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Yes that is true. It misses the point about balanced nutrients though . In order for nitrogen to be useful to the plant in hydroponics it must be presented in high enough concentration for the IONs to be picked up by the roots at a given PH. It is a complex process that I have read and don't care to again. There is a minimum and maximum PPM that is useful. The minimum is ~100 and the Maximum is ~240. Nitrogen is a luxury nutrient and the plant will use it if it is there even beyond what it needs. This actually uses energy the plant could be using elsewhere. Anyhow if the solution is below ~100 PPM the plant is at risk of not getting enough. As far as I know this work has not been done on Autos. It is from tomatoes and lettuce etc. I have done some experimenting and the number that seems to work best is 110 - 115 PPM for N. Each element has it's own numbers.
So balance with the plant's use range and the other elements at the proper PH all need to be in place for balanced nutrients.
Does that make sense?
Now we add media to the mix - pun intended
. The plant still needs the same nutrient amounts and ratios but and this is a big but different media will have different element holding characteristics and many have persistent additions like dolomite lime. The root biome can become very robust, providing nutrients to the plant. So there is a lot going on in a pot! The Pro-mix HP is peat based with lots of good microbes in the beginning but if all you feed is MC they will become a minor factor. If you are careful with how you fertigate you don't need run-off. Most peeps will need to do a 10% run-off to prevent a salt build up. Peat holds nutrients better than coco but not as high as compost soils. That is why a Fertigate ,water, water, repeat is a good place to start. Fertigate at the balanced level of 3.5gMC .5g Epsom salt so you know they are going into the pot at the correct ratios, then by having just water days you in essence are diluting it by not adding any more to the pot.
Feeding salt fertilizer to media that is not inert is complicated. This is where the skill in growing comes in. You need to know by looking at the plants if they are hungry or overfed.
PPP. All of the PPMs are listed on the sheet? You need to measure Dry Nutrients by the gram in the volumes we use to be accurate and achieve the PPMs calculated in a solution.
