Check out our list of the top-rated hydroponic nutrients and fertilizers for your money. Since the best fertilizer for hydroponics can vary depending on your specific needs, you should also check out our guide below on How to Choose the Best Hydroponics Nutrients.

Quick Answer: The Best-Rated Hydroponic Nutrients and Fertilizers

1. General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Bloom, Micro Combo Fertilizer
2. AeroGarden Liquid Nutrients
3. MasterBlend 4-18-38 Complete Combo Kit Fertilizer
4. Advanced Nutrients Bloom, Micro & Grow
5. Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula

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The Best Hydroponic Nutrients and Fertilizers

	General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Bloom, Micro Combo Fertilizer	AeroGarden Liquid Nutrients	MasterBlend 4-18-38 Complete Combo Kit Fertilizer
Nutrients Included	Nitrogen, calcium, trace minerals; phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfate (epsom salt)	Potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)	Calcium nitrate, magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)
pH buffering	pH balanced	pH balanced	pH balanced
Product Size	1 gal, 1 quart, 6 gal	1-liter bottle	12.5, 2.5, 5, 25 and 62.5 pound kits
Customer Ratings	4.6 / 5.0 Stars	4.4 / 5.0 Stars	4.6 / 5.0 Stars

Also see: Hydroponic Nutrients Comparison Table

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Hydroponic Nutrients and Fertilizers Reviews

#1 – Editor’s Choice – General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Bloom, Micro Combo Fertilizer

General Hydroponics is undoubtedly one of the best and most popular brands out there if you’re looking for the best nutrients for hydroponics. They’re specifically known for their Flora Series, including 3 different formulas: FloraGrow, FloraBloom and FloraMicro. Each one of these contains a unique formula with different hydroponic nutrients at varied concentrations. All plants have different nutrient needs, and these change as the plant grows. The great thing about having 3 solutions is that it lets you customize your solution to your plant’s needs at any point during their growing cycle.

FloraMicro is the foundation of the set and contains a mixture of trace minerals, calcium and nitrogen. These nutrients are needed all throughout the plant’s growth cycle. As your plant reaches its vegetative stage, FloraGrow provides increased nitrogen and potassium for better growth results. Finally, FloraBloom provides nutrients like phosphorous, magnesium and sulfur – all of which are needed for the development of fruit and flowers. This system gives you control over your nutrient solution to increase growth success, regardless of what you’re growing.

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#2 – Best for Beginners – AeroGarden Liquid Nutrients

AeroGarden by Miracle-Gro is another popular series of home hydroponics systems. It includes their own special formula of liquid hydroponic nutrients. Unlike the Flora Series from General Hydroponics, this hydroponic plant food comes in just one formula. Everything that your plants need is contained within the one bottle of AeroGarden Liquid Hydroponic Nutrients.

This makes it a wonderful choice for anyone that’s just getting started with hydroponics. It takes all the guess-work out of the process. With this fertilizer, you just mix the one formula with water in the recommended ratio. There are over 100 feeds worth of this hydroponic plant food in the one bottle, so it will last a long time. AeroGarden also encourages use of their hydroponic plant food for other plants as well, including those growing in soil. It’s a great fertilizer option across the board!

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#3 – Best Solid Nutrient Options – MasterBlend 4-18-38 Complete Combo Kit Fertilizer

This solid hydroponic fertilizer from MasterBlend is one of the best on the market when it comes to solid nutrient options. The reason liquid concentrations are generally chosen is that they’re easier to use and mix with water to create your hydroponic nutrient solution. However, solid hydroponic nutrients are much more cost-effective to prepare, package and ship compared to liquid concentrations.

This MasterBlend Complete Combo Kit Fertilizer contains 3 different components. You have the actual 4-18-38 MasterBlend that contains the necessities you’ll want to give your plants, including nitrogen, phosphate, magnesium, copper, iron and more. You’ll also receive a bag of calcium nitrate that provides additional calcium and nitrogen as needed. Finally, it comes with a bag of Epsom salt which comprises of magnesium, sulfate and sulfur, which are highly beneficial during the final stage of the growth cycle (flowering and fruit bearing). By allowing you to mix in each component one at a time, you also prevent nutrient lockout which is a great bonus.

