My Pure Blend Pro Feed Schedule -- Comments/Critiques?

EDIT, 10/12/14: I've used this schedule in various forms for several years now and find it works well with a variety of plants (peppers, tomatoes, etc.) in addition to MJ. Consider it a baseline; most plants/setups/styles require some tweaking but it's a good place to start.

Products Needed:

• Pure Blend Pro Grow
• Pure Blend Pro Bloom For Soil
• Bontanicare CalMag
• Bontanicare Aquashield
• Advanced CarboLoad (or similar product)
• Earth Juice Hi-Brix molasses
• Grotek Monster Bloom (or similar)
• Pelletized lime
• Medium of choice

Multiply dosage by 3.78 to figure out quantity per gallon. Round to the nearest tenth ml as necessary.


Vegetative

**This schedule is intended to begin with well rooted clones. I.e. week one begins when a rooted plug is transplanted into ReadyGro. See notes below for seedling info.

* Week 1: 1.5ml/liter grow/0.5ml/liter bloom. One time application of Aquashield at 3ml/liter in feed water. (Bloom to stimulate root growth.)
* Week 2: 3ml/liter grow.
* Week 3: 4ml/liter grow.
* Week 4: 4ml/liter grow; 1ml/liter bloom.

**If you're vegging longer than 4 weeks, use the week 3 dose for the additional time, increasing dosage by .5ml/liter each week. Adjust schedule as necessary if you're letting them get big. If you plan to flower early/before four weeks add bloom to your last veg feeding proportional to the week four dose and adjust the flowering schedule as needed.

Flowering

* Week 1: 4ml/liter grow; 2ml/liter bloom. One time application of Aquashield at 3ml/liter in feed water.
* Week 2: 3ml/liter grow; 4ml/liter bloom. As soon as you see flowers beginning to grow start Monster Bloom application at 0.3 grams/liter with each feeding in addition to other nutes.
* Week 3 until +/- 14 days before harvest: 2ml/liter grow; 5ml/liter bloom; .3g/liter Monster Bloom. Begin adding Hi-Brix molasses to feed water approximately once per week at the low end of the application range (1/4 teaspoon per liter).
* Approximately 2 Weeks Prior to Harvest: Discontinue molasses. Discontinue Monster Bloom. Discontinue PBP grow. Flush to 100% runoff with distilled and carbo. One time application of Aquashield at 3ml/liter in feed water. Continue PBP bloom at 7 ml/liter. Continue CalMag.
* Water in the last fert dose approximately 7 days prior to harvest. Discontinue all ferts at this point. At the next watering (or at least five full days prior to intended harvest) flush to 100%++ runoff with distilled water only. Water from there if/as needed with distilled only.

Notes and Elaborations:

• This schedule assumes the use of PBP Bloom for soil. Medium tested and recommended is soilless but this will most likely work well in soil-based mixes with minor tweaking.
• Plants are fed every time they need water according to the above schedule.
• Week 1 begins on day 1 and goes to day 7, Week 2 begins on day 8 and goes to day 14, week 3 begins day 15 and goes to day 21, etc etc.
• The following revolves around a 10 week strain. Adjust the schedule as necessary for longer or shorter bloomers.
• If using seedlings there should be no need for much food during the first two weeks, however some is required if using depleted/inert mediums like coco. Generally about 0.5ml grow and 0.5ml bloom will suffice during the seedling's first two weeks (adjust as necessary, watching the cotyledons for clues). From about the time your seedling is pushing out its first five fingers you can begin on the vegetive cycle listed above.
• This schedule takes into account a medium with only minor amounts of ferts (something like .01-.01-.01); if your medium has whole-number NPK or is advertised as "fertilizing for up to three months" it's likely your plants won't need any feeding at all during the first 1-3 weeks (depending upon how rich it is).
• At the beginning of flowering plants flushed with 1ml/liter Liquid Carboload (or .3 grams/liter dry carbo) in distilled or RO water to about 100% runoff. This is directly prior to a standard feeding and gets done once every two weeks during bloom to keep the medium clean.
• All standard feedings go until 10-20% runoff.
• There are a good number of carbo products out there and they're all effective. DNF Carbo Logic is one that comes to mind but I'm sure there are a lot of them now. Doesn't matter if the product is liquid or dry but dry tends to be less expensive and isn't hard to mix. If in a pinch/on a budget, consider Carbo optional although it does seem to help when added to flush water, giving the creatures in the medium something to feed on as well as avoiding the isotonic shock you may get with straight distilled water.
• Grotek Monster Bloom is used middle to late flowering, as specified in the schedule. This product can be had much cheaper at BG Hydro, under the name "Bloom Blaster." Other bloom boosters should be acceptable; refer to manufacturer instructions.
• This schedule is designed by and large with coco/soiless mediums in mind. I tend to prefer Bontainicare's ReadyGro moisture formula, but I've mixed up my own coco-based mixes that worked just fine as well. Regardless of what I use I tend to mix in about 1 tablespoon per gallon pelletized lime as a buffer. I may also add a beneficial microbes product but generally I don't get too exotic with the additives.
• All figures detailed above assume the use of clean starting water, ~50 ppm or less. If your water is up to about 250ppm you can cut down or eliminate the calmag. If your starting water is much harder than 300ppm you'll have to look into filtration options or purchasing your RO water from dispensers (Glacier and similar in front of super markets).
• Unless stated otherwise in the schedule all waterings incorporate 1 ml/liter Cal Mag as a base (assuming soft water).

