**Experienced Floranova Users**

[bdomina]

i emailed GH a while back and asked about a diluted mix to better solve any sediment / mixing issues, and he said that it was all good.

"> > have you heard of success in preventing clogs (with nova) using filter bags or socks over pump inlets? or recudtion to a 1:1 ratio of fert and distilled water as a pre-mix before adding to water for resivoir? "

"> Not exactly. However both are good ideas. Pre filters are easy and a super solution is also a feasable way to go.
> > Thanks,
> > Jesse"

He did mention that clogging of sprayers is probable, but so far my mixes have been fine. So far i have mixed my solution first shaken well ( only using the 16 oz bottles ) then enough FN for my resivoir is mixed with water in a blender. just enough to fill the blender at this point. i dump that in the res with the rest of the water and i use one of those milk shake stirrers, the steel stick prop / blender thing. u could easily use a paint stirring drill bit for a larger res tho. the little milk shake blender thing mixes the piss out of it. i mean to the point that it looks like it is gonna boil over the top of my tub. I have yet to notice any REAL issue with sediment except maybe on my airstones but that is to be expected from what i have seen, and even then it is not real bad, washes right off when i change.

hope that can help someone, best wishes

~BD~

 

[dongle69]

Part of my email from GH:

It is not a good idea to dilute the Nova for storage. Because Nova is so concentrated and has a very low ph it remains stable in the bottle. The crystals are due to age. If the product sits for over a year or so it can do that. If you dilute it in hot water the crystals should dissolve.
Thank you,
Jesse Pennington
GH

 

[Blue Dot]

Part of my email from GH:

It is not a good idea to dilute the Nova for storage. Because Nova is so concentrated and has a very low ph it remains stable in the bottle. The crystals are due to age. If the product sits for over a year or so it can do that. If you dilute it in hot water the crystals should dissolve.
Thank you,
Jesse Pennington
GH

If those crystals all aren't magnesium sulfate (epsom salt) then at least some of them are IMO.

Epsom salts disslove better in warm/hot water and condense in cold water.

Perhaps epsom salts precipitate out in low pH?

It's just when I shake a bottle of epsom salt and when i shake a bottle of flora nova it sounds exactly the same. Like the salts (crystals) have a hollow nature to them, not dense at all.

Who knew you could judge a chemicals property by the sound it makes when shaken?

 

[SKUNK420]

Just shake the hell out of it like I do or go buy a dedicated cheap drill gun from harbor freight or china-mart, a paint mixer and a one gallon container with resealable lid. Yes I know there will be lots of residue left in the bottle. So just let it sit up side down over night or cut the bottle open and scrap it out, then dump into new container or use it to mix your first batch of nutrients. You can also you some type of filter( not a fine one duh) to catch the salt crystals and then smash them up and mix them back into the nutrients.

 

[highvolt]

If you're tight on space, run 1300-1400 of just FNB through both veg and bloom.

The FNG is great for trees and too much for my little grow area.

Just BE SURE TO SHAKE WELL! LOL (You read the thread.)

nice one hydro soil thanks.:smile:
say was that 1300-1400 ppm @ .5 or .7 conversion...and my space is not so tight so what could i up the strenghth to ?
i grow under 2000 watts in the winter months and 1200 in the summer..
thanks again bro.
stay safe.

 

[Weedman Herb]

I'm just not getting that FN is "shit" and worthless ... I'm calling operator error ... cause this "shit" is as fool proof as it gets if you can read a bottle ... I don't own a pH or PPM pen/meter ...

 

[Hydro-Soil]

nice one hydro soil thanks.:smile:
say was that 1300-1400 ppm @ .5 or .7 conversion...and my space is not so tight so what could i up the strenghth to ?
i grow under 2000 watts in the winter months and 1200 in the summer..
thanks again bro.
stay safe.

That's 1300-1400 @ .7 I believe .5 is nearer 900-950? Not so sure on that one. (I don't use it but it's in the link. )

The strength depends on the light intensity and you'll probably want to stick closer to 1400 with your wattage. Might even run higher than that if your setup/strains allow but for now just stick to the formula. (After a few grows it gets easier to see what's what)

If you want to run with the FloraNova Grow, the recommendation from Lucas is between 5-7ml/gal depending on your strain/light-intensity.