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#4 – Best Value – Advanced Nutrients Bloom, Micro & Grow

Here’s another great 3-part hydroponic nutrient system that comes from Advanced Nutrients. This system is quite similar to the Flora Series from General Hydroponics, the most notable difference being the price. With Advanced Nutrients, you actually pay a little less and get a little more. Of course, with the trust and reliability that General Hydroponics has built over the years, it’s understandable why many still choose them – even with the slightly higher price. Just like the Flora Series, this hydroponic nutrient system comes with their own Micro, Grow and Bloom formulas. Each one has a similar makeup to the options provided in the Flora Series.

Micro includes a variety of essential nutrients and creates the base of your hydroponic fertilizer. Grow provides additional nutrients which aid in vegetative growth. Finally, Bloom provides the extra needed nutrients to ensure the biggest and best results for whatever you’re growing. The 3 unique formulas and pH perfect technology make it easy to customize your hydroponic nutrient solution – for each part of your plant’s growth cycle.

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#5 – Customer’s Choice – Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula

Finally, Fox Farm rounds off our list with their Liquid Nutrient Trio Formula. Fox Farm is a high-end line of hydroponic nutrients that is well-respected. It’s also quite expensive, at about twice the cost of the Flora Series from General Hydroponics. The Trio Formula includes three of their most popular liquid nutrient concentration options: you’ll get a bottle of Grow Big, Big Bloom and a bottle of Tiger Bloom.

Grow Big is specifically formulated to increase vegetative or green growth during the vegetative stage of the cycle. As the name suggests, this helps your plants reach bigger sizes for optimal health. Once you start to see the first signs of blooming, Tiger Bloom is the ideal hydroponic nutrients option to get you the biggest, brightest and best results possible. Big Bloom is most ideal to use all throughout the growing cycle in order to help heal and improve root systems, as well as increase overall output. Big Bloom also happens to be an excellent organic hydroponic fertilizer.

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Hydroponic Nutrients Comparison Table

Best Hydroponic Nutrients and Fertilizers		Nutrients Included	pH buffering	Product Size	Customer Ratings
General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Bloom, Micro Combo Fertilizer		Nitrogen, calcium, trace minerals; phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, sulfate (epsom salt)	pH balanced	1 gal, 1 quart, 6 gal	4.6 / 5.0 Stars
AeroGarden Liquid Nutrients		Potassium nitrate, calcium nitrate, magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)	pH balanced	1-liter bottle	4.4 / 5.0 Stars
MasterBlend 4-18-38 Complete Combo Kit Fertilizer		Calcium nitrate, magnesium sulfate (epsom salt)	pH balanced	12.5, 2.5, 5, 25 and 62.5 pound kits	4.6 / 5.0 Stars
Advanced Nutrients Bloom, Micro & Grow		Advanced nutrients bloom, micro and grow	pH balanced	1 liter each (3 liters total)	4.5 / 5.0 Stars
Fox Farm Liquid Nutrient Trio Soil Formula		Advanced nutrients grow big, tiger bloom and big bloom	N/A	1 pint each	4.0 / 5.0 Stars

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How to Choose the Best Hydroponics Nutrients

Since hydroponics has become more popular than ever and is still gaining traction, more and more people are on the hunt for the best hydroponic nutrients and fertilizers. To put it simply, hydroponics is the growing of terrestrial plants without soil. There are lots of different methods of hydroponics, but they all share the fact that they require some form of hydroponic nutrient solution.

Hydroponics nutrients are basically just hydroponic plant food. Since there is no soil for plants to gain nutrients from, you must provide it through nutrient solutions. There are many benefits of hydroponics, so it’s understandable that both commercial and home hydroponics have seen so much growth over the years.

When it comes to home hydroponics, choosing the best nutrients can feel like a burden. You want to be successful with your gardening, but you may not have the experience or knowledge to know exactly what will work best, and what you should be considering when trying to find the best nutrients.

