The Mega Crop Thread

[nivek]

Hey @nivek, nice to meet you!

Are you from Kelowna, BC? I was born on the island - Comox - my dad was stationed there for a few years.

west kelowna actually,, oh boy,, i am dialing in my locale now,, ha

i was born (and taised) on the island as well,, victoria area,, still my paradise on earth,, tho the okanagan aint too bad either,,

enjoy the site,, cheers

 

[InTheShed]

west kelowna actually

Can I get the coordinates please?

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

to 420mag DrCC! I was wondering what made you think you will need the Bud Explosion and Cal Mag pro?

Hi @InTheShed , great question!

I have been using the 'popular' Fox Farm and Advanced Nutrient products; and since they both come with PK bloom enhancers like "Open Sesame", I figured it would be reasonable to sparingly include a PK bloom enhancer with the Mega Crop.

Do you have any notable opinions on GLN's other products?

I'm likely going to read about these ideas as I read through this thread, but any quick feedback would be appreciated

Also, I still need to read through the GLN web site - I'm sure there are some helpful starting tips there too.

Edit: I will use the Cal Mag Pro to help initialize the coco coir I just got from a friend. He brought me over two bags and some seeds in trade for a case of beer

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

to 420mag DrCC! I was wondering what made you think you will need the Bud Explosion and Cal Mag pro?

DrCC - I love that nickname! Reminds me of Canadian Club Whiskey (although Crown Royal aint so bad sometimes either

 

[nivek]

@West Hippie ,, very dramatic turn around,, impressive.

heres hopin it does that for me,,

cheers

 

[InTheShed]

Hi @InTheShed , great question!
I have been using the 'popular' Fox Farm and Advanced Nutrient products; and since they both come with PK bloom enhancers like "Open Sesame", I figured it would be reasonable to sparingly include a PK bloom enhancer with the Mega Crop.
Do you have any notable opinions on GLN's other products?
I'm likely going to read about these ideas as I read through this thread, but any quick feedback would be appreciated
Also, I still need to read through the GLN web site - I'm sure there are some helpful starting tips there too.

I'd start by reading up on bloom boosters here, as farside does his research and has done a great write up on them. Additionally, cannabis needs nowhere near the P that FF has included in Open Sesame (I used to be a FF grower and have a lot of the OS left!). Here is a good link on the subject of whether cannabis need high phosphorus.

Also, the cal-mag that GLN sells is incredibly high in nitrogen (13-0-0) , and most growers here who have found a need for cal-mag (after seeing deficiencies rather than adding it pre-emptively) use a very low N cal-mag booster (1 or 2-0-0).

There's a big push for growers to use bloom enhancers, by manufacturers and growers alike (not that I've seen side by side identical clones run as a test). I would try running straight MC and see how you like it. I run it all by itself now and my plants love it. Any deficiency I see is corrected by boosting the grams/gallon.

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

Seems that full strength MC along with BE is working perfectly!

Thanks @Dutchman1990 , this is great feedback! I just bought the MC, BE & CMP today!

Just curious, are you using any other supplements?

I'll head over to your grow journal later this week - are you documenting your quantities/ratios too?

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

@nivek

there are a few approaches..

don't worry - one of my favorite methods. the majority are successful with it.
worry but do nothing - also works freakishly well.

now the actively worry..

mix 3 - 5 gallon at a time - easiest approach. simply averages the mix out. requires stirring between feeds. works great.

pulverize / blend - kind of a method du jour. way too involved for my level of lazy. if you have a larger bag you can take a few cups out at a time to blend it up. makes stuff a bit easier to do.

what i do..

zap and go - i feed by grams / gallon (liter). i pre measure and pre mix in a small jar with a little feed water.. makes the stuff easy to shake up. i will zap the jar in the mic - lid off - and then give it another shake or two after. melts out any of the silly calcium balls and reduces precipitate. add immediately to the rest of the feed water and stir / ph / feed.


other suggestions...
i bought a larger bag, poured in to another container, then divided it up in to smaller ones for easier handling and storage. it helped mix the calcium balls evenly through. it also helps keep moisture out of the mc.

Excellent write-up!

I think I will go with the "mortar & pestle" and "premixng" approach when my MC arrives on Tuesday.

 

[Hrenklin]

Excellent write-up!

I think I will go with the mortar & pestle approach when my MC arrives on Tuesday.

