Oh .... That's probably why he says only 1/4 strength nutes all through the grow phase & 1/2 strength at bloom. Weaker nutes to prevent build up ?
Smokiemcpot's Perpetual Pot Plant Paradise
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Emilya Green
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without pH adjusted water, nutes are salts. The actual nute is chemically tucked away inside the salt and is only released by properly pH adjusted water. If the medium dries out or the pH dramatically changes, mobile nutes cease to be mobile, encased again in the salt.
weaker nutes definitely means weaker buildup.
weaker nutes definitely means weaker buildup.
That has to be the reason for 1/4 strength nutes then. To help prevent the build up. So yeah, it all makes sense.
So would this be true of liquid nutes also ? I would have thought they already were mixed with pH adjusted water & until they dried up & turned to powder = Salts ??? Maybe it's my way of thinking. I don't think of salt as a liquid ... but as a powder. I could see powder nutes like Mega Crop being a salt until it's mixed with pH water.
Not trying to say you are wrong in any way. Just trying to get a better understanding of it . I'm sure you can set me straight ... LOL.
Emilya Green
Well-Known Member
Measure the pH of the liquid in your bottle of nutes sometime. You will find that it is very acidic, certainly too acidic to support life. The nutes are not mobile in this environment. In a water based medium (remember that coco is just a neutral holder of the true medium) salt simply becomes one of the components in the mixture. Think of ocean water... lots of salt, but in a liquid form. Eventually the salt bond debris will build up as nutes are used, even in liquid based hydro nutes. In that bottle the actual nutes are in a very acidic environment, and those chelated bonds remain intact, keeping interactions between the various nutes from happening which would cause the nutes breaking down while in the bottle, on the shelf and shipped to you to sit on your shelf for a year or more. Eventually with heavy feeding the water will become so saturated with this salt debris that root uptake could be affected, so a lot of growers have found it easier to just use nutes at subsistence levels, and flush only when there is a problem. Whatever works, right? There are as many ways to grow this plant as there are gardeners and no right way or wrong way. This isn't supposed to be hard, and not everyone wants to push their gardens to the extreme. There is a lot to be said for finding a system that works reliably every time. That is indeed what coco and nutes from a bottle are in the final analysis, an artificial system to grow pot. When a way to use those tools is found that works well for most people, there is no reason not to use it.
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Smokiemcpot19
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So last night after reading @Barney86 thread about feeding in coco I mixed up 3 gallons of my week 1 nutes at 1/4th strength and watered the girls again, only this time I watered till 20% run off!! God were the pots so fudgin heavy!! Was damn near breaking my back holding the pots up to let them stop dripping into the catch trays lol.
Anyways long story short I woke up today and noticed the tops of the new growth a lighter shade of green/yellow? Anyone know if I went to hard on nutes or a iron def?? I've used cal mag pretty much every watering and some "micro" nutes with the Flora trio.
Any help or suggestions would be great but on a plus side I'm seeing some noticable growth again!
On to the pics!!
@farside05 @Barney86 @Old Salt @Emilya @Buds Buddy
Anyways long story short I woke up today and noticed the tops of the new growth a lighter shade of green/yellow? Anyone know if I went to hard on nutes or a iron def?? I've used cal mag pretty much every watering and some "micro" nutes with the Flora trio.
Any help or suggestions would be great but on a plus side I'm seeing some noticable growth again!
On to the pics!!
@farside05 @Barney86 @Old Salt @Emilya @Buds Buddy
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Smokiemcpot19
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Pics look fine to me. New growth is normally a shade or two lighter green. Give it a day or so and it should green up like the rest of the older growth.
