[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.