Indeed! 
Autos Under A Mars Hydro FC 4800: Soilless & FN Fertilizer, By Farside05
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- fn fertilizer mars hydro
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- #42
As the kids used to say...
Don't think the FN A wasn't intentional when I chose the name. I could have went with Grow Micro Bloom like another well known company. The "A" part would be Grow since it has most of the N, and the B part would be Bloom since that's where the P is. Of course naming any part of FN fertilizer© Bloom, especially in relation to P, is counter to it's whole purpose.
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- #44
Of course it was, but "FN B" doesn't mean a damn thing.
Really? When you used to say FN A, your friends didn't chime back "FN B, FN C"? Maybe that was just a Midwest thing. I can still hear the echos.
Nah, definitely not a NY thing! We were too busy crossing against the lights. 
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- #46
I broke out the calculator tonight at work. If you used 2.5g of the Pepper & Herb fertilizer, 2g Calcium Ammonium Nitrate, and 1.5g of Magnesium Sulfate, you end up with a pretty good looking mix.
Didn't make the tags, but I'll give you some activity here! Lol
That was an amazing and very detailed tutorial on how to make that stuff. Hats off to you. With photographic support even, excellent and thanks. How often do you have to make a batch for an average grow? And how long can you store it and how long will it remain in it's correct state? Also, what is the application volume/gallon and how does that work? Sorry if some of this is asking for repeat info.
Thanks!
That was an amazing and very detailed tutorial on how to make that stuff. Hats off to you. With photographic support even, excellent and thanks. How often do you have to make a batch for an average grow? And how long can you store it and how long will it remain in it's correct state? Also, what is the application volume/gallon and how does that work? Sorry if some of this is asking for repeat info.
Thanks!
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- #48
Well let's see... I have it worked out that there are 378, 10ml doses per gallon. Each time I feed a mature plant, I'm feeding 2 gallons of feed. I probably feed on average 2x a week when they are in full veg and bloom. And I'm growing 8 plants.
So 378 / 2 / 2 / 8 = 11.8 weeks. If you're growing 4 plants it would be 23.6 weeks. Then consider that when they're younger you're feeding less than full strength, and less than 2 gallons per feed, and probably less frequently too. For a 4 plant grow, a gallon of each of the products will most likely last a half year or more.
It should last until it's all used. I still have a quart left of the Silica, FN A, and FN B from what I made 4 months ago and it's still fine.
The feed schedule is based on the plants age above ground. You use equal amounts of each product. There is no Grow feed and Bloom feed. It's a constant ratio throughout the grow, just higher strength as the plant gets older.
Day 1-5, 2ml per gallon
Day 5-10, 4ml
Day 11-15, 6ml
Day 16-20, 8ml
Day 21+ 10ml
That's about as fast as you can push it. If I see a leaf tip starting to go a little white, just before the burn, I might skip the next increase for a watering.
So if you see me posting, they all got 2 gallons of the 8's, that's my shorthand for 8ml FN Silica®, 8ml FN Micros®, 8ml FN A®, and 8ml FN B®.
Awesome, that's exactly what I was looking for. So in short, not to be Captain Obvious, this is basically your own self-made nute line that works start to finish for an entire grow, and produces results like your photos? Is that what's going on here?
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- #50
Awesome, that's exactly what I was looking for. So in short, not to be Captain Obvious, this is basically your own self-made nute line that works start to finish for an entire grow, and produces results like your photos? Is that what's going on here?
That's s the gist of it. There's a number of growers out there using similar ppm element targets and blending together several off the shelf products to do it. That's what I was doing too until I made the leap to buying all the individual components to make my own from the ground up.
Here's a question for you @farside05 - have you experienced any strain specific dislike for your mix since you've been using it? Or is there any "sativas seem to like it better than indicas" (or something) - type thing going on? Or does everything you've grown flourish in it?
Also wondering what you believe is the biggest improvement you see using your own make versus when you were doing the same thing off the shelf?
Thank you kind sir!
