Garden Slaves' zero veg mini farm. Trainwreck, Bluecheese, Big Bud

[Garden Slave]

...hi all ...new to the forum

Setup: 4x600watt HPS, aircooled, with co2, flood and drain, SOG (Al B Fuct style) ,using the Lucas formula

...questions/commets welcome!

 

[Ruckatruck]

Beautiful. A few questions:

Looks like 20 plants per harvest. Do you have a final, dried weight for them?

Is the idea to simply start clones under a 12/12 cycle?

Lucas formula?

Gorgeous result. My mouth waters.

Peace,
Ruckatruck

 

[Garden Slave]

Beautiful. A few questions:

Looks like 20 plants per harvest. Do you have a final, dried weight for them?

Is the idea to simply start clones under a 12/12 cycle?

Lucas formula?

Gorgeous result. My mouth waters.

Peace,
Ruckatruck

...16-20 yeap...the Blue cheese yield 3/4 lb, the Trainwreck 1-1/4 lb, Big Bud stays a pretty consistant lb....all grown under 600's
...correct, I clone in an aerocloner until roots are well established (average 2 weeks) ...then I transplant into 3 inch netted pots, then into 5"x5" square pots....I have found that filling your remaining bed space with rocks will allow your roots to grow further, creating a bigger yield, however...from now on, I will be simply covering my flood beds with panda poly.


...I've been using the Lucas formula for a couple years now, I've found it works great...and it's simple. I'll drop a copy and paste below...and thanks for the kind words.



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.

 

[SnowBender]

NICE GROW!

have you checked out those square nets pots they make for pond plants? from like 9" up to 14 " square, and they make a nice dark space between em when butted up against each other.

 

[Ruckatruck]

One more question: Do you prune at all?

Ruckaruck

 

[Hardope]

Sweet! A freind of mine uses the Lucas formula with GH for soil. Nice results there Slave!!!

 

[Garden Slave]

NICE GROW!

have you checked out those square nets pots they make for pond plants? from like 9" up to 14 " square, and they make a nice dark space between em when butted up against each other.

...thankx bro! ...I'll be lookin into those pond pots, thank you.

One more question: Do you prune at all?

Ruckaruck

...yes, I try to keep my canopy about 1 foot deep...which usually requires some lollipop'n around weeks 2-3. I've found that tops below 1 foot deep tend to grow popcorn while using 600's....I'd probably allow 18" of growth dept with a 1k.

 

[Garden Slave]

Sweet! A freind of mine uses the Lucas formula with GH for soil. Nice results there Slave!!!

...in soil, ehh? Thankx!

 

[JJ Bones]

Very nice looking setup. Lovely looking buds, I may have to give this setup a try when I play with ebb and flow.

 

[JJ Bones]

Whats the yield per plant?

 

[Garden Slave]

Whats the yield per plant?

...I actually haven't done the math, I average 1lb per 600watt HPS, so I suppose it's safe to say a minimal 1/2 ounce each plant.... thanks bro.