I'm not one to subscribe to 1/4 strength, 1/2 strength, etc. when it comes to nutes since every manufacturer has their own blend and strength. I prefer to calculate everything based on ppm of Nitrogen to level the playing field, so you know exactly how much you are feeding them despite using different brands. At your plants stage, I'm looking to feed about 30-40 ppm of Nitrogen. Using the GH lineup, that would be 2 ml of Gro, 2 ml Micro, 1 ml Bloom, and 1ml Cali Magic (all units are per gallon of water) for 40 ppm of Nitrogen. That mix gives you a blended NPK of 3-1-3 which is also one of my desired ratios through veg.
As far as watering coco, I'm not the best to ask on that. I've only used coco once. I'm more of a Pro Mix (peat based soil-less mix) guy. With it you water more like soil when the pot gets light. The one run I did do in coco I watered it like I did my Pro Mix and the results were underwhelming. I do believe you want to water it daily (which I didn't) for best results, possibly even 2x daily in full bloom. I just don't have the time for daily waterings so I went back to what works best for me.
I'm not one to subscribe to 1/4 strength, 1/2 strength, etc. when it comes to nutes since every manufacturer has their own blend and strength. I prefer to calculate everything based on ppm of Nitrogen to level the playing field, so you know exactly how much you are feeding them despite using different brands. At your plants stage, I'm looking to feed about 30-40 ppm of Nitrogen. Using the GH lineup, that would be 2 ml of Gro, 2 ml Micro, 1 ml Bloom, and 1ml Cali Magic (all units are per gallon of water) for 40 ppm of Nitrogen. That mix gives you a blended NPK of 3-1-3 which is also one of my desired ratios through veg.
As far as watering coco, I'm not the best to ask on that. I've only used coco once. I'm more of a Pro Mix (peat based soil-less mix) guy. With it you water more like soil when the pot gets light. The one run I did do in coco I watered it like I did my Pro Mix and the results were underwhelming. I do believe you want to water it daily (which I didn't) for best results, possibly even 2x daily in full bloom. I just don't have the time for daily waterings so I went back to what works best for me.
The color is fine for new growth, in coco water at least once a day in veg. In bloom I water 2-3 times a day.
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Smokiemcpot19
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Thanks a bunch @farside05 Your girls were beautiful! what did you yeild off those dreams??
Also as far as your nute calculation I have been feeding 2ml calmag, 2ml grow, 1ml micro and .5 ml of bloom so far so should I up that to your measurements?
Also using more from the GH line, diamond nectar at 1ml, Armor Si at 1ml and rapid start root boost at a couple drops and then having to pH the water to desired range. Last time I checked I think ppm was like 2-250
When a plant grows quickly new growth is often yellower until the leaves have a chance to develop all the chlorophyll they need.
So, what Farside and Penny said!
So, what Farside and Penny said!
The two plants that I harvest are still drying. Should be done in a day or so, then I can get some weights. I don't bother to weigh wet.
With what you've been feeding, you are safe and shouldn't be burning anything up. You're in that 30-40 ppm range I like for young plants. I would tweak thing a bit though. Your current blended NPK ratio is 1-1-3. When the ratio of N to K goes past 1:3, you start running the risk of K locking out Calcium. Personally I'd try:
Gro = 2ml
Micro = 2ml
Bloom = 1ml
Diamond Nectar - 1ml
Cal Mag = 2ml
Armor Si = 1ml
Blended NPK comes out to 2-1-3, ppm from N = 42.
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Smokiemcpot19
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@farside05 @Pennywise @InTheShed thank you guys so much for taking the time to help me!
I definitely notice a boost in growth from feeding last night so makes sense!
I definitely notice a boost in growth from feeding last night so makes sense!
That’s when you know they’re growing fast.
Yep, the fun part is coming up. I like after they hit a couple weeks in veg through the end of the stretch. Growth is fast, things to play with (ie topping and training). I get bored the last couple weeks of a grow, just waiting for the things to ripen up. Then there's the drag of having to harvest and trim.
I’m getting mire comfortable with the whole trimming thing.
Psychologically?
Yea there's no getting physically cannot comfortable for long.
Hell no one else will do it for me. Lol
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