FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I'm looking to buy MS macro, micro, and vitamins separately. I thought they would've been cheaper or about the same price that way, but they seem to be more expensive. For example, phytotechlab has the mixed macro & micro for $7.20 but individually they are 7.20 each (10L). For around a dollar more, you can also get it with the vitamins and sucrose. Is this normal and do you know why?

I think it is normal, but I can't really venture a guess as to why.

Well, assurance I'm not misreading the specs is the important part. Thanks!

What's the difference between macro and micro?

They contain different compounds. As you may guess, the micronutrients are in much smaller quantities.

MS Macronutrients
Ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) 1,650 mg/l
Calcium chloride (CaCl2 · 2H2O) 440 mg/l
Magnesium sulphate (MgSO4 · 7H2O) 370 mg/l
Potassium phosphate (KH2PO4) 170 mg/l
Potassium nitrate (KNO3) 1,900 mg/l

MS Micronutrients
Boric acid (H3BO3) 6.2 mg/l
Cobalt chloride (CoCl2 · 6H2O) 0.025 mg/l
Cupric sulphate (CuSO4 · 5H2O) 0.025 mg/l
Ferrous sulphate (FeSO4 · 7H2O) 27.8 mg/l
Manganese sulphate (MnSO4 · 4H2O) 22.3 mg/l
Potassium iodide (KI) 0.83 mg/l
Sodium molybdate (Na2MoO4 · 2H2O) 0.25 mg/l
Zinc sulphate (ZnSO4·7H2O) 8.6 mg/l
Na2EDTA · 2H2O 37.2 mg/l

I've read about protocols using a diluted MS media with full micronutrients so I wanted to buy them separately. Since buying MS Macronutrients only was more expensive than full MS, what I ended up doing to slightly save costs was buy full MS media and an additional packet of micronutrients. So I can dilute the full MS and supplement micronutrients into it to bring them back up to full strength.