The most important thing is to take your time and learn as you go. Choosing the best hydroponics fertilizer is an important step in getting started, and we hope this guide can help you get started with successful home hydroponics. To make it as simple as possible, we’ll go over a few of the basics when it comes to what you should be considering when choosing the best hydroponic fertilizer for your needs.

• Liquid or Solid
• Number of Components
• Organic or Synthetic
• Cost
• FAQs

Liquid or Solid

First off, you need to choose what form of hydroponic fertilizer you want. These are available in liquid form as well as solid form, and there are benefits to each. Liquid hydroponic nutrients are generally easier to mix and use, while solid hydroponic nutrients are usually cheaper. Solid forms are also easier to ship, store and are more easily purchased in bulk.

Number of Components

Another important consideration is whether you want a one-part or multi-part system. One-part systems only have one formula of hydroponic nutrients that you mix with water to create your hydroponic nutrient solution. This is obviously the easiest choice. These types of mixtures are made with a formula that is good for general use, but obviously can’t be customized.

Alternatively, you can choose a multi-part system – most commonly a three-part system. This will consist of multiple different hydroponic nutrient formulas. In this case, you either mix the different parts of the formula at the ratios of your choosing, or you use different formulas throughout different parts of the growing cycle. This obviously takes more knowledge of your specific plants and their changing nutrient needs, but the ability to customize your solution gives you the ability to enhance your overall success.

Organic or Synthetic

A lot of people out there are looking for the best organic fertilizer for hydroponics. This makes complete sense – especially if you’re looking to grow organic plants. However, what’s important to understand about organic hydroponic nutrients is essentially that there are none. Basically, due to the nature of hydroponic nutrients, there are no officially organic or non-organic options. When you hear about hydroponic organic nutrients, what they’re really talking about are options like one of our top picks, General Organics from General Hydroponics.

Cost

Finally, cost is very important when choosing hydroponic nutrients. That’s because they’re a consistent, recurring cost. This isn’t just something that you’ll purchase one time if you’re regularly practicing home hydroponics. Remember that dry hydroponic nutrients are generally much more affordable, but liquid options are easier to use.

One-part systems are also usually more affordable, but don’t allow customization for different plants and changing needs throughout growing cycles. Even similar options from different brands can vary a lot in cost, though, which is why you should consider the long-term costs of your hydroponics nutrients choices carefully.

Conclusion

Choosing the best nutrients is one of the most important things you can do to ensure success in home hydroponics. A good hydroponic fertilizer will make a huge difference in how well your plants grow. Since choosing a hydroponic fertilizer can be overwhelming, we hope that our list of recommendations and guide on choosing hydroponic nutrients have been helpful. As long as you choose a balanced fertilizer and use it properly, you should see good results.

Recent Updates

December 6, 2021: Verified availability of all products and assigned awards to each.

FAQs

How can plants grow without soil?

One of the most common questions about hydroponics is how plants are able to grow without soil. The answer is hydroponic nutrients! In normal farming and gardening, plants receive nutrients from 3 places – the air, the water, and the soil. In the case of hydroponic farming, hydroponic nutrients replace the nutrients that would typically come from the soil and often supplement additional nutrients to maximize results.

Are hydroponic nutrients better than soil?

Both can be utilized properly to get amazing results. The biggest difference is probably that hydroponics provides the ability to more easily control and monitor the environment of the plants. This allows a more targeted approach to providing all of the nutrients that are necessary to a plant for it to grow and thrive well.

Can I use hydroponics nutrients in soil?

Hydroponics nutrients can certainly be used in soil, although it may be overkill in many cases. Since hydroponic nutrients and fertilizers are designed specifically to replace nutrients from soil, they aren’t really necessary for plants being grown in soil. However, they can still provide benefits and maximize growing potential.

How We Researched

To come up with the top hydroponic nutrients and fertilizers, we researched a variety of sources for reviews such as Home Depot, Lowes, Target and AcmeTools along with our own personal experience. We also consulted online magazines for product research and reviews to get as much unbiased information as we could. To help weed out fake reviews we used Fakespot.com to make sure we only looked at genuine reviews.

With so much quality gear available, we had to narrow it down based on what we felt were the best options were for the price. After extensive research, we came up with our list to help you choose the right one for you.