One more - (heh) - what about a long vegging/long flowering strain or plant in this mix? Any "replenishment issues" over a longer haul to the point where other augmentation is necessary?
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- #53
I don't tend to grow sativa's, mainly hybrids and indicas due to indoors and tent heights. Up until about 2 years ago, all I had was a 32 x 32 tent and they aren't that tall. The 36 x 36 gave me a bit more headroom, but I still don't think I want to tackle anything too tall also I'm incredibly impatient and don't want to wait for that longer flowering period. Maybe why I grow a lot of autos
One more - (heh) - what about a long vegging/long flowering strain or plant in this mix? Any "replenishment issues" over a longer haul to the point where other augmentation is necessary?
Much of the reason I decided to go the DIY route was the concept of matching your fertilizers Nitrogen types to your water alkalinity. I grow in a buffered soil-less mix. I also quit the whole RO thing (just us people in the house drink it now) and feed my plants tap water. Many of the off the shelf fertilizers use predominantly Nitrate Nitrogen. That's great if you're using RO, but if you have 150ppm tap like mine, your growing media will see an upward pH drift over longer grows. @InTheShed has experienced this several times now with his Pro-Mix grows using Mega Crop which is nearly all Nitrate Nitrogen. I wanted a fertilizer that not only met my ppm per element targets but also contained about 25% Ammoniacal Nitrogen. That was near impossible to do by combining off the shelf products. I had my Non-Auto Auto in a 5 gallon container of Soil-less for 6 months feeding my tap and blend and didn't encounter any problems. I'm sure it probably would have been beneficial, data wise, to have done a slurry test on the grow media when that grow was over, but I didn't. I don't own a reliable pH pen anymore since it is unnecessary to pH feed solution when growing in buffered soil-less mixes or soil.
Thanks for the detailed response @farside05. And ah, I see. This is actually even more customized than I thought. Besides the alkalinity of the tap water, does your mix specifically address/mitigate any specific concentrations of other (bad) things in the tap water, such as chlorine?
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- #55
I don't concern myself with chlorine since I'm not trying to grow in a living soil, and I'm not depending on any microbes to break down organic material to help feed my plant. Everything is already there for them, in bare ionic form, to consume via the fertilizer.
Thanks. I see, I think....in a soilless grow the plant will take the nutes and what it needs and leave anything else alone and not be bothered by it, yes?
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- #57
It will take what it needs from what was provided. Problems arise when you over supply a particular element/ion. Then you'll get build up and eventual toxicity and/or lockout. That's why some runoff is recommended when feeding. Also trying to balance what the plant wants/needs in the correct proportions. That's where I fall back on tissue samples that different companies and institutions have published. That how I've come up with my ppm targets for each element. Much of that is covered on page 1 of my Growing Without Bloom Nutes thread (see Advanced Nutrients videos).
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- #58
After all the blah blah blah about fertilizer, a picture of plants under a light to break up the technical mumbo jumbo.
The front right and back left are showing signs that they're reaching the end of their lifespan. The nugs are dense. I haven't checked trichomes yet, but they may get chopped Saturday or Sunday if they're ready. One step closer to starting a new crop. I've got Bruce Banner, Blueberry Glue, and Tropicana Cookies Purple autos on tap. Original plan was the Banner and Tropicana (2 each) but the Blueberry Glue keeps pushing its way into my brain. I have a couple weeks to make the decision.
The front right and back left are showing signs that they're reaching the end of their lifespan. The nugs are dense. I haven't checked trichomes yet, but they may get chopped Saturday or Sunday if they're ready. One step closer to starting a new crop. I've got Bruce Banner, Blueberry Glue, and Tropicana Cookies Purple autos on tap. Original plan was the Banner and Tropicana (2 each) but the Blueberry Glue keeps pushing its way into my brain. I have a couple weeks to make the decision.
Missiley towers of spears!
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- #60
I didn't get anything harvested this weekend. Maybe in the AM. Still have fans and filters to do to. Spent the weekend doing yard work. Easy to get behind this time of year. They could use a cleanup and look a little rough from droughting this weekend.
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