Fertilization¶

Kamerplanter calculates precise mixing ratios for nutrient solutions, monitors your EC budget, and reminds you of watering schedules. Whether you are running hydroponics with EC calculation or organic outdoor growing — the system supports both approaches.

Prerequisites¶

• At least one fertilizer added under Fertilization → Fertilizers
• At least one plant with an active growth phase
• Recommended: water source configured on the site (for automatic EC calculation)

Understanding the Basics¶

Electrical Conductivity (EC)¶

Electrical Conductivity (EC) measures the concentration of dissolved nutrients in the watering solution in millisiemens per centimetre (mS/cm). It is the most important indicator for nutrient dosing:

• Too low: Plant starves, deficiency symptoms possible
• Optimal: Best possible growth
• Too high: Salt stress, root damage, nutrient lockout

Typical EC target ranges that Kamerplanter validates your calculated final EC against:

These values are identical to the table in the Nutrient Mixing guide — both are derived from the same source in the code so they cannot drift apart.

EC Budget¶

The EC budget is the difference between the EC target for the current phase and the EC value of your source water. Kamerplanter distributes this budget across the individual fertilizer components.

Example: - EC target for flowering: 1.8 mS/cm - Tap water EC: 0.4 mS/cm - EC budget for nutrients: 1.4 mS/cm

Alkalinity and pH Reserve¶

In the nutrient calculator (Fertilization → Nutrient Calculations → Mixing Protocol) you now also enter your water's alkalinity (carbonate hardness, measured in ppm CaCO₃ — often listed on your water supplier's data sheet, or measurable yourself with a KH drop test). The higher the alkalinity, the more acid is later needed for pH correction.

From the alkalinity value, Kamerplanter calculates the pH reserve — the portion of your EC budget that stays reserved for the later pH correction and is therefore no longer available for nutrients:

After calculating, the mixing protocol shows you three transparent values:

• Net EC budget (ec_net): EC target minus base water EC — the headroom generally available for nutrients.
• pH reserve (ec_ph_reserve): the portion deducted from it for pH correction (see table above).
• Recipe valid: whether the calculated final EC stays within the upper limit for substrate and phase.

Adding Fertilizers¶

Step 1: Navigate to Fertilization¶

Click Fertilization → Fertilizers in the navigation.

Step 2: Create a New Fertilizer¶

Click Add Fertilizer.

Step 3: Enter Fertilizer Data¶

Additional Fields for Organic Outdoor Fertilizers¶

For fertilizers intended for outdoor use (compost, horn shavings, plant teas) you also enter these fields — they are used for area-based dosing:

Fertilizer Stock, Incompatibilities, and Usage¶

The fertilizer detail page (Fertilization → Fertilizers → click a fertilizer) has three further areas:

Stock (tab "Stock")¶

Here you record individual containers/purchases of this fertilizer:

Kamerplanter shows a summary (total volume, average cost/liter, entry count) and a warning when a container is due to expire within the next 30 days.

Incompatibilities¶

If a fertilizer is marked incompatible with another one (e.g. CalMag with a sulfate supplement), the detail page shows a warning with reason and severity.

Usage in Nutrient Plans¶

The "Usage" section shows which nutrient plans use this fertilizer — as a Gantt chart across the phases of each plan. This lets you see at a glance in which plans and phases a fertilizer appears before you delete it or change its dosage.

Creating a Nutrient Plan¶

A nutrient plan defines the dosages of all fertilizers for each growth phase. It is the centerpiece of the fertilization logic.

Step 1: Create a New Nutrient Plan¶

Navigate to Fertilization → Nutrient Plans and click New Plan.

Step 2: Name the Plan and Choose Substrate¶

Enter a name (e.g. "Tomatoes Raised Bed 2026") and select the substrate type (soil, coco, hydroponics). The substrate influences EC tolerance and CalMag recommendations.

Step 3: Add Phase Entries¶

The new plan opens on the Phase Entries tab — it shows the phases as a Gantt timeline. For each growth phase add the fertilizer dosages:

1. Click Add Phase.
2. Select the phase (Germination, Vegetative, Flowering, etc.).
3. Enter the dosage in ml/L for each fertilizer.
4. The system instantly calculates total EC and shows whether the budget is met.

Step 4: Assign the Plan to a Planting Run¶

1. Open the desired Planting Run under Runs and switch to the Fertilization & Watering tab.
2. Click Assign Nutrient Plan.
3. Select the plan from the list.

All plants in this run will now use this plan for their watering recommendations.

Delivery Channels (Multi-Channel Delivery)¶

From the Intermediate experience level upward, you can define multiple delivery channels for a phase entry instead of a single dosage — for example an automatic fertigation channel through the drip tank plus an occasional foliar feed. Each channel has its own application method, its own fertilizer dosages, and optionally its own schedule.

Creating a channel¶

1. Open the nutrient plan and click Add Channel on a phase entry.
2. Assign a Channel ID and choose the application method:

1. Optionally enter a target EC and target pH for this channel.
2. If needed, enable a dedicated watering schedule for the channel (weekdays or interval, preferred time, reminder hours before) — without a dedicated schedule, the plan default applies.
3. Assign the desired fertilizers with ml/L dosages under Fertilizers (each can be marked "optional" if it may be omitted when needed).