A note about pH: Putting too much thought into pH with an organic soil/soiless grow may prove detrimental, as the addition of straight chemicals into the system (pH up or down) might throw off the microbial balance. Even Bontanicare states with PBP one doesn't need to be as concerned about pH. General Organics, which has a line very similar to PBP (biothrive) says outright that pH monitoring is unnecessary with these type of ferts.

Regular and complete flushing of the medium is key to success, regardless of exactly what medium you're using. Also be sensitive to water quality. Straight 600ppm chlorinated city tap water will get you down the wrong road pretty fast. If in doubt buy a cheap $10 TDS pen on eBay and test your water. Anything much higher than 300ppm will almost certainly need filtration of some sort. Transporting distilled or purchased water isn't hard or suspicious for a hobby grower if required. Using machines similar to Glacier can be very practical and economical. In testing several Glacier and Glacier-like machines I always got less than 10ppm (effectively RO water). The cost per gallon is mere cents.

do you think you could gimme an estimate on how much liquid carboload would be equivalant to that .3 g/liter dry amount u said all i could find was the liquid stuff

Use 1ml/liter of CarboLoad liquid. BG Hydro sells the dry CarboLoad; Worm's Way sells DNF carbologic.

Sounds like a plan that seems logical, and one that I would be willing to follow. I actually have all the the products you mentioned above. I am actually growing cherry tomatoes right now, and for the first time indoors, I am having success growing tomatoes. I am using the Botanicare line, and love it so far. I also use Earth Juice Microblast and Plant Success Great White Mychorrizae, to go along with PBP Grow and Bloom (for soil coco), Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag Plus, and Carboload. If you have any interest in how I feed my tomatoes I have a thread in the Veggie and Flower sub-forum in the growers forum.

I actually use a mix of 0.7 EC tapwater, mixed with rain/snow water and or RO water to get a starting water EC of ~0.2. The 7.5 pH tapwater I use (I dont use much) seems to help keep the nutrient solution from dipping too low when using the relatively acidic PBP line. I am pretty much flying by the seat of my pants so to speak, as I have very little experience with tomatoes indoors. I use Sunshine Mix#1. I add an additional 10-15% perlite, 10% worm castings, and about 2-3 tsp dolomite lime per gallon of soil.

I do have a few questions for you:

What amount of EC might the Cal Mag Plus constitute at 1 ml/L? I once fed some smaller seedlings full on 5-6 ml gallon Cal Mag Plus and it was not a pretty outcome for me. My bottle seems to be VERY strong, so I measure my nutrients using EC solely (aside from additives such as Carboload or Great White which I do not believe register) as I prepare my nutrient solution, just to be sure of strength. I gave up on ppm because my EC meter seems to be far more accurate than my ppm pen I own.

Secondly, how much runoff do you typically achieve with your routine waterings (ie the ones before you get to the flush portion of your schedule)? With my tomatoes I usually get about 10-20 % runoff, and it seems to be working relatively well. Simply want to know what amount works for you.

