutrients. Its is important to understand none of these nutrients are actually more important than another. All of the nutrients are required in different amounts but every single nutrients is required and there are huge consequences to leaving any single nutrient out of a plants diet.

Secondary & Micronutrients

There are three secondary nutrients. These nutrients are Calcium, Magnesium, and sulfur. There are six micronutrients that are typically listed with cannabis but I will include more in my list. These micronutrients are Boron, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Molybdenum, Zinc, Nickel, Chlorine, Silicon, Cobalt, and Selenium.

PH & VPD in reference to Nutrient availability

The bioavailability of nutrients to plants will depend greatly on the conditions on which the plants live. The PH of the growing medium can impact nutrient uptake significantly to the degree of lockout. This means even with the correct amount of nutrients in a medium the PH can impact the plant making the nutrients not bioavailable. Bioavailability simply references a plants ability to actually use that nutrient if it is present and available or present and unavailable. These conditions are also present to the plants leaves when applying foliar spray as well as an additional condition VPD. Vapor pressure deficit will determine the plants ability to pass nutrients through the leaf membranes into the plant or inability leading to downing, burning, or other harmful conditions.

Nutrient Mobility

Identifying nutrient deficiencies can be made easier by understanding mobile and immobile nutrients. There are two very different nutrient uptake behaviors displayed by plants. These are very easy to identify and will help you to pinpoint the exact issue. The difference between these two groups is mobility. Can the plant move these nutrients around inside the plant to correct its own issues. Mobile nutrients are able to be moved by the plant itself so you wont need to worry about getting the nutrient to the exact right spot. Easy enough give your plant these nutrients via foliar spray for quick results. Mobile nutrients are Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Magnesium, Chlorine, Molybdenum, and Nickel. Immobile nutrients are Calcium, Sulfur, Boron, Copper, Iron, Manganese, Zinc, Cobalt, and Silicon. When a deficiency presents itself in new growth the deficiency is immobile. When a deficiency presents itself in old growth the deficiency is mobile and the plant already moved nutrients away from the old growth to help the newer parts and prevent loss of progress.

Amino Acids

Amino acids can be a huge booster to nutrient uptake in a few ways. The amino acids can allow a plant to more easily intake nutrients by more or less allowing the nutrients to hitch a ride into the plant with the amino acids which can more easily pass through the plants walls. The shortcut allows the plant to expend less energy but get more nutrients than if it was working as hard as it could to move those nutrients by itself. Amino acids also help to reduce plant stress. Amino acids are particularly powerful when used to make a foliar spray more bioavailable to a plant especially when deficient times can also be high stress times.

Directly Supplementing Sugars

Sometimes in urgent situations a plant will not have time to recover and needs to rebound almost immediately. Directly supplementing the sugars a plant would naturally produce via photosynthesis is a way to make dramatic changes over a very short period of time. The purpose of supplementing sugars is to allow a plant to continue as if it was preforming proper photosynthesis when it is not. When a plant is sick it cannot produce sugar like normal and giving the plant those sugars manually can help the plant keep on as you fix the issue. Keeping in mind that not all sugars are the same and the sugars being fed to a plant must be bioavailable for them to be of any use. This brings us to molasses. Molasses isn't a single type of sugar which is a huge bonus for us here. What type of molasses should I be looking for? There are multiple types of molasses but only two types are suitable for cannabis. The best forms of molasses to use are cane molasses and unsulphured blackstrap molasses. Molasses is very concentrated and very small amounts like a quarter tea spoon should be used when making foliar sprays. When making foliar sprays with molasses use 4-5ml of molasses per liter during veg and double the amount during bloom.

Caution Using molasses directly and immediately impacts Brix values

Humic Acids and Soil PH

Humic acids are huge in establishing ph stable soil naturally. Using PH up and down even if organic adds to the total ppm of your medium and adds unnecessary matter to nutrient solutions. Adding too much PH up or down also has huge negative impacts on plants even if the end PH is correct. The easiest way to ensure the PH of a medium will be within a usable range to a plant is to have a healthy amount of humic acids present. Humic acids are extremely effective at neutralizing soil PH by reducing acidity or acting as a chelator in alkaline soil. Humic acids are not limited to root zones and can be absorbed through the leaf membranes via foliar sprays as well. Humic acids help greatly to stimulate roots, support other organisms, and breakdown nutrients.

How can GrowBroAZ help with nutrients?

We work directly with the growers to provide organic nutrients specific to a growers needs. What exactly does this mean? We can go over your plant needs based on veg time projections as well as bloom timelines. Going over the plants lifespan can give a good idea of the base nutrients the plant is likely to need in this time period. These needs are not all the same for every plant and every condition so supplementary foliar sprays & concentrate nutrient blends to be diluted into feed water can be added to every grow to ensure the best chances of success. Want to make your own nutrients? We can help you source organic single nutrients so you can build your own custom feeds and skip the brands.