Cost-effective dry nutritients for hydroponic solution: MaxiGro and MaxiBloom

MaxiGro™ and MaxiBloom™ are water-soluble, dry concentrated nutrients. Designed to work in Coco, Hydroponics, Soilless and Soil.

MaxiGro™ is used for vegetative growth - greens, leaves. If you are growing "greens" - lettuce, herbs - that's all you need to use. If you are growing blooming/fruiting plants (tomato, pepper), you will need to switch from MaxiGro™ to MaxiBloom at some point.



The manufacturer of MaxiGro™ and MaxiBloom™, General Hydroponics, started as a business in the 1970s, as an offshoot of a scientific project at Berkeley University. They still fund research projects at the university. The manufacturer is somewhat unique in having large greenhouses and outdoor gardens where they test their products and sell the produce.

Here is the catalog with all their products: http://generalhydroponics.com/site/gh/docs/GenHydroCatalog.pdf

They have a blog: http://genhydro.com/blog



I have extensive experience with MaxiGro ($14 for 2 lbs from Amazon) for Kratky method for growing lettuce, parsley, basil, thyme. It works well. I use a mixture of 8 tsp per 5 gallon bucket.

Each Kratky container consist of:

- 3-quart plastic container with lid. They are available from Dollar Tree for $1 each. The containers and lids are painted black with spray paint ($3.70 from Home Depot). A 2-inch hole saw and drill are used to drill one 2-inch hole in each lid.

- Net pots with plants. Plants are grown from seed in 3-inch net pots. Once the seedlings have one set of true leaves or the roots are seen from the bottom of the net pot, they are ready for transplanting in the Kratky container.

- Hydroponic solution. I place one 1-gallon plastic bag inside each Kratky container. The diluted MaxiGro solution is poured inside the plastic bag, inside the container. Net pots have to be dipped about 1/2 inch in the solution.

Related reading:

Urban Nursery Michigan http://buff.ly/1ddi4O6
OutdoorHydro http://buff.ly/1fMZqfI

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