Lastly, You don't worry about micronutrients? Does the liquid Karma and its partial seaweed base take care of micronutrients adequately by itself? I ask because I had been adding just a small amount of Earth Juice Microblast (about 0.1 EC of my total solution) to be sure of micronute coverage . If Liquid Karma does indeed cover the micronutes, then I will likely cut down on my Microblast applications.

Thank you very much for the informative schedule. Also thank you for any additional info you could help me with regarding my questions.

BP

Most schedules written on the back of nute bottles are way hot; Bontanicare is no exception. The schedule above throttles back from the bottle recs quite a bit.

What amount of EC might the Cal Mag Plus constitute at 1 ml/L?

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I'm not 100% on the TDS of 1ml/liter cal-mag in RO/distilled, but if I recall it's about 100 or so ppm.

Secondly, how much runoff do you typically achieve with your routine waterings ...

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As with you, I'm getting about 10-20% runoff.

Lastly, you don't worry about micronutrients?

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Nope. Pure Blend Pro is a complete nutrient (ie: has all the macros and micros plants need to survive). Adding micros and TDS from tap water is overkill and unnecessary (in my experience). Take a look at this quote from Bontanicare (bold is my emphasis):

Bontanicare said:

Premium, Natural and Organic plant food. Grow, Bloom, and Soil Formulas. These premium blends contain organic and natural sources of the essential major, secondary, and trace minerals from the land and sea in a 100% soluble form.

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Bear in mind tomatoes have a different set of nutrients requirements when compared to MJ. For 'maters, you'd probably be better off getting an organic, granular, slow release fert made specifically for tomatoes. Mater Magic is a good one that's widely available in most big box stores. Fox Farm Peace of Mind Tomato is another good choice if you have a hydro store close by, or if you're willing to order. Amend the soil with that, then water in with Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag, and Carbo in distilled. Apply AquaShield in 4 week increments. Apply additional doses of the granular as per package instructions.

Thanks Jawn appreciate it. this is so far working quite well. good shit sir

One other question I forgot to ask in my other post. Are we watering 2x per week? So you simply alternate the PBP watering, with the Cal Mag, Liquid Karma, Carboload watering? So some form of nutes are being administered with every irrigation.

Also, could you give me some advice when starting seedlings? I would be amending my Sunshine mix with about 15-20 % perlite, 10% worm castings, and 2-3 tsp dolomite/gallon soil. I will be using tapwater/RO mixed to about 0.1-0.2 starting EC. I have never used any fertilizer on seedlings until at least their first true leaves.

Say it takes a week for the seed to emerge from soil and progress to beginning to spit out its first true leaf. Starting with WEEK 2's first irrigation should I use a dilute mix of Liquid Karma to help the seedlings along? Then maybe start PBP end of WEEK 2/Beginning WEEK 3?

Hopefully that made sense. I know it is difficult to tell with seeds, but hopefully you or someone else will chime in on the topic. Thank you for your advice and time.

BP

My Bontanicare feed schedule is:
10ml/Gal Bloom (Soil) + 10ml/Gal CNS17 Ripe + 5ml/Gal Sweet

Running it through cannastat, that gives you about N80-P100-K200

ballplayer 2 said:

One other question I forgot to ask in my other post. Are we watering 2x per week? So you simply alternate the PBP watering, with the Cal Mag, Liquid Karma, Carboload watering? So some form of nutes are being administered with every irrigation.

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The dryness of the medium will dictate how many waterings per week there are. It may be one, or it may be seven. EDIT: After experimentation, I've determined plants are best fed every watering. This schedule is somewhat conservative to being with; I feel the every other watering mentality may result in defs over time.

Also, could you give me some advice when starting seedlings? I would be amending my Sunshine mix with about 15-20 % perlite, 10% worm castings, and 2-3 tsp dolomite/gallon soil. I will be using tapwater/RO mixed to about 0.1-0.2 starting EC. I have never used any fertilizer on seedlings until at least their first true leaves.

