gh flora series (6/9) with soil? success?

[baet]

getting ready for the outdoor season.
wanting to switch up nutes. really interested in 6/9 micro/bloom formula with the flora series with added koolbloom and floralicious grow possibly. Rez gave me the idea. basically tho lucas

but my question: is gh flora still stellar in soil??


i love the prices of gh and the rave reviews, and ease of use.

i have heard gh is hot, and must be pH'd. i should probably especially go ahead with that since ill be growing in soil.


my previous grows are all organic, and my soil ammended with EWC and compost.

2nd question: should i even bother amending soil with EWC and compost if I do decide to use GH Flora?
or will that be useless since im using mineral based nutrient that is immediately uptakeable by the roots?

 

[baet]

oh yeah,

ive been told MAXIBLOOM is basically a one part lucas formula, defeating the process of mixing a micro and bloom. saving time and money.


would anyone recommend Maxibloom over 6/9 Flora for outdoor soil?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

I'm speaking from indoor experience but GH flora lucas is great in soil. If there's a down side at all, some strains look a little underfed with base lucas alone. You might find the 6/9 perfect and you might need to manipulate. The supplements will more than take up any slack. Floralicious will keep it green as long as you keep adding it so you'll want to consider that if you don't like smoking all that stuff. Koolbloom will boost yield pretty good. I've got the liquid and the powdered kb. I rarely use the liquid and follow rez's recipe on the powder and like the results.

GH is hot, I don't think it's out of the ordinary. It'll send ro water down pretty good. Calmag is good if you can use the extra Mg as the calcium will help buffer. I'm sure you'll lime your soil so this will keep you from having to use so much pH up, if any at all.

Floralicious has humic and or fulvic acid. This will help absorption. I have runoff as low as 6.0 with no visible deficiencies when using floralicious. Without it I need 6.5.

As far as amending your soil, I'd do it for texture but can't add any advice for nutrient value as I don't do organic (outside floralicious, lol.) Personally, I don't think you'll need anything other than what you've already mentioned. If you get too many things going with new stuff it's sometimes hard to tell what causes the problem if it occurs.

EDIT: Haven't tried maxibloom. I recently switched to Floranova which is also 1 part and similar to lucas. It's supposed to be buffered better than Flora but I'm not sure. The numbers don't back it up in my experience but it could have some humic or fulvic going on to help absorption.

1 part is nice but IMO, Flora delivers on the taste and smell better than Floranova. Floranova seems to make no problem growing easier though.

 

[Moneygrowonweed]

I love GH and use it tried advance but thought is was to much money for what it did so i stay with the 3 part gh and have no problems at all but every few weeks have to flush there is alot of salts in it but its ok flushing is easy and the plants love it.

 

[baet]

awesome disco, exactly what i needed to hear to push me in the gh 6/9 direction!

my next question for you disco:

what is the frequency of your feeding schedule roughly?
I realize depending on pot size, plant size, strain, light intensity it could vary, but i want to avoid burning the plants as well as keep plants striving. should i ever worry about salt buildup with this formula?

so in conjecture with my question: do you do a one week feed type deal, feed every three waterings, feed every other watering?


i most likely will be doing strictly and only: 6/9 Flora veg and bloom (half strength for young clones), floralicious grow during veg, and powder KB during flower. thats it.

im getting good soil, the kind, from a EWC farm free in an infinite quantity, got the hook up, and wont be worrying about amendments. ill be adding dolomite lime fersure for buffer and possibly some perlite. probably 50+ gal smart pots, loved the smart pot results last season!

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

If you use plain water between feedings, flushing isn't necessary IMO. Flora Grow is almost worthless, has too much K. I think they use so much for buffer but it builds up and causes problems in my experience.

If you have to flush every few weeks, try watering twice between feeding and you probably won't have to flush. As a matter of fact, plain water the last week to 10 days of growing usually leaves my weed tasting great. I usually give Floranove a full two weeks but neither really need flushing unless feedings are too strong or at too frequent intervals.

