[Granger2]

EZ, yeah, that's a lot of sodium. I see your problem. Have the CalMag and EJ Microblast ready to go with the RO as needed. Are you all healed up yet? Good luck. -granger

[Ez Rider]

Originally Posted by Luxman

The ideal ph range for broad nutrient uptake in organic soil is from 6 to 6.5.

So what I'm wondering is: Does light-mix, which is mostly peat with pearlite and probably some lime/oyster shell(BioBizz doesn't list the ingredients) count as an"organic soil", wanting a PH of 6-6.5 or is it more of a hydro mix wanting ~5.8 PH? When I use H&G nutes in lightmix I keep it at 5.8 or the plants suffer. When I apply BB at 5.8, the plants don't seem to like it. The leaves "fist" up for several hours afterwards. Applying BB at ~6.3 seems to keep the plants happier(no curl), but they wont green up as much as I'd like. Maybe I should bump it up to 6.5 and see what happens?

I have been considering getting an electronic PH soil probe, as they are becoming quite reliable, and almost reasonably priced.

Originally Posted by Granger2

EZ, yeah, that's a lot of sodium. I see your problem. Have the CalMag and EJ Microblast ready to go with the RO as needed. Are you all healed up yet? Good luck. -granger

Mostly healed, still a little sore. However I've got a new bike on the way to help ease the pain . Thanks for asking.

What I'm looking at now is mixing 1/2 and 1/2 tap and RO water. This should put my water at ~7.0 PH and 200ppm, which the BB people say is pretty much ideal as a base. The feeding schedule I'm using calls for a weekly foliar with the alg-a-mic once flowering starts. I'm shooting for start of flower sometime this week. Hopefully this cuts it...I tossed all my EJ products except the PH crystals. I already feel that things are much closer to being dialed in with BB than was EVER going to happen for me with EJ.

The strain I'm growing is prone to excessive foliage/branching. I just had to do a major thin out followed by tying them down/spreading them out. As soon as these bitches hit 24"...it's ON. I am hoping to get them a little greener, but overall I'm happy.

Here's a few pics. I normally shoot through my method 7's, but added one without for contrast.

[Luxman]

So what I'm wondering is: Does light-mix, which is mostly peat with pearlite and probably some lime/oyster shell(BioBizz doesn't list the ingredients) count as an"organic soil", wanting a PH of 6-6.5 or is it more of a hydro mix wanting ~5.8 PH? When I use H&G nutes in lightmix I keep it at 5.8 or the plants suffer. When I apply BB at 5.8, the plants don't seem to like it. The leaves "fist" up for several hours afterwards. Applying BB at ~6.3 seems to keep the plants happier(no curl), but they wont green up as much as I'd like. Maybe I should bump it up to 6.5 and see what happens?

I have been considering getting an electronic PH soil probe, as they are becoming quite reliable, and almost reasonably priced.

Well, the light mix is mainly soilless, but you are adding bio with the BioBizz... that's a good question that I can't honestly answer. I like to have some EWC and compost in my mix to sustain the microbes even more and add more nitrogen, and that makes my mix more 'half-soilless' (since Sunshine #4 is similar to light mix). I also use BioBizz Fish Mix in the first 3 weeks of flower to sustain nitrogen levels; there really isn't very much nitrogen in just the combo of BioGrow and BioBloom IMO. After that you will want the nitrogen levels to drop off.

I don't think you would see any negative effects by getting your liquid's ph to around 6.4-6.5. Iron is usually taken up in soil from about 6.6 downwards, so an occasional feeding of micros down at ph 6 might be a good idea just for some balance, or you could try a foliar feeding with a product that has some iron in it if you see issues. They really go ape shit with Alg-a-Mic foliar feeding every week in veg, too. But that isn't usually used in flower.

Different strains have slightly different preferences, so make decisions based upon general garden health rather than pissed-off individuals. I'm at a point now where almost any issues I develop are self-corrected as long as I hit them every time with food. Whenever I use a food/water/food/water regimen I get problems; they seem to demand food every watering.