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I really would avoid using any measure of tap at all. The CalMag in your supplement program defeats the need for tap. And with tap, you have no idea of exactly what's in there, so a good portion of that starting EC is waste TDS, or worse, a harmful substance. I'd especially avoid giving tap to seedlings.

With PBP and soil/soilless, you don't need to be overly concerned about pH. Just mix up your nutes to a given concentration, and water in. This is an organic-based fertilizer regime.

For your seedling mix, I would increase the amount of worm castings to more like 20 or 25 percent. The castings provide a gentle source of nutrients, and act as a buffer. Without enough of it, you'll be effectivly running a sterile, soilless medium that can invite all kinds of nute defs if you're not on top of things.

Given the bulk of the medium is without fertilizer, you will want to soak it in with a weak solution prior to planting seeds. In straight RO (without tap) mix in 1ml/liter CalMag, 1.5ml/liter liquid karma, and 3 ml/liter aquashield. Take your TDS. You want it between 500 and 600 ppm (about 550 ideal). If it's low, which it probably will be, you want to make up the difference by slowly adding grow until you're up into range. If it's high (which I doubt with those supplements in those concentrations) dilute with RO until you're in range.

Say it takes a week for the seed to emerge from soil and progress to beginning to spit out its first true leaf. Starting with WEEK 2's first irrigation should I use a dilute mix of Liquid Karma to help the seedlings along? Then maybe start PBP end of WEEK 2/Beginning WEEK 3?

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You'll want to start pure blend pro on the first watering. Liquid Karma does not have enough nutrients by itself to support growth beyond the first few days (I know from experience). On the very first watering, you'll want to apply the 1.5ml/liter grow (assuming it's week one). If you're into week two, follow the week two dose, etc etc. FYI, the day the seed sprouts is day one of week one.

Excellent! Thank you for the thorough and informative post. I'm not trying to be a pest, but just wanted to be sure of myself before I get started. They always say, "the only dumb question is the one you don't ask." While this may not be the case 100% of the time, better safe than sorry.

Thanks again for your time and consideration.

P.S. One last thing: What ppm scale are you using (500, 640, or 700)? I ask because I will be using my EC meter, as it seems to be FAR more accurate than my ppm meter (my ppm meter happens to be 640, but I have very little confidence in it). That way I can use which ppm scale you are on and apply it to EC. Just when you thought you were rid of me, hehe,. Thanks for the help.

BP

ballplayer 2 said:

Excellent! Thank you for the thorough and informative post. I'm not trying to be a pest, but just wanted to be sure of myself before I get started. They always say, "the only dumb question is the one you don't ask." While this may not be the case 100% of the time, better safe than sorry.

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Of course. Questions are welcome.

P.S. One last thing: What ppm scale are you using (500, 640, or 700)?

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Yes, I should have mentioned that. I'm using a Hanna TDS 1, which runs on a .5 conversion (or 500 ppm).

Above all, bear in mind this schedule is more of a guideline as opposed to a set of rules. Even though I'm trying to be as precise as possible, inevitably different plants and different setups will require tweaks. In order to make such changes, and indeed, to know that such changes need to be made in the first place, one has to be familiar with nutrients/supplements, how to use them, and at what times. In other words, don't be afraid to deviate from this schedule if it looks like your plants are asking for it, but only do so if you're 100% sure they need it.

I'll likely be working with Flo (DJ Short), Romulan (Federation), and a few bagseeds. I think the Flo and Romulan are purported to be somewhat light feeders, so I will likely stick to about the 500 ppm (or 1 EC) level.

I totally understand that this is just a guideline or starting point if you will. Its better to have a place to start than finding my way blindly here.

As an aside, I thought for the longest time that plants could survive on minimal nutes. I was having so much trouble. Then about 2-3 months ago I was in the hydro store, and struck up a conversation about how good the various plants they had growing looked. I began inquiring about what fertilizer they were using, and the relative strength of the fertilizer. I was surprised at how strong they were feeding plants that were just chutes or seedlings (at least 1 EC-1.2 EC). Next time my tomatoes needed watering I went ahead and fed them at about 1.1 EC using PBP Grow, Microblast, and Liquid Karma (mostly PBP Grow). For a while I alternated with plain water. Once they started flower clustering, and fruiting I have been feeding with every watering. While they are not absolutely perfect specimens, they are far greater than anything I have grown indoors in quite sometime. Long story short, I had been chronically underfeeding. I am surprised how good my plants looked by bumping my feed strength up considerably.