 

[baet]

money:good to see another satisfied gh customer. salt buildup is what i was mainly interested in, good to know. thank you

 

[baet]

oh shit Disco, i meant 6/9 micro and bloom. yea im not going to use veg
edit: actually i didnt write it wrong, it was just confusing. i oiginally meant Flora 6/9 during veg and bloom, 6/9 being micro/bloom

 

[baet]

my water is alkaline, very soft, ill check pH after adding micro and bloom to it, and then adjust pH from there. ive never adjusted pH and used a pH pen... any suggestions?

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

That's cool bro, sounded like you stated everything correctly to me. Money mentioned 3 part and I just related my bad experience with Flora Grow.

Soft water might help the resulting pH but that doesn't necessarily address your water quality. pH pens are good but finicky. Following the cleaning and storage instructions for best results. pH drops are good, the color changes and you compare it to a chart. Always good to have back up drops in case your pens gets crazy.

If you're gonna get a pen, get one that reads EC. PPM is nice but there are two scales, .5 and .7. According to what I've read, the same reading on each scale can be as much as a 600ppm difference, which could be disastrous.

 

[DiscoBiscuit]

sorry bro, I must have overlooked this post

sorry bro, I must have overlooked this post

awesome disco, exactly what i needed to hear to push me in the gh 6/9 direction!

my next question for you disco:

what is the frequency of your feeding schedule roughly?
I realize depending on pot size, plant size, strain, light intensity it could vary, but i want to avoid burning the plants as well as keep plants striving. should i ever worry about salt buildup with this formula?

I guess it's always a good idea to be prepared. On occasion I'll measure the runoff for strength to determine whether it looks like salts are building up. This may be impossible outdoors unless you're able to collect runoff. Only occasionally do I need to plain water twice between feedings because I don't over feed in the first place. 6:9 isn't strong in most cases, just make sure to use it half strength on plants less than 10" tall. I only use a 150w hps bulb, that's not very much radiation but it's in a small space. That said, I don't think you'll have to worry about salt buildup rocking 6:9 outdoors.

so in conjecture with my question: do you do a one week feed type deal, feed every three waterings, feed every other watering?

I usually feed every other water. If my pots are dry after 3 days, that's better than one feed a week, (every other scenario.) I use 4 supplements along with the base nutes so it's not weak. I wouldn't rule out plain watering twice (a single time) in the whole flower cycle based on my experience. Your plants are gonna suck up most of the base nutes. If you supps are significant, I could see where the base might linger a little longer than it otherwise. So it's wise of you to consider buildup and how you're gonna deal with it.

IMO, it's easier and conserves more water and nutrients if you don't have to flush at all, meaning it's important to not overfeed. Provided everything goes as planned, the week or two of plain water usually does the trick. You can always flush though if you feel it necessary.

As I mentioned earlier, plain (Flora) lucas is easy peasy to prevent buildup. When I switched to Floranova and supplements, my taste and smell was diminished and had an earthy taste not present with Flora. I assume I used the Floralicious or Kool Bloom powder too late in flower. I plan to cut the Floralicious off at around day 45 in flower (maybe 2/3 of the way outdoors, just guessing though.) And I wont use the powder any later than rez recommends for starters and see how that goes. Best wishes, I'd love to see those pots packed full of roots.

i most likely will be doing strictly and only: 6/9 Flora veg and bloom (half strength for young clones), floralicious grow during veg, and powder KB during flower. thats it.

im getting good soil, the kind, from a EWC farm free in an infinite quantity, got the hook up, and wont be worrying about amendments. ill be adding dolomite lime fersure for buffer and possibly some perlite. probably 50+ gal smart pots, loved the smart pot results last season!

