Chat
RecommendedRecommended

What nutrients to get?

Manollo420
Manollo420started grow question 4 years ago
Hi! I want to buy additional nutrients which can be used for both soil+hydro. So far I got my eyes on Ghe's Flora Micro, FloraGro, FloraBloom and Calcium Magnesium. The store also has Hesi Root-complex which I believe is good. Any other important nutrients I'm missing? Thanks!
Solved
Week 7
Feeding. Chemical composition
like
Shagrath
Shagrathanswered grow question 4 years ago
HI! It depends where you live and how deep are you willing to go with the nutes, but I suggest buying pure salts and blending your own mix from those. The benefit is the much longer shelf life when you have solid salts vs. liquid bottles and also they are very strong 'cos they are pure so you need to use something like 0.5g/l-1g/l (1.938-3.875g/gal) of salt per waterings and they are cheap. In the states or canada you can look up Jacks hydro nutrients and buy Calcium nitrate, epsom salt and one base flowering salt mix, something like my 6-6-25. Anything wiht low nitrogen but high potassium content and some phosphorus too. Salts needs some deep knowledge of plant growth but when used the right way they are the only way to go. If you want to go easy, I suggest looking at "Lucas formula" 'cos it only has GHE Micro and Bloom and this really works! HEres the details General Hydroponics Flora Series Feeding Strategy - Lucas Formula G-M-B (Grow-Micro-Bloom) 0-5-10 - For Vegetative cycle (18/6) 0-8-16 - For Flowering cycle (12/12) The numbers above indicate the number of milliliters (ml) of Flora Grow, Micro or Bloom formulas that I use in one gallon (US Liquid) of nutrients. You will notice I dont use any of the Flora “Grow” formula, do not need to, the Flora "Micro" provides plenty of Nitrogen. There are two ways to work with this formula: 1. Top off the reservoir daily using a pH corrected water solution as required to maintain full reservoir level. After adding back an amount of water equal to the amount of your reservoir capacity you should change the reservoir and put in fresh solution. 2. Top off the reservoir daily using a pH corrected 100% strength nutrient solution as required to maintain full reservoir level. Continue to use this nutrient solution without dumping the tank unless the PPM rises above acceptable levels. Between vegetative and flowering cycles you should dump your nutrients, then flush (possibly with Clearex) to remove salt buildups, then change to the other feeding program. Always shake your GH nutrient bottles before using them! For young plants, just transplanted into the hydro setup, give them 50% strength nutrient mix to prevent overfeeding them while their young. Gradually bring up the mix to full strength as they grow over the next few weeks or so. The lucas formula is normally intended for use with RO or near 0 PPM water. NOTE: The Lucas formula eliminates the need for Epsom salts to correct (Magnesium) Mg deficiencies in most normal feeding programs recommended by manufacturers. Cannabis needs a lot of Magnesium to thrive. The Flora Micro is providing the Nitrogen and the Magnesium in the proper balance, thus there is no need for the Grow formula and little or no room under the maximum acceptable ppm limit of 1600 @ 0.7 conversion. Calculated EC/TDS levels: EC microsiemen: 0-4-8: 946 µS 0-5-10: 1184 µS 0-8-16: 1894 µS TDS @ 0.5 conversion: 0-4-8 = 473 ppm 0-5-10 = 592 ppm 0-8-16 = 947 ppm TDS @ 0.7 conversion: 0-4-8 = 663 ppm 0-5-10 = 829 ppm 0-8-16 = 1326 ppm Addback Calculator - (For Advanced Users) Say you were running the 0-8-16 formula, at 0.7 conversion with a 22 gallon res. When you first fill it up, your ppm will be around 1330. Now you have been growing for a week, and some of the water has been taken up by the plants, some has evaporated, and now your res is at 947 ppm. You need to get your ppm from 947 to 1330. Here is the equation: ((target - current) / target) * 8 ml per gallon * res gallons = Flora Micro (ml) double this figure to get Flora Bloom (ml) Example: ((1330 - 947) / 1330) * 8 * 22 (383 / 1330) * 8 * 22 0.3 * 8 * 22 = 53 ml Flora Micro 53 ml Flora Micro, double that and you get 106 ml Flora Bloom. So 53 ml Flora Micro and 106 ml Flora Bloom to add back to your 22 gallon res to get you from 947 to 1330. Using Hard Water GH Micro I had been experimenting with using the Hard water Micro as a substitute for the normal Flora Micro, this to account for my hard 350 PPM water and the lack of a large enough RO filter at the time. It has worked well for me. I just kept my reservoir below 1150 PPM @ .5 conversion and its all good. One tip - do not pH down this stuff, the hard water micro will drop pH gradually over the next 24 hours, for example I mix up a batch, it is at like 6.2, the next day, its at 5.6-5.8 after running in the system for a while. If I pH downed that to 5.7 before putting it in the system, it ended up as low as 4.8-5.2 by the next day. My conclusion, the hard water micro was buffering the alkaline crud in my water, it just doesnot do it ASAP fast like the phosphoric acid.
1 like
Complain
Selected By The Grower
MrGreenMan
MrGreenMananswered grow question 4 years ago
The ghe flora trio works great, got loads of calcium and magnesium in it already too!
1 like
Complain
Similar Grow Questions