Resources

• Basics of Hydroponics
• Hydroponic Systems – Different Types and How They Work
• Table of plants and their reccomended ph/TDS/PPM levels
• A Beginners Guide to Growing Tomatoes Hydroponically in Home
• Paper on tomatoes nutrition solutions, pH and EC
  • Detailed tables with nutrients, pH and EC per stage of the plant.
  • Similar paper
• pH: How it affects and how to measure it
• Hydroponic tomatoes success examples:
  • Reddit Kratky Cherries
    • Uses 450-610nm and 12W lights
    • Q-tip pollination
    • Marmandino tomato
    • T.A tripart, flora series and Sensi cal-mag as nutrients
    • 9 weeks to get fruits
    • 2l bucket from ikea
  • Hydroponic Cherry Tomatoes - Seed to harvest
• Hydroponic Basil

Fundamentals

Nutrients

Plants make up their own food, for this, they need raw materials and energy.

• They obtain energy from the sun or lights in case of indoors.
• As for raw materials, they are different sources:
  • Air: They get carbon and oxygen
  • Water: Hydrogen
  • Roots: Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P ), Potassium (K) and micronutrients (calcium, sulfur, iron, magnesium, boron, manganese, zinc, etc.)

Nutrients solutions will provide macronutrients (NPK) and micronutrients

• Usually they are labeled with three numbers that indicate the percentage of N, P and K. The rest of the solution is micro, water and other molecules…
• Plants require different amounts of macro and micronutrients depending on the stage of the plant (growing, blooming, ripening fruits, etc.)
  • Young plants require and should be provided with lower nutrient concentrations than mature plants, to prevent plants from becoming too vegetative.
  • Plants in early fruiting stages require increased levels of specific nutrients like nitrogen (N), calcium (Ca), and potassium (K) because the developing fruits demand greater amounts of these nutrients.
  • Mature fruiting plants require the highest levels of nutrients to promote plant growth and fruit development, as well as an appropriate balance of specific nutrients to ensure high fruit quality.

Nutrients concentration

• TDS (Total Dissolved Solids): Amount of salts in a specific solution.
  • There is no easy, exact and cheap way of measuring this.