Sounds like you have a good nute schedule. Keep an eye on it the first go round, note any changes in case you want to do a round 2 of the same. Have you checked out Tom Hill's threads? He's got lots of space too and grows monsters. His planters look mostly above ground and look like they use silk screen with tomato stakes driven into the ground for support. The fabric breaths and I wonder if he's getting an air pot effect?

 

[baet]

thanks discobiscuit for everything, youve been extremely helpful. i have a lengthier response but dont have the time right now.

ill post tomorow fersure

 

[Guest 18340]

I have used Rez's 6/9, Lucas's 8/16 and Maxibloom in soil (and coco) outdoors (and indoors).
Some strains (Schanzzleberry#2, for example) displayed an N toxicity with the 6/9 ratio, not so with 8/16 or Maxibloom. (Read thru H3ads goes coco thread and you'll see a few people asking why their plants look N toxic)It happened to my partner with the same strain.
3/4-1 tsp/gal Maxibloom and tap is what my outdoors (and indoor) ladies get and I have never ever gotten a def. It's what I use exclusively now in soil and coco, outside or in.
I also use Floralicous+ as it has humic acids, at the recommended dosage. It seems to make my plants look more lush.
Oh, at 3/4tsp/gal Maxibloom and F+ and tap, I don't ph the water. My tap is 300ppm and ph of 8. After adding my nutes and F+ my ph drops to 5.5.
Imo, GH (Flora series or Maxibloom) and F+ is all you'll need.
This has been MY experience, your results may vary

 

[baet]

elvme-im guessing you've seen the best results from maxibloom over 6/9 and 8/16 since you are using it indoor and outdoor?

thats funny that 6/9 caused N tox and not the 8/16, seems like the stronger 8/16 would of before 6/9...

but thank you for the informative info, very helpful!

yeah rez only used the 6/9 base, floralicious and koolbloom, makes it very simple and must be effective

 

[baet]

oh ill most likely be growing headband(og x master x skunk x diesel cross), supersilverhaze x velvet , and maybe ogk or probably blueberry kush

edith yeah i mite have an RO filter set up too, pretty stoked

 

[baet]

discobiscuit-sounds like ill have no prob with salts! ill probably do the everyother feed, thats what i usually do as well.

two plain waterings once during flower does sound beneficial during flowering. yeah id def like to avoid even having to flush, that means i probably overfed. thank you for all the input.

im very priveledged to be able to grow with a two masters this season, one who is a certified organic gardener and has been growing and researching his whole adult life, and another who has been growing and has a large selection of mothers. we're gona set up 2 sq yard round beds for each plant. were doing a tom hill grow in sense, but they dont know who he is.

 

[Guest 18340]

Honestly, I get as good results with MaxiBloom as I do with 8/16. BUT, Maxibloom being a 1 part means I can't tailor things to a specific plants' needs. I can only vary the strength, not the NPK ratio. I can custom mix npk ratio's with the liquid.
I have not run into a strain yet that did not like Maxibloom, and my yields are on par with any other nutrients I've used, so I'll stick with the ease of a 1 part
As for the 6/9 N toxicity, I think it has something to do more with the ratio (and strains that are particularly N sensitive). Lucas is a 1 to two ratio. Maybe the less bloom in the 6/9 ratio makes more N available? I'm no chemist so I'm just trying to make an educated guess.
Most people don't have problems, but some do.

 

[Rushoe]

I have been looking for something like this......Glad I found it here can some one here verify if the 8/16 works for soil FOR OG's.....I am using RO water so I add Magical @ 1tsp per gal(us).Is that right or does the micro have enough cal mag in it.??????And what about additives kool bloom liquid and powder or would it be just 8/16 for the whole grow??????Also what about me that I am growing under a 250 hps. CUZ I read that under the 0-5-10 ratio was for LOW LIGHT situations...Is this ture??????Sorry BAET not trying to take over ur thread here but this could help lots of ppl including my self anyone with some info please lay it on us all......

 

[Rushoe]

bump I know some one here has some input

 

[Rushoe]

any one??????????????