I'm a newb growing in soil. I use House and Garden nutes by their recommended doses. Do I ever have to worry about deficiencies other than N? Do all these deficiencies only come up when people are trying to save using cheap ferts that might not cover all nutrients?
There is a lot more to worry about than Nitrogen deficiency. There's all kinds of toxicity issues, and pH issues, that can crop up and ruin your day.
What you're doing is not ideal. You're growing in an organic medium that depends on a delicate balance of pH to maintain healthy microbes which break down larger molecules into food for the root system. By applying a hydroponic, salt based, nutrient you can upset the pH balance and damage or kill off the microbes with the inorganic chelators used to keep the metals and the salts from precipitating in the nutrient solution. Then the whole system starts breaking down.
I'm always perplexed at people who use soil, but then feed it with salts. I mean, just get yourself some coco and then you'd be doing it right.
Most deficiency is a result of pH imbalance or an over abundance of one element preventing the uptake of another. Micro deficiency is common, especially calcium and magnesium, but again... more pH related.
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