 

[Pops]

Like Hydro Soil, I dilute my Floranova. I buy the 2.5 gal. and dilute with 2.5 gal of HOT water. I then use a paint mixer on a drill to get it well mixed. I store in 1 gal jugs until I need it. I used to use PBP, but now like the Floranova.

 

[tejashidrow]

i have been useing FnB for years, and i ALLWAY dillute it.
I get a pint of FnB, and add a pint of R/O water to it. NEVER HAVE HAD A PROBLEM... EVEN with the 2 year old dillutted i just finished up!!! I use the LUCAS formula, small STEALTH grow...PAX

 

[delta9nxs]

flora nova issues

flora nova issues

Dongle69: i'm sorry, I thought you had a link to something published by them. But, no matter, you sound like a mature, intelligent person and I totally believe they advised you against diluting. They also told me four years ago that it was ok at my dilution level and bdomina reports they told him/her it was alright at whatever level of dilution he/she is using. I think the real problem here is not us users, who are apparently getting different gh employee's opinions on the subject, but rather gh's for not coming up with a consistent recommendation based on actual experiments. What I have been doing has worked very well for me. My ph stays between 5.6 and 6.3 all the time. It kind of drifts back and forth, which seems to be really good for the girls. I have never had crystalline precipitate in one of my diluted containers, but I have seen it in a supposedly “new” bottle of flora nova. I ran that bottle through a kitchen strainer to isolate the crystals. After rinsing lightly I was left with whitish, hard crystals. It looked just like epsom salts in a bag so I threw them in a glass and ran a few oz's hot water over them and stirred. They totally dissolved.

I believe gh had a good reason for making it so concentrated and that was to reduce shipping cost and therefore keep their product competitive on the shelves. Would you rather pay freight on 1 gal or 2, 3, or four? After everyone relating their experiences dealing with gh reps it appears to me that gh hasn't actually experimented with light dilution for ease of use. They know their product functions well at the use levels most folks grow with and is competitive on the market and that is probably all they are really concerned with. Again, at my 3 to 1 dilution it is very stable and in my storage bottles it separates back into 2 parts just like the stock bottle. If you were to dilute it to the point where it did not separate for storage you might have a problem.

Dongle69, I checked out your 6000 watt grow thread and I must say that your room is the cleanest i've ever seen. It looks like a lab in there. Nice job!

Petemoss: yes, it's me. Good to know you're still at it. We met on og and several other sites we both visited. I haven't posted for a while as I have had some very serious health issues. I found out I had hepc earlier in the decade and that my liver was not doings it's job properly. Then they found a 2 cm hepato cellular carcinoma growing fast and they gave me six months max without a transplant. I got the new liver and have recovered fully. Seven years of trying times. But, I managed to smoke like a fiend the whole time by growing my own. Definitely helped. In advanced stages hepc is a muscle wasting disease. Most folks are nauseous and lack appetite. I went from a fit 212 down to an emaciated 138. I looked like one of those unfortunates at a nazi death camp. With our favorite herb, I was able to stimulate appetite sufficiently to get to around 190 before transplant. It also helped ease all the aches and pains that go along with this kind of thing as well as the depressive psychological issues that are inevitable in this circumstance. I can say that pot has been very, very good to me. As I live in a state with no compassion I was "forced" by the government into becoming a criminal. Ha! Ha! I don't think they have a clue that their repressive policies have probably created more users than they have stopped. Keep up the good fight! We shall overgrow!

Finally, to highvolt and others who are asking about ppm's for use, I use approx. 950 ppm at the .5 conversion. That would be 1330 at the .7 conversion or ec 1.9. I use flora nova bloom only at this strength from 4” clones to the last week before harvest. Water flush the last week for some really tasty shit. Later, delta9nxs

 

[delta9nxs]

whoops!

whoops!

hi, tejashidrow, i saw you were here after i posted the above. i believe you were on the now defunct hg*** site during the hempy bucket wars. nice to hear from you again.feels like old home week here. keep up the good work, later on!

 

[bdomina]

i think the real question is, not if you can dilute it or not. because we KNOW that is possible an in some cases a must. it is more about storing a diluted solution. and from GH's standpoint they are probably obligated to have to advise against storing a diluted solution, because they can not garauntee that you will store it correctly everyone is different. ie. approved container, dark, temp controlled, environment. I have heard from numerous people that store theirs with no trouble, they are obviously doing something right. BTW i only have used the smallest bottles of it. easier to shake and i just dilute and mix extra well prior to dropping plants in it. also mine has never sounded like there were particles suspended in it.