Channel validation¶

Kamerplanter checks the channels against the phase's EC budget and shows on the Validation tab whether all channels are valid or whether there are issues (including the tolerance range).

Logging a watering from a channel¶

The "Log watering for this channel" button opens a pre-filled watering log entry (application method, target EC/pH, and fertilizer dosages are already populated) — see Watering Log.

Duplicating and Validating a Plan¶

• Clone: Click the copy icon in the nutrient plan list to create a copy of a plan under a new name — useful as a starting point for a variant of a proven plan.
• Validate: The Validation tab in the plan detail view automatically checks, as soon as you open it, whether the plan is complete (all phases covered) and whether the EC budgets per phase are respected.
• Dosage Calculator: The Dosage Calculator tab computes the exact amounts for this plan for a specific location or watering volume — handy for quickly determining the actual amount needed before mixing.

Logging a Watering¶

After every watering or feeding session you document it in the Watering Log. This helps track actual nutrient delivery and substrate EC over time. See Watering Log for the full field list, recording, and evaluation — here just the two entry points:

Quick entry via the Planting Run¶

1. Open a Planting Run and switch to the Fertilization & Watering tab — it shows the upcoming watering dates from the watering schedule.
2. Click Quick Confirm on a date, or open Confirm Watering to adjust actual EC/pH and volume beforehand.

Detailed entry¶

1. Open the Watering Log menu item (a dedicated top-level menu item, not under Fertilization).
2. Click Log Watering.
3. Select plant(s) and/or slots, application method, volume, and optionally fertilizers with dosages.
4. Optionally record EC/pH before and after, and runoff EC/pH (for runoff analysis).

Calculating a Flush¶

Before harvest a flush can help wash excess salts from the substrate. Kamerplanter provides a calculator for this — there is currently no button on the plant that "starts" a flush or automatically creates watering tasks.

Using the calculator¶

1. Open Fertilization → Nutrient Calculations and the Flushing card.
2. Enter the current EC of your nutrient solution and the number of days until the planned harvest.
3. Click Calculate.

The result shows the recommended flush duration, the start day (today plus remaining days minus flush duration), and a day-by-day plan with target EC, action (e.g. "quarter-strength flush"), and dosage percentage — the final 40 % of the flush duration runs on plain water (0 mS/cm).

Recommended flush duration by substrate:

Organic Outdoor Fertilization¶

For outdoor gardens with soil, raised-bed mix, or living soil Kamerplanter recommends area-based organic fertilization rather than EC calculation.

Fertilizer Categories Outdoors¶

Recommendation by Nutrient Demand¶

Kamerplanter shows the nutrient demand of the plant (from master data) in the plant detail view and provides a recommendation:

Area-Based Dosing Calculation (Nutrient Calculator)¶

Instead of deriving dosages by hand from the tables above, let Kamerplanter calculate them precisely:

1. Open Fertilization → Nutrient Calculations and select the Area Dosing (Outdoor) card.
2. Enter the keys of the desired fertilizers (comma-separated), e.g. compost and horn shavings.
3. Either enter the bed area in m² directly, or enter a location instead. If an area is entered, it takes precedence — the location is then ignored. If the area field is left empty, Kamerplanter uses the area stored for the selected location.
4. Optionally select the plant's nutrient demand (heavy/medium/light feeder, nitrogen fixer) — this provides additional guidance but does not replace the amount calculation itself.
5. Click Calculate.

The result shows, per fertilizer, the total amount in grams or litres for the given area, the stored dilution ratio, the nutrient release speed, and additional notes.

CalMag: When and How Much?¶

CalMag supplements (calcium-magnesium supplements, commonly abbreviated CalMag) are important with soft tap water and reverse osmosis water, since these lack natural minerals.

Kamerplanter calculates CalMag requirements automatically when you have entered the water source on your site:

• 100 % RO water: Full CalMag supplement (~0.5–1.5 ml/L depending on phase)
• 50/50 mix (RO + tap): Half CalMag amount
• Hard tap water (EC > 0.5 mS/cm): Often no CalMag needed

Water Mixer and EC Budget Calculator¶

Under Fertilization → Nutrient Calculations you find, next to the mixing protocol and area dosing, two further cards that appear depending on your experience level:

Water Mixer (from Intermediate)¶

Enter your tap water's EC, its alkalinity, and your desired target EC for the blended water, and the Water Mixer calculates in reverse the RO water percentage needed to reach exactly that target EC — along with the resulting effective water EC.

EC Budget Calculator (from Expert)¶

The EC Budget Calculator is the most detailed variant of the mixing protocol. In addition to target EC, substrate, phase, and volume, you can pre-deduct CalMag and silicate fertilizers with a fixed dose, and specify the number of substrate cycles already used (for the automatic coco CalMag boost). You can also enter a measured EC value together with the water temperature.

The result shows a colored EC-budget bar (base water/silicate/CalMag/fertilizers/pH reserve), warnings, a dosage table, and a numbered mixing guide — identical calculation logic to the mixing protocol, just with more input options.

Frequently Asked Questions¶

See Also¶

• My Plant Doesn't Look Well — Symptom Diagnosis
• Watering Log
• Tank Management
• Growth Phases
• Guides: Mixing Nutrient Solutions
• Guides: VPD Optimization