WARNING: Opinions ahead
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DDA1 looks like she's grown 6 inches since yesterday
The stretch phase of the flowering period is a wonderful thing (unless you have low ceilings and a full grow space).
*The CaliMagic column is supposed to be for people using RO water or when growing in coco coir.
Because 0 PPM water contains no calcium. And because coco coir tends to "hold on to" Ca ions (especially if it wasn't pre-soaked in something like a solution of calcium nitrate before the gardener began using it). Of course, if you notice signs of insufficient calcium and/or magnesium, you'll need to add more. Not necessarily both, though, since these two elements have a relationship, and adding a combo product when you have an abundance of one of the elements
could fail to solve the issue, if it drives the ratio further out of whack instead of correcting it. That's why it's a good idea to have products like calcium nitrate and Epsom salt on hand, even if the gardener ordinarily uses a Ca/Mg combination product.
An analogy for the above: If you eat a breakfast consisting of one unit of milk to five units of cereal, find that you are .5 unit of milk from having a correct ratio... then adding one unit of milk and three units of cereal to what you already have in your bowl will still leave you with a less than optimum breakfast.
Or something, IDK. I keep thinking of food today
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I see an admonishment to always add the Micro first. That is correct - if you are only using the three-part Flora components. If you are also adding a Ca/Mg product (or, probably, if you are adding any calcium product), add that FIRST, before the Micro. And if you are using a silicon product - such as Armor Si - you would add
that first, then the calcium product, and then the Micro. Adding things in the proper order helps keep certain elements from precipitating out of solution. It can also keep some elements from combining into a substance that causes those elements to become inaccessible.. Gypsum, for example.
Maintain pH between 5.5-6.5.
I like 5.8 to 6.0. Or 5.95, if my meter has a two decimal place resolution. If there is a reservoir, where the nutrient solution will be around for a little while, and I know that the plant consuming certain elements is going to cause a minor drift in pH, then I'll be happy to end up with my nutrient solution's pH being on the other end of my comfort zone, since it'll soon be drifting through the zone instead of remaining static. And, if it's a big DWC reservoir instead of a tiny hempy one... then I will be maintaining its contents for at least a week instead of (more or less) doing a mini-flush and replacement every couple days. Therefore, instead of trying to readjust pH with the usual pH Up/Down products, I'll give a thought to what caused the change. In other words, what got consumed in a greater quantity. And add back some of that - which tends to correct the pH AND extend the useful life of the solution in the reservoir. Kill two birds and get stoned. (Lol.)
Add all nutrients before adjusting pH.
Common sense, that one. If your source water's pH was comparable to vinegar - or lye - then you wouldn't be using it to begin with. Assuming that it is anywhere near "reasonable," trying to adjust it at intermediate stages is counterproductive and, at best, just needlessly raises your solution's final EC. Plus, you could end up having used
both a pH Down and a pH Up product in the same batch of nutrient solution (and that would be counterproductive
and silly).
Give plain water every other watering (coco coir, soil, etc.)
Because you only want your plants to grow half the time??? Screw that. Even Mom has more sense than to do that, and she's nearly 80. When you have a conversation with people about why they do that, it'll make your head hurt even worse than usual. Because, almost without fail, they'll use "because, after
starving my plant giving my plant plain water, I'll feed it - and notice an immediate growth spurt." Which should cause them to realize their error in logic the moment they utter the words, but generally only ends up showing you that, when someone gets a dumb idea in their head, it's harder to get rid of than herpes. So it's not surprising to see that little jewel mentioned - but it is kind of saddening, IMHO.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: If they then go on to say, "Well, I tried giving nutrients every time, but I burnt my plants," you
could try to explain to them that this is a sign that they are feeding too
much, not too often. Or you could smile, nod, and GTFO before any of that st00pid has a chance to rub off on you.
So, according to all this info above, I should be feeding my DDAs Week 6 nutes, which fall in the flowering stage and not the growing stage, which is where I'm currently feeding them from.
Given that they will be 35 days tomorrow from a lifespan of approximately 60 days, should I bump up the FloraBloom amounts to where the chart above says I should be or continue using the feed schedule for late growth?
I'd be somewhat wary of dropping the "Grow" component
too low while the flowering stretch is still occurring. Unless you want small plants, of course. Note that this is a general statement, and that DDA does appear to be somewhat of a light feeder when it comes to nitrogen, according to some reports. Yet another reason to take nutrient schedules for what they are - generic recommendations - rather than something to mindlessly follow.
I'd be (cautiously) increasing the Bloom component, though. It's not really "either, or" - it's "give the plant what it needs." You want both large plants
and a large yield at harvest time.
Remember, it's hydroponics, not a soil grow. If you see signs that indicate you maybe goofed, just mix up something else (maybe a different ratio of nutrients, maybe just a slightly weaker solution). Pour some in until it starts dribbling out, wait a minute or three, cover the hole, fill the container, wait, then uncover the hole. Your plant is now sitting in a different nutrient solution than the one that it had issues with. Water and perlite has no buffering ability. Soil growers point to this like it's a bad thing. But hydroponic growers realize that it can
save their @ss, lol. It also makes it easier to figure out just exactly how you screwed up, because you won't have had time to do two or three other things before an issue presents itself.
I'd take that "60 days" with a grain of salt. Some people harvest DDA at 60-65 days - but others find that theirs aren't ready until the plant is 80, 90, sometimes even more days old. Seems kind of strange, since we all know what the indicator for a plant being ready to harvest is. And because a lot of us have probably been working with seeds that were produced at the same time, from a certain "selfing" incident three or four years ago. I
suspect that availability of nutrients (in the proper ratio for that specific plant, etc.) may have something to do with this. Maybe switching too soon from a "grow" nutrient schedule to a "flowering" one causes the plant to run a little short of nitrogen, which causes its stretch phase to be somewhat abbreviated, which causes the overall flowering period to be that much shorter. IDK, that's just a guess. If your plant grew six inches (or even a couple) in 24 hours, it's definitely still consuming nitrogen in relatively significant quantities, though.
As usual, I'm just rambling.
), these might be good for me, too. Could you post a photo of one just so I have a better idea of what I'm looking for? I'm a visual learner. That's why I went to college and not university like my dad wanted.
