wont use lucas formula but have questions your opinon please

[Blunt_69]

Seriously, you shouldnt be going over 700-800ppm in veg, and barely 1000-1100ppm in flower. It just doesnt take high ppm to grow plants if using 3part or Floranova. Btw, at 12" you should be thinking about flipping to flower (12/12).

Agreed.

Ive been using th 5- 10 with hydrozyme in veg for years.. PPM levels sit at around 600-700ppm. In flower 8/16 takes me up to 1100ppm before flowering booster.1400-1600 ppm with a full bloom levels. I find these ratios are ideally suited for my system, i can watch the plants deplete these levels over a period of time. Then refresh with full strength when i need to bring the levels up again. Unless I see defficeintcy(which is never) I will bump levels up a bit.

I use one 1K hortiliux.Recirculating hydro system.

 

[ApolloGreed]

If you want to hit a target TDS with the lucas formula, you can use a math formula.

((target TDS - current TDS)/target TDS) * 8ml (full strength dose) * gallons in res
double this number to find how much bloom to add

For example, say I have a 50 gallon res and my TDS is 500, but I want to raise it to 1000.

((1000 - 500)\1000) * 8 * 50 = 200ml

Make sure to do the order of operation correctly. 1000 - 500 first, divide by 1000 second, multiply by 8 then multiply by 50.

So I add 200ml of micro and 400ml of bloom to the res.

ksac, just have to thank you for this explanation - you've saved me a lot of frustration. Its easy to mistake the ratio for npk values (or other values
) this totally cleared things up for me.

 

[greenhornets]

hey IGT ,b_69 thanks for stopping by. i dumped the res . i got the tds down to 850 and plan on change the nutes out in 2 weeks ,then i plan to switch to bloom.
i started 12/12 today .

 

[ItsGrowTime]

hey IGT ,b_69 thanks for stopping by. i dumped the res . i got the tds down to 850 and plan on change the nutes out in 2 weeks ,then i plan to switch to bloom.
i started 12/12 today .

Good job. Keep us posted...and some pics would be nice

 

[greenhornets]

hey IGT i'll diffently keep ya posted , i'll also get some pics after turkey days over . we will have about 20 plus people over . thanks again for ALL your help .you helped me through alot of mistakes ..

 

[greenhornets]

HAPPY TURKEY DAY ALL.....

 

[greenhornets]

hey ,you wouldnt know what i could use to lower the ph ?? i run out and it wont be till this weekend be for i can get to the store . thanks

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Add in some more nutes to lower ph. But don't overdo it and end up back at 1300ppm lol! Add a little at a time to get a feel for it. Adding back nutes will always lower ph.

But I doubt you really need to worry about it. A few days of slightly high ph isnt a problem at all (assuming we arent talking 7.5ph here). Don't get too heavy into micromanaging your plants...thats a big cause of problems for new growers. Stay as hands off as possible. The ph can swing around from 5.3 up to 6.5 with no problems. Once I learned to stop fucking with them so much, I saw immediate improvement. They're weeds.

 

[one Q]

dont quote me but Ive read Fulvic Acid down and Silica Blast up.

 

[greenhornets]

i made to the store and picked up so gh down . i also got some olivias coning solution , i got a few clone started in a power cloner . i started them using power cloning solution and ran out that stuff is high priced .
how long do i need to wait before i give weak strength nutes.the olivias tds is 340 ..day 13 on cloning ..

 

[greenhornets]

Hey IGT Here's those pics

These are the clones , 13 total. waiting on 1 to show roots.


these are the mothers , 6 different mothers ,2 rows of 3 . they are the most part 19 inches tall




. these are 8 day's flowering. wasn't sure how to flower them (whats the best way to flower clones in a turbo garden). whats style would be better ,lollipop ?? or 3 main tops . thats what i was going for here . ( some what) wasn't sure how . i can fit 14/16 pots in the turbo garden..do you think i vegged fo to long? how long should i be vegging ?? 1 or 2 weeks ?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Looking good! What's a turbo garden? Im not familiar.

Most of your questions will come down to the particular strains and phenotypes. You'll have to experiment to see what they like the most. Clones don't need near as much veg time as seeds so a week or so is all they will need in the future most likely. Consider starting a grow diary thread if you want to share and get inputs. The title of this thread won't attract much attention.

 

[greenhornets]

hey IGT,thanks for the advice . i dont think i would wont to start grow dairy thread . i was just looking for some advice and you have helped me greatly.
.. the turbo garden ,it like a small ebb n flo . it holds 14/16 pots . the tray is about 2x3 and a reservoir is about 25 gallons .

thanks again for you time and help IGT ..

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Oh ok gotcha. If your plants are close together (less than 6" separation), and it sounds like they are, then lollipopping is probably the way to go. Remove the bottom 1/3 branches by day 21 of flower. But again, it really depends on what you are growing and that's where you have to just start experimenting and learning your strains for yourself. I see you have lots of different strains. That's nice for variety but it usually makes for a mess of a garden. Try to home in on one particular strain and master it. Take clones of females soon too if you dont want to start from seed again. You don't want to have to reveg flowering clones. But I digress as that's a whole nother topic entirely...

Im always happy to help new growers, as I was helped by ICmag members when I was new too. Passing on the knowledge learned is key.

 

[Pharma Geddon]

I'm using the lucas formula with passive hydro, wish I'd known how easy this style of growing was when I started. Later tonight it will take me 10 minutes to mix a res and feed 20 plants, pH and ec meters no longer needed.

A big point to keep in mind for newer growers is that pH and ec are merely one way of ensuring that we have healthy vibrant plants. If the plants are healthy and vibrant then the pH and ec is correct and does not need to be measured because however you are mixing the res is correct. iow, the plants are the true pH and ec meters.

I aimed for pH 6.2 but 4ml of pH up gave 6.1 with ro water so 6.1 it was. ec is 1.7, not quite full strength. They start getting that 2 weeks after the seeds get wet. (They get started under the 400w cmh veg light.) Will be trying feeding from 1 week soon. Recently I've moved over to using Liquid Silicon as pH up, only con is it uses 3 times as much but is supposed to be good for the plants. My one and only nod to using additives.

I did try Flora Nova Grow for 1 batch of seeds. When lucas said it will give you BIG plants he was not kidding. The one grown in Fytocell grew like a triffid and even outgrew the ec = 1.7 mix, showing a few deficiency blotches. The slower plants in perlite showed no defs.

Overall, I wasn't fussed on the FN Grow. The stuff is so thick I was worried about getting the dosage correct so diluted it 3 to 1. Even then it poured like mud. As I sometimes take a long break from growing, the shorter shelf life put me off. Here in the UK it's slightly cheaper to buy 5L micro/10L bloom then the equivalent in FN Bloom.

I think using ro water makes a big difference to growing. Doesn't sound sexy like some hi tech kit but knowing that you have the same quality of water each time means mixing a new res becomes childs play, just do it the same each time.

For those with recirculating systems, it's mainly down to res size. Big is better, far more stable. With ro water, auto top up, the lucas formula plus addback you can do the entire grow without a res change. With my big tubbler I measured ec once a week, did the addback and that was it.