Below is what I give my plants throughout veg. I do add some expensive additional products; you may not want to do that, but it will definitely pay for itself many many times over. My philosophy is don't jump over the dollar to get to the dime.

I can assure you that you will see extreme health so give it a try:

Continuous feed - hit them with this at every watering, per gallon (about every 4 days):

5 ml BioGrow
5 ml Bio Fish (aka Fish Mix)
10 ml BioHeaven
10 ml Roots Trinity

ph adjusted to 6.5.

And when I near the transition week I also add 5 ml of Roots HP2 for some extra P and bump the BioHeaven up to 15 ml/gallon.

People don't like to pay for BioHeaven; my clients constantly bitch about it. But the stuff WORKS. Personally I wouldn't grow without it, but YMMV. I also hit them with GH's CaMg+ every 2nd watering or so for cal/mag and micros.

There is a ph pen by Rittenhouse on Amazon that looks really nice, I've been meaning to grab one. The LaMott soil test kits are a bit expensive but seem to be accurate. I try not to get too obsessed with checking ph; you can drive yourself a bit crazy with it. But when my soil was down in the low 5 range I knew I had to move in with the lime topdress.

[Ez Rider]

Originally Posted by Luxman

Well, the light mix is mainly soilless, but you are adding bio with the BioBizz... that's a good question that I can't honestly answer. I like to have some EWC and compost in my mix to sustain the microbes even more and add more nitrogen, and that makes my mix more 'half-soilless' (since Sunshine #4 is similar to light mix). I also use BioBizz Fish Mix in the first 3 weeks of flower to sustain nitrogen levels; there really isn't very much nitrogen in just the combo of BioGrow and BioBloom IMO. After that you will want the nitrogen levels to drop off.

Allegedly, the fish-mix "brings the light-mix to life" by dent of its microbial activity. Going on this assumtion, I'll treat it like soil. Thus far(veg), I've been using only fish, heaven and rootjuice at 8ml/gal each, with a weekly foliar of fish at 8ml/gal. I did apply a foliar of fish/alg-i-mic at 2.5/2.5ml/gal a few days ago. this seemed to green them up some. I'm going to do a full strength(8ml/gal) foliar of alg-i-mic tonight, after I water. I'm thinking that I may be low on micro-nutes.

Originally Posted by Luxman

I don't think you would see any negative effects by getting your liquid's ph to around 6.4-6.5. Iron is usually taken up in soil from about 6.6 downwards, so an occasional feeding of micros down at ph 6 might be a good idea just for some balance, or you could try a foliar feeding with a product that has some iron in it if you see issues. They really go ape shit with Alg-a-Mic foliar feeding every week in veg, too. But that isn't usually used in flower.

One of the charts I have recommends a weekly foliar of alg-i-mic every week in flower. Fish every week in veg. I'll attach the chart, hopefully I'm not breaking any rules.

Originally Posted by Luxman

Different strains have slightly different preferences, so make decisions based upon general garden health rather than pissed-off individuals. I'm at a point now where almost any issues I develop are self-corrected as long as I hit them every time with food. Whenever I use a food/water/food/water regimen I get problems; they seem to demand food every watering.

Below is what I give my plants throughout veg. I do add some expensive additional products; you may not want to do that, but it will definitely pay for itself many many times over. My philosophy is don't jump over the dollar to get to the dime.

I can assure you that you will see extreme health so give it a try:

Continuous feed - hit them with this at every watering, per gallon (about every 4 days):

5 ml BioGrow
5 ml Bio Fish (aka Fish Mix)
10 ml BioHeaven
10 ml Roots Trinity

ph adjusted to 6.5.

And when I near the transition week I also add 5 ml of Roots HP2 for some extra P and bump the BioHeaven up to 15 ml/gallon.

