what kind of system do you have and what are ya gonna grow? (I'm new and probably wont be that much help, but I know they will probably ask you that LOL)
I use FOx Farms which is a 3 part commercial brand. I like it but it's all I've used so far LOL
I know it also depends on how much you want to spend, if you want concentrated or granular (I forget what that kind if called) or organic... :)

" I can't figure out what I'm supposed to buy. There's a really good hydro store close to me but I don't want to spend unnecessary money."

I don't know what they have to sell, but it needs to be made for hydroponics. Also what you intend to grow is important in the best choice. I use General Hydroponics Flora series myself. It's not the cheapest but, I knew it would work and wanted to eliminate as many problems at first as I could.

The Pure Blend Pro has done very well for me (just started out too). Important thing is to really follow the instructions. If you're starting out with just lettuce (recommended, easy to grow, helps you get the hand of it), or in vegetative with something else, use the grow formula first, then switch to bloom.

I've used Botanicare (Pure Blend Pro and Bloom), GH Flora Series, and am now toying with dry nutrients. I've heard a lot of great things about the shelf life and price of dry, so I got some GH Maxigro and FloraMato. As I was curious about the actual cost of each I finally sat down and did the math last night.

FloraMato: 16lbs @ $118 - makes about 1,900 gallons of nutes. That's $.06/gallon of solution.
MaxiGro: 16lbs @ $118 - makes about 1,500 gallons of nutes. That's $.08/gallon of solution.
FloraSeries: 3 gallons @ $100 (1 gallon of gro, micro, and bloom) - makes 380 gallons of nutes. That's $.26/gallon of solution.
Pure Blend Pro: 2.5 gallons @ $106 - makes 320 gallons of nutes. That's $.33/gallon of solution.

I pulled my pricing from Wormsway.com and used the dosages on the packaging I have here at home. Since I normally use less than their recommendation, my cost is proportionately less per gallon. Did it all in metric and converted to gallons at the end except for the Pure Blend, which was conveniently labeled as 1 oz for 1 gallon of water and the container is 320 oz. Something I noticed is that the Botanicare website, www.americanagritech.com, has different instructions and a different label posted than what is on my containers. Maybe they changed the formula.

If anyone sees a mistake here, please let me know.

I was thinking of growing cherry tomatoes and some kind of leafy vegetable (lettuce/cabbage/spinach). But I'll check this stuff out. THANKS!

I'm so excited to put everything together....I'm such a geek.

I hear it.

I got my small six site setup going (http://imgur.com/1wQiKl&Sq2QR&FKgnf?full first and third are two months ago, second picture is from 1.5 weeks ago after harvesting three times, enough to do three dinners for a family of four) a little over two months ago. Some trial and error, especially with height of the light. I want to build a second container, that will let me separate nutrients, and do flowering (tomatoes, peppers, ?) in one, and lettuce and spinach in the other.

For the purists, yes, those are dirt seedlings in with my hydro. Yes, I've done things in my very small hydro that would make you scream. Yes, my lettuce tastes really good.

Have fun, and good luck!

"MaxiGro: 16lbs @ $118 - makes about 1,500 gallons of nutes. That's $.08/gallon of solution. "

A while back I was looking into dry nutrients myself because they are generally cheaper. Specifically the Maxi Series, mainly because it is made by GH and I like there products so far. Anyway I never found a weight to mix it at, if I remember correctly it only gave instructions to mix at either 1 tsp or tbs (not sure witch right now). But without knowing how much a 1 tsp or tbs weighed I couldn't do the math. I even called a vender and someone else said they e-mailed GH with no results. So I simply never bought it.

I am looking into using vertigro nutrients
http://www.vertigro.com/products/fertilizers.php

I cant vouch for how well they work (at least yet), but I like the way you use it, and I forget the math right now but it is way cheaper than the flora series I am using right now, especially if you order it in the 25 pound amounts. Basically it is a 2 part mix, you mix 2 pounds of both the nutrients and calcium nitrate, each in there own 1 gallon water jugs. Then you just mix about 1 tbs (15 mL) of each per gallon of water for the nutrient solution. Someone gave me 2 pounds of each to try out, so far it seems to be working.

Hello Guys,

You can definitely make your own nutrients and have much lower prices altogether. When I make my own nutrients I can keep cost down to 0.001 USD per gallon which is much cheaper than what you get for any brand out there.

I wrote a free ebook about everything you may need to know to prepare your own solutions so you can check it out at my website (http://allhydroponics.blogspot.com) and tell me if it helps you out :o)

I am a chemist so I'll be glad to help with anything you may need around here.

Take Care !

Here is a link that might be useful: Everything Hydroponics

Thank you Daniel. I just downloaded the ebook and will read it tomorrow.

Excellent Daniel, also make my own nutrients and although the initial cost of buying all the micro nutrients is a bit expensive it definitely pays for itself pretty quickly.

Yes, thanks for the free download, I already have found a couple of distributors of the raw materials, as well as a few formulas (especially for strawberry's). I just have not ventured into actually doing it yet, though I have always planed to.

Hello Guys,

Thank you very much for visiting my website and downloading the ebook :o) You'll see that going from a ppm formulation to the weights needed is a total breeze with the excel sheet included. You will also be able to do modifications to fit each growing stage of your plants easily. There are also a few formulations included within the ebook which I took from some of the available scientific literature but certainly you'll be able to find many more or experiment with your own modifications :o)

Thanks again for all the interest ! Make sure you leave any questions you may have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Everything Hydroponics

To, danielfp
Hello I just thought I would mention in order for the spreadsheet to be useful you need a program to run it on, and most people don't have Microsoft excel unless they use it at work or for a business. I believe it runs about $150. You may want to let people know that they need a program to use the spreadsheet. I have been using OpenOffice myself for over a year. In case you weren't aware of it it's a free open source equivalent to excel. You may also want to put a link on your website to it so they can download it for free.

Here is the link:
http://openofficedownload.org/

Here is a link that might be useful: OpenOffice