Day 129 Update
Hey everybody!
Lots to discuss today. First off, many of you may not know that I use MC as my base nute. I run the older version which carries a NPK ratio of 9-6-14. Their newest version runs 9-6-17 which is meant to help the plant through flower. There's less nutrients in the older version which tends to lead to deficiencies occasionally of Ca, Mg and K.
The newer version contains higher levels of Ca and Magnesium amino chelates to compensate as well as an increase of 27% Phosphorous and 24% Potassium.
So what am I getting at? Well I'm trying to run some new numbers with my MC to give me more Ca, Mg and K thoughout the flowering stage. Currently I have been running the following to give me a combined NPK ratio of 2-1-3. That has been working fine in veg but the plants outside have been showing signs of various defs, albeit not that bad. So my feed consisted of the following per 4L of water:
6.3g M.C (9-6-14)
5mL Protekt (0-0-3)
2mL Sensi Cal (4-0-0)
.4g Kelp Extract (0-0-15)
Now this is where the science hopefully works for me. Greenleaf Nutrients, the manufacturers of
Mega
Crop, also make several additional goodies that they want you to buy. I have the following:
Cal+Mag Pro (13-0-0) - This product contains a healthy dose of Ca at 11% and Mg at 3.5%
Bud Explosion (0-19-39) - This product also contains 1% Mg and 10% S
Sweet Candy (0-0-16) - This product contains 5.5% Mg and 13% S
I've been following many posts by farside05 and he's always throwing out some good tidbits for us to enjoy.
Did you know that plants look for 1 part S to 15-20 parts N? If your plants are not getting that then they probably will benefit with some extra Sulfur. Also, you never want your N-K ratio to exceed 1:3. Anything above that and you risk Ca lockout. The best range for most plants during growth and veg seems to be around 2-1-3 of NPK. As an example, if you have a combined ratio of of nutes that going in that equals something like 6-3-9 then you have a 2-1-3 ratio. Perfect.
If your nutes going in combine a total of 3-3-12 then you have a ratio of 1-1-4. Now your N-K ratio is above 1:3 and you're going to have problems.
So you can see it's not just throwing some nutes together and hoping things go the way you want them to. In my case I've been able to use a simple calculator that farside created and modified it to meet my needs. It's simple to plumb in some numbers and visually see the results instantly.
Having said that I'm going to use some of products above that I have been against using with MC. MC v2 is a stand alone product and does not require additives from what we have seen around the forum here. MC v1 is a different story.
Using their CM Pro has a huge amount of N in it. So much that you'll burn your plants unless you can work out how much to use. The benefits are hidden inside with the Ca and Mg if you can access them without harming the plant. PPM levels of N are best between 90-150. If you start going higher than 150 you might risk tip burn. If lower than 90 you may risk N def. So you always want to try and maintain the N at correct levels. I've been as high as 180ppm and start to notice tip burn depending on the stage of growth.
The Bud Explosion I wont be running, since the P values mess everything up when I try and get the correct ratios needed. This leaves me to the Sweet Candy. The Sweet Candy contains some really high doses of of K, at 16%. My concern was how high the S was as well.
If you recall earlier, plants look for a 15-20:1 ratio N-S, so with this product it gives me a 1:1 ratio. I asked around and it appears that a 1:1 ratio is fine and I should have no problems, so this is what I'll be using for the next few feedings. Again, this is per 4L of water.
5.3g MegaCrop
5g Sweet Candy
1g Calmag Pro
With the above amounts I get a combined NPK ratio of 6-3-14 which works out to 2-1-4 for arguments sake. Exactly what I am trying to get to. I've increased my K, maitained my N and P and kept my N load at 174ppm. What has happened though is the PPM levels of my final mix have shot way up. This should be OK but may mean that I could get a buildup of salt over a period of time. My PPM level is at 1293 with an EC of 2.75.
So with all that said I'm eager to see how things react over the next few days. They both got 6L of water today with their new formula.
In closing here's a few pics of the girls.