 

[Em_J]

So after reading a bit it seems like Floranova (And directions on the bottle) is the way to go when not using RO water. Just plain tap. Correct?

 

[Hydro-Soil]

So after reading a bit it seems like Floranova (And directions on the bottle) is the way to go when not using RO water. Just plain tap. Correct?

You'll get better results if you Follow the Lucas method.

If you have to use tap water it should actually be really good quality. FNB was made to be used with RO or near RO water since it has a healthy dose of Calcium and Magnesium in it. Too much of that in your tap water and you'll have issues with FNB by itself.


If you're going to be growing for more than a year, I would highly recommend getting an RO unit at some point. The quality of the water is so much better (as long as the pressure is there) and you'll use it for every day stuff as well.

 

[Em_J]

You'll get better results if you Follow the Lucas method.

If you have to use tap water it should actually be really good quality. FNB was made to be used with RO or near RO water since it has a healthy dose of Calcium and Magnesium in it. Too much of that in your tap water and you'll have issues with FNB by itself.


If you're going to be growing for more than a year, I would highly recommend getting an RO unit at some point. The quality of the water is so much better (as long as the pressure is there) and you'll use it for every day stuff as well.

Im already dropping a ton to get stuff started so maybe after the first harvest I can get RO. How detrimental is plain tap?

And you think Lucas is a better method than the Floranova one? I heard its bad for tap and the regular is better

 

[Pops]

To give you an idea about using tap vs RO, my tap water comes out at 565PPm and 8.5PH. My RO water is 12PPM and about 7.4PH. If I have youg plants and want to give them 3-400PPM of feed and add that much to tap water, I automatically have 900-1000PPM,far too much for young plants.

 

[Em_J]

RO is out of the question for my first grow since I will be spending too much already on the setup and everything alone. (I hope you understand that I value your input but I cant be spending so much my first grow)

If I did Brita would that be better at least? But if I were to do tap which is the best method?

 

[BigGreen]

Just spend the $ on the ro I got one from ebay for $140.00 its well worth the $. You cant get it low enough with tap and you will burn and there will be problem. Test your tap if its under 200ppm give it a go if not your screwed and buy the ro unit.
Good luck

 

[Hydro-Soil]

RO is out of the question for my first grow since I will be spending too much already on the setup and everything alone. (I hope you understand that I value your input but I cant be spending so much my first grow)

If I did Brita would that be better at least? But if I were to do tap which is the best method?

I would imagine brita would help if your tap water was already pretty good. It won't be RO so it really depends on your particular situation.

As far as cost for RO? How big of a reservoir are you using? I get RO for $.25 a gallon.

If $150 for an RO unit is too much, you've got to be running under a 20gal res. If it's only a 20gal res, the cost for your RO is going to be pitiful.

 

[delta9nxs]

hey em_j

hey em_j

the folks who are saying that fn is made for tap water have reached that conclusion erroneously as they have probably experienced magnesium deficiency. there is plenty of magnesium in fn but the plants don't take it up well at ph levels below around 5.9. let your ph run over 5.9 up to 6.3 or so before correcting back down to 5.6 or a little below. ph drift is really good for the girls as it allows the plants to utilize the entire nutrient package.

fn is formulated to work not only in ro or distilled water, but tap water with tds up to 200 ppm @ the .5 conversion. personally, i think anything over 150 ppm is in the danger zone because everyone's tap water is different. two sites, both showing 150 ppm on the meter can have large differences in the amount of calcium contained. one site will be ok to use tap water while the other won't. several years ago i moved to a rural water district from a suburban one. my tap water at my old house was usually around 120 ppm. when i set up in my new house i began seeing yellowing on lower leaves within a week. before moving i checked the tap water in my new house, it was around 160 ppm. however, a week later it was 240 ppm, and i have had readings as high as 350 ppm. so, for me, the only solution was to buy an ro filter. now my tds is 4 ppm and ph starts at 6.7. you get a known starting point every time. if you can't afford a filter distilled water is available at wally's for about 70 cents a gal. also, each store usually has a ro filtered water dispenser where you can fill your own containers for around 35 cents.

the first thing to do is to check your tap water. if it is below 200 ppm try it and see. it might be ok. you'll find out in about a week.

lastly, the brita and it's peers won't filter out most dissolved solids. it is good with chlorides, flourides, and some toxins. but, if your water is too hard it won't help you grow. later, delta9nxs