Hoagland solution

The Hoagland solution is a hydroponic nutrient solution that was developed by Hoagland and Arnon in 1938 and revised by Arnon in 1950 and is one of the most popular solution compositions for growing plants (in the scientific world at least). The Hoagland solution provides every nutrient necessary for plant growth and is appropriate for the growth of a large variety of plant species.

The solution described by Hoagland and Arnon in 1950 has been modified several times, mainly to add iron chelates, the original concentrations for each element are shown below.

• N 210 ppm
• K 235 ppm
• Ca 200 ppm
• P 31 ppm
• S 64 ppm
• Mg 48 ppm
• B 0.5 ppm
• Fe 1 to 5 ppm
• Mn 0.5 ppm
• Zn 0.05 ppm
• Cu 0.02 ppm
• Mo 0.01 ppm

The Hoagland solution has a lot of N and K so it is very well suited for the development of large plants like tomato and bell pepper. The solution is very good for the growth of plants with lower nutrient demands as well, such as lettuce and aquatic plants with the further dilution of the preparation to 1/4 or 1/5 of the original.

1. Potassium nitrate(KNO₃)
2. Magnesium sulphate heptahydrate, MgSO₄•7H₂O, and potassium dihydrogen phosphate (Potassium phosphate monobasic), KH₂PO₄
3. Iron EDTA or Iron chelate, Fe-EDTA
4. Boric Acid, H₃BO₃
5. Copper Sulfate, CuSO₄
6. Zinc sulfate heptahydrate, ZnSO₄•7H₂O
7. Manganese chloride, MnCl₂•4H₂O
8. Sodium molybdate, Na₂MoO₄•2H₂O,
9. Calcium nitrate, Ca(NO₃)₂•4H₂O. Last solution must be added as final.

Procedure:

1. Make up stock solutions and store in separate bottles with appropriate label.
2. Add each component to 800 mL deionized water then fill to 1 L.
3. After the solution is mixed, it is ready to water plants.

What many people may not know is that the Hoagland/Arnon nutrient solution formulations require one gallon of nutrient solution to be used per plant with replacement on a weekly basis. If any of these use parameters are changed, i.e., the volume of solution, number of plants, and/or frequency of replacement, plant performance will be significantly affected, this is a factor that may not be realized by people using the formulations.

Video Hoagland solution

References

Maps Hoagland solution

See also

Murashige and Skoog medium

External links

• The exact composition of the Hoagland solution
• Description of the solution
• National Academy of Sciences: A Biographical Memoir of Dennis Robert Hoagland by Walter P. Kelley