I just trimmed the tops off my tomatoes because they were getting too tall, and coming too close to my lights. Now I just have to figure out how to get the cherry tomatoes on the vine to ripen more quickly. About three branches have been large and bulbous for about 2.5 weeks now. But I digress.

Thanks again for the specific advice. I totally appreciate the tutorial.

BP

1 EC/500 PPM is a very low concentration. Appropriate for seedlings and freshly rooted cuts, but you want to be building up to about 1000ppm by peak bloom.

I, too, had some problems with seedlings that were fed way too low. It was Jiffy mix (sterile, unfertilized, soilless) and I was feeding them a very low dose of Liquid Karma. After a few days I was getting deficiencies across the board. The reason for the error was because I had been using a fertilized seed starting mix in the past, and only ever had to use a low dose of Liquid Karma for the first week or so. But without ferts in the mix, I was getting defs and scratching my head until I figured it out.

In general, you want to be at 500-600 for seedlings and fresh cuts, at about 700-800 during veg and into flowering, then working up to 900-1000 during peak bloom. Bear in mind that most organic ferts don't read well on TDS meters. Pure Blend Pro is the exception, as there are some traditional mineral compounds in there that give a fairly accurate reading, but if you're using any other organic ferts/supplements, be aware that your TDS could be reading wrong.

I would definitely be using the Botanicare line of nutes. I have had VERY little success with the herb in recent YEARS. I would guess underfeeding and not watering until runoff had a great deal to do with my failure.

Trying to keep things simple as possible. PBP grow and bloom (for soil+coco), Cal-Mag, Liquid Karma, Carboload, and Plant Success Great White Myco would be all that I am using. Everything of consequence seems to register on my EC meter pretty accurately (save for Carboload and Great White, which is fine and expected).

I noticed Bloom Bat Guano (high phosphorus) did not register on my EC pen. Seabird Guano did register pretty highly, not sure if it registered accurately, but it did register. I will not be using it for the forseeable future though, not until I get bottled nutrient lines dialed in anyhow. The Botanicare line seems to be a happy medium between organic and mineral, and seems perfect for me.

Adding a small amount of dolomite and worm castings seems to help keep my pH range in the sweet spot in a natural way. I was getting some pretty low runoff numbers from Sunshine Mix in the past, and thought that may be contributing to some of my problems.

Your help, advice, and swift posting are highly apreciated.

BP

Now should i be hitting it with supplements ( liquid karma / carboload/cal mag) every other day in veg too ? or is that just flowering u kind of changed ur post im guessing cause uve changed to a 10 weeker. but can you please clarify on this ? im confused lol

EDIT: After experimentation, I've determined plants are best fed every watering. This schedule is somewhat conservative to being with; I feel the every other watering mentality may result in defs over time. I'm making small changes as I go along. This schedule is still a work in progress.

I`ve never thought about switching off with supplements and nutes. May i ask why this is a better way to feed, then just mixing supplements with the grow and bloom nutes? I would like to try this if you have seen better results. Thanks for the info man

EDIT: After experimentation, I've determined plants are best fed every watering. This schedule is somewhat conservative to being with; I feel the every other watering mentality may result in defs over time.

As mentioned, every plant/strain/environment is different; adjustments may be required.

I am starting a grow with this feeding schedule, I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Some quick math

Some quick math

In case you just want to copy and paste...
ml x gallon conversion ratio = ml/gallon, x2 for 2 gal, x3 for 3 gal

0.8ml x 3.78 = 3.02ml/gal [x2=6.04] [x3=9.06]
1.5ml x 3.78 = 5.67ml/gal [x2=11.34] [x3=17.01]
2.0ml x 3.78 = 7.56ml/gal [x2=15.12] [x3=22.68]
2.5ml x 3.78 = 9.45ml/gal [x2=18.9] [x3=28.35]
3.0ml x 3.78 = 11.34ml/gal [x2=22.68] [x3=34.02]
4.0ml x 3.78 = 15.12ml/gal [x2=30.24] [x3=45.36]