So if a plant starts showing these signs, (which I’ve been seeing a lot of) so for it to happen you guys are saying, too much MC is being used, causes a lock out..? Which can be plausible... and hypothetically sounds like it could be legit. So, to adjust or fix it, a person would flush, and dial the MC down? Judging by the green colour of the plants determines the amount your going back on MC correct?
how do we know for sure that the plant is locked out for certain? Are we going off of scientific studies or are we just going off Willy nilly science..?
sorry for the questions, I’m just trying to have a better understanding of MC. There seems to be holes in the system that I’m just not fully grasping.
That's a good question. MC is certainly a (mostly) one-stop nutrient, but you have to understand how to read your plants. Specifically, the shade of green in the leaves. Too dark, back off; too light, bump up.
From there, like with any particular nutrient, you
may need to supplement with calmag. Especially if you are using RO/distilled/filtered water. In conjunction with that, some LED lights may cause the plants to need a little more calmag as well.
On its own, MC should have enough calmag for most situations. There are times it won't, but that's not from the nute. That's from outside circumstances. Lighting, genetics, water, etc.
Now there are certainly cases where one could see a lockout as well. This isn't from the nutrient itself, but my guess from watching certain grows is it comes down to over-feeding and possibly additional supplements being used and/or being used incorrectly. (I'm looking at you, bud explosion.)
The most rudimentary way to diagnose an issue as being locked out is to go back to the basics. Are the leaves too light or too dark? Too dark and it's most likely a deficiency from a lockout. Using additional supplements? Probably a lockout.
MC is designed to be very, very simple. I honestly think this is where people get all whacked up using it. It's too simple, and most have been conditioned by the bottle makers that you need to always be supplementing with something. In turn, people tinker (whether admitted or not) and the next thing you know they're burning up their grow.
I've been battling a little bit in my RDWC setup. A bit more than I've documented even (haven't had the time to really get into much detail with it) and it has been an interesting challenge.I'm in the last weeks of flower (at least 1 plant is getting chopped in the next few days it seems, if not a couple more) and have been battling a plant that started out with similar calmag symptoms. I bumped up the calmag a tick (I use a non-nitrogen flowering formula) and it kept progressing anyway, although it did slow down a tick. It seems to be more akin to the plant and its natural self-consumption, but it sure started earlier than it should have (mid-flower.) On two other plants, they started similar signs a couple weeks ago which was a bit closer to normal. So in chasing that, I've also been chasing the EC... down. First it was a race in the upward direction. How quick to get things bumped up. Even between res changes. There were a couple weeks I had to do some calculations and add a bit of concentrated feed into the mix to bump it up a notch.
Now it's the opposite. My EC is rising, water level (in the top-off tank) dropping, and pH falling. The handy dandy chart says no bueno, lower EC. Cool, but I'm now down to about 4.5g/gal and the res change in a few days may go down to 4g/gal. (Feckin plants!)
I don't believe for a second that it's the nutrient itself, but just the way the grow is going. Genetics, environment, all that.
Something I have noticed with MC though, and it may not be MC specifically, but a combination of that, genetics, etc, but it seems that the plants sure do like to consume themselves a tick earlier and harder than I've seen in the past before switching to MC. I mean 2 weeks to go and she's about ate herself up good. Hasn't happened to all, but has to more than not.
Seeing how things are going in the RDWC, it looks to me like it might not be starting out as the normal EOL phase, but potentially could be lockouts that then trigger an early-ish cannibalistic pattern. At this point I can't say, but early observations and comparisons for my stuff seems to be pointing to potentially lowering the g/gal once past the mid-flower stage. I need a few more runs to be sure, but I have a GDP just about early mid-flower that is happy as a clam and hasn't seen MC over 5g/gal. I'll be keeping a sharp eye on her, but so far I see no indications that she's getting more hungry.
I'm not sure the PPM scale my pen is on but 5g/gallon is measuring 1000ppm, a number I wouldn't be able to touch until flower on the GH trio. We'll see how they take it next week.
Running a quick look against my Blue Lab Guardian seems to suggest that with 5g/gal and 1000ppm, most likely it's on the 700 scale.
I’d truly like to know. I thought MC was a one stop shop brand of nutrients.
