It depends on if Ionic Grow has all needed micro nutrients for the purpose or not. Here is a good refererence of minor- and micro nutrients for tomato used by the University of Florida with their "greenhouse formula for tomatoes", that was used successfully by myself since a few seasons, - I used the same formulation with peppers and giant gourds, successfully as well:

Much depend on your tap or well water, as it may contain important quantities of Ca, Mg or Fe, sometimes Chloride, respectively some Boron or others. Rain, RO or other purified waters have only very little (atmospheric contamination for rain water) trace elements to none.

Btw: Ca isn't actually a micro nutrient, same as Mg and S, as the quantity that is used (and needed) is nearly the same as the one of Macro nutrients.

I have nothing helpful to say regarding the nutes, but I was wondering about your greenhouse...is that recycled material, or all new stuff you bought? I was thinking of making one out of windows that are being thrown away from people remodeling their houses in the area! It may not be as pretty as yours, but it'll fit the purpose!

Thx Lucas. I use tap water (sometimes cistern water as well) in Kentucky, and it has a lot of minerals in it, but I don't want to count on it. I don't have a device that can give me a reading in PPM, so how do I go about measuring nutrients in the water, and how do I get all of those nutrients you speak of? Do I have to buy them individually in powder form and mix up a solution?

Cheri, it's made from recycled windows, but there are things in there that I bought (the lumber and the roof panels for starters). You should collect all the windows you have access to and design a greenhouse that would give you the highest amount of window space.

Here is what my tomatoes look like right now.

Hi sethky,
No, you can't rely on minor and trace elements in your tap water, but you can get a analyses from your local water department. If your water is high in minerals, calcium and Mg should be sufficiently contained anyway. Most importantly, if your nutrient specs (as in Ionic Grow 3-1-5) don't give the amounts of trace elements, you should ask/call the manufacturer. The reference I gave you can be used for comparing purposes eventually.

A decent specialized hydroponic nutrient IS SUPPOSED to have all needed minor and trace elements needed. It may differ in it's formula, or containing more or less Ca and Mg, either suited for hard or soft water. This is also important (either in tap water or with nutrient composition) for your starting PH and the buffering that goes with it.

You have taken great care and invest a lot of work (and bucks) in your setup and the infrastructure. You should actually complete the equipment with an EC-meter (I do not recommend a so called TDS meter that converts to ppm, unless there is a specific purpose), to read and control nutrient strength,- if you haven't yet.

Plants look Ok anyway, as far as I can see.

Lucas, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I think I'll call the manufacturer first and figure out what other nutrients are included in their grow solution. I would love to get an EC meter, but I'm currently pretty far over budget and I've already told my wife several times I need "just one more thing" to get this done right. This would be okay if it wasn't for the fact that I'm a law student and already pretty heavy in debt. If I was to get an EC meter (even if it's next season), do you have any suggestions as to a brand and model? I did a quick search and prices vary widely.

Here are my melon plants, growing on the same nutrient solution.

meh! law student debt isn't squat. you'll have that paid of in 2 or 3 years.

Grizzman, you're more optimistic than I am.

please help me out with tomatoes and strawberry nutrients for nft hydroponic system Wats the ratio of NPK and other nutrients

There is no single nutrient formula for either strawberries or tomatoes, but lucas above gave a very good hydroponic formula from the University of Florida for tomatoes.

Here is the tomato link with all the info you could want to know. For strawberries, it is actually a reasonable formula and has been used in variations in some studies for them, however if you are in canada varieties and cooler temperatures might mean you should have an EC about 20%-25% higher than this one. That you will need to research. But in the mean time, the link for the Florida nutes including the NPK expressed as ppm is here:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/cv216

For strawberries, use column #1 for vegetative and either column #3 or #4 subject to the blossoming and fruit load you have. It is close enough for quite nice enough results on strawberry. Strawberries get sick with too much N, this is a case where more is *not* better, so if you adjust the EC up, take care to goes less than proportionally up for nitrogen.

That's as good a general statement as it gets, the rest is better you familiarize yourself by researching what varieties strawberry growers are using in your area successfully and what the overall starting fertilizer portion of the EC (or ppm) is in the general area.

What do you use for pepper? My peppers have not produced as good this year as last. I have switch to using a general purpose makeup vs one for just tomatoes.
I have been using the formulas from Resh, but I think I need something different for peppers.
I will note that his cucumber formula works good and it also works on eggplants (grow both in buckets outside with drip lines).