People don't like to pay for BioHeaven; my clients constantly bitch about it. But the stuff WORKS. Personally I wouldn't grow without it, but YMMV. I also hit them with GH's CaMg+ every 2nd watering or so for cal/mag and micros.

I keep hearing about cost. Where I'm at, I can get a 5 liter of all 6 products(grow,bloom,fish,topma x,bioheaven, and alg-i-mic) for $750 +tax. About 1/3 of that cost is bioheaven. I can get 2 runs out of the 5 liters, so about $400 per run or $200 per 1K HPS. Next time I'll get the 10L's and save another 30%. Get it down to under $150/1K HPS Unless you're doing lucas or some shit like that, I think $150 per light per run for nutes is pretty reasonable. Especially when it's all organic. If you buy 1L at a time it's going to kill you with any brand. I may incorporate some additional products next run, just trying to keep it simple for now.

[Luxman]

I keep hearing about cost. Where I'm at, I can get a 5 liter of all 6 products(grow,bloom,fish,topma x,bioheaven, and alg-i-mic) for $750 +tax. About 1/3 of that cost is bioheaven. I can get 2 runs out of the 5 liters, so about $400 per run or $200 per 1K HPS. Next time I'll get the 10L's and save another 30%. Get it down to under $150/1K HPS Unless you're doing lucas or some shit like that, I think $150 per light per run for nutes is pretty reasonable. Especially when it's all organic. If you buy 1L at a time it's going to kill you with any brand. I may incorporate some additional products next run, just trying to keep it simple for now.

Agreed! My food costs run about 6% of my returns. The quality is totally off the hook, and each crop is very consistent.

[Yesca73]

got me a sample pack @ the SF Hydro expo
woop woop

[habeeb]

can anyone put more input onto ca/mg.

I know the folks over at UK boards have to add ( can't remember, Ca or Mg ) as there is something too low in the bottle, and also I think they were mixing the veg and bloom in flower???

wondering people's water quality starting with ( tap or R/O )

[Ez Rider]

Originally Posted by habeeb

can anyone put more input onto ca/mg.

I know the folks over at UK boards have to add ( can't remember, Ca or Mg ) as there is something too low in the bottle, and also I think they were mixing the veg and bloom in flower???

wondering people's water quality starting with ( tap or R/O )

Water quality/content is dependent on where your water comes from. In my area, the municipal supply is well water, and is high in minerals. My latest newsletter says we average: 123ppm calcium, 60ppm magnesium, 130ppm sodium to site a few. My water is ~7.5PH tap, and ~6.4PH RO. I've been using 60/40 tap to RO water to cut down on the sodium. The PH of the water stays much more stable when you leave some minerals in it. I've found that the PH of RO water alone is prone to fluctuate wildly when adding organic nutes. So far, the tap/RO mix seems to be working well. I've got some GO ca/mg on hand in case a ca/mg deficiency pops up.

I'm on the left coast, usa, so I've got no idea about UK water. According to BB, ca/mg are present in the nutes themselves to some degree.

All the charts/schedules I've seen recommend using the grow and bloom in conjunction during. Organic grow doesn't inhibit flowering the way synthetics will. Something to do with the N in organics being amino based I believe. I'm better with concepts than details

[Piff Rhys Jones]

I've used biobizz since I started and have been using a pack that I purchased about four years ago with good results. It's about to run out and I notice they have changed their packaging and the formula of the nutes since I bought them last.

The grow used to be 8-2-6 but is now 4-3-6. The bloom ratio has changed slightly too. I wonder why they did this as I had very good results with the original ratio.

Are you guys still using yoiur biobizz and getting good results?

Thanks!

Peace

[LasergunJesus]

Well seeing as I cannot send you a PM Mister D I can respond here. About to switch to these nutes from the Canna line. Growing in RO Greenlite soil. Had some issues with canna this time around I did not like. Was not a good grow for me. I would like to know more about your feeding plans a bit if you dont mind.