How To Properly Fertilize Semi Hydroponic Houseplants

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Ashley is a soil scientist who has had a passion for plants since she was a small child. In the long summers as a child, she would garden alongside her grandmother and it was then that she realized her love for greenery. With years of great studying, Ashley had begun her post-secondary education at the University of Saskatchewan. After years of working in agriculture R&D she has decided to take on teaching gardeners using science.

How To Properly Fertilize Semi Hydroponic Houseplants

As a soils scientist, I have an obsession with delivering nutrients to plants in the most effective possible manner. With semi hydroponic house plants this can be difficult to do and does require some care and attention. This gardening in Canada article is going to look at how to fertilize semi hydroponic houseplants.

If you are new to this blog my name is Ashley and I am a soil scientist. I am located in a Canadian Zone 3 and a USDA Zone 4. I write articles, make YouTube videos, Instagram & Facebook posts all designed for Canadians and Cold Climate gardeners using science-based methods. If you are looking for anything specific be sure to let me know in the comments down below.

What fertilizer should you use with semi hydroponic houseplants?

I personally use the root farm brand. This is because it is simple and only involves two bottles. The idea of having multiple bottles all of which have different volumes and requirements is too much work for me. Below I will list out all the different bits and bobs you need to make a complete fertilizer kit.

Root Farm Base – This Is going to be the base that you mix in.

Root Farm All-Purpose Fertilizer – Fertilizer that will be used what you are growing

Root Farm Flower Blend – If you are an orchid, Hoya or anything flowering grower you will replace this formula with the all-purpose formula when you want to aim for flowers.

Ph Test Kit – For the testing process

Ph Up – This is to increase the pH of the solution

Ph Down To decrease the pH of the solution

How much do you root farm fertilizer do you use?

The formula is simple all you need to determine on your own is the volume of the water vessel you are mixing in. The units I used are Litres so convert your volume if it’s in litres to gallons by using this link.

Base needed in ml = 2.273045 x (litres on your vessel)

All-Purpose needed in ml = 2.273045 x (litres on your vessel)

You can now add both the base and all-purpose fertilizer to your water vessel.

Testing The Water pH

How To Fertilizer Semi Hydroponic Houseplants Download

The next step is testing the water’s pH. This is CRUCIAL if you had to do absolutely anything for this entire process it is testing the pH of the water after you mix in the fertilizers. You need the pH to be around 6.5 for nutrients to be uptaken by the plant.

If your pH is higher or lower than 6.5 your plant is going to struggle to grab the nutrients it needs to thrive. Your plant can survive in a wide range of pH’s but it can not thrive and obtain rapid growth without the ideal range.

If you are not at a 6.5 use the pH up or pH down accordingly similar to what I do in the video.

Adding fertilizer water to the semi hydroponic system.

The next step is just adding the fertilizer water to the plants. Simply add the mixture you have worked on and you are done. Simply repeat these steps every time you add water to the semi hydroponically grown plants. You can also make a batch of this water to have in storage and use it on the fly as you need.

If you want to learn more about growing semi hydroponic plants check out these articles here.