I picked up a little coffee grinder from Walmart to grind mine up

 

[nivek]

Excellent write-up!

I think I will go with the mortar & pestle approach when my MC arrives on Tuesday.

certainly hands on,, indeed

i think i will start off with @bluter s method of premixing the powder in a small amount of water and gently heating to dissolve the pellets.

very odd that there are pellets in there at all iffin one asks me

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

forgot the premix then dilute method. thanks @Old Salt .

gonna have to add that on the next response. decided to start bookmarking some of the responses to common questions in this thread. the thread has gotten too long for a lot of the info to be readily accessible to new posters.



hi @skipeye

i use common hardware store buckets. i mostly pre mix in the smaller quarter buckets. they hold about 8 - 9 litres. on larger grows i will use the 20L - 5gal buckets.

if i need to store some pre mix i just pop the lid on. i only ph the amount i am going to feed at a single time. so the stored stuff is not ph'd.




@Hydroholic - it looks like it is pulling to build the colas. anyone else with me on this ?

nice colas. i'd give it a bump.

Hi @bluter, first - thanks for starting this thread!

I'm assuming for coco you pH close to 5.8 right? Any need to change pH between Veg and Bloom?

 

[West Hippie]

@West Hippie ,, very dramatic turn around,, impressive.

heres hopin it does that for me,,

cheers

It did it in my 20 gallon reservoir, but it took longer to repair .

 

[nivek]

ph'ing,, by my experience, is most important,, and i have had oh so many issues,, least of which is a wonky el cheapo ph pen,, throwing things off by .3 or .4 on the ph scale can cause such grief,, and by slowly adjusting , itr simply takes forever to correct, and dial it in.

a work in progress for me,,

but bluter is hempy, like me, and 5.8 is close to optimum, i am currently using 5.9 with a suspect pen,, tho now i have calibration solution and calibrate often,, a big improvement

 

[Old Salt]

Hey @nivek, nice to meet you!

Are you from Kelowna, BC? I was born on the island - Comox - my dad was stationed there for a few years.

Helo crew for the HMCS Huron?

 

[nivek]

@Old Salt , i know i read once you were at esquimalt for a while,, me too

tho i am talkin the fifties and early sixties. i was born nearby and grew up on the docks there waiting for my dads ship to come home,, what would he bring home this time??

the boats killed him, of course, he was an engineer,, guess what he died from??

ha,, it was not the asbestos that killed him,, it was the alcohol,, ha,, well, both actually,,

i honestly think there might be a class action suit waiting there somewhere

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

Are there any other changes to your grow besides the addition of the BE that might account for the differences? I was reading thison farside's thread about boosters which made me curious.

Kudos to @farside05 and @InTheShed for pointing this out.

This is now on my radar for sure!

Things that make me go hmmmm.

@Dutchman1990 is getting good results with a little extra PK - but that is subjective without quantitative data and a control group.

I still feel safe using a bit of extra PK, and as cannabis becomes legal worldwide and research increases, then many techniques will be debunked.

Obviously though, being a member of this site will help keep us current.

I'm curious, how did people a thousand years ago successfully grow cannabis without technology - pH pens, TDS pens, light meters, etc

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

It might be an idea to gather it all in one post for the newcomers.

Ask a moderator to add a link to the post in the first one of this thread.

Yep - like me - and please tell those moderators I'm giving them a green light - and to hurry up lol

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

Still the only problem with my MC was the ph in dwc and flood&drain. I tried to not ph the MC . My ro water about 15 ppm with a ph of 7.2-7.5 varys, 24 grams of MC four and 4 gallons of water brings the ph down to 5.7-5.9 and then it would drift overnight to 6.1 . I would leave it there and it still would drift to 6.3-6.5 then I’d bring the ph down to 6.1 and let it drift again . Then came the problem new growth came out yellow . With @MrSauga help had me bring the ph down . I went for 5.6-5.8 and 3 days later problem solved . So l’m staying under a ph of 6.0 for the rest of these grows .

E64C1734-3EC2-4859-924E-CDCD38C987A6.jpeg

• West Hippie
• Dec 11, 2019

Mama WW

F2FC2337-E910-4014-8598-0657CD8494D8.jpeg

• West Hippie
• Dec 14, 2019

Mama WW 12/14/19

A pH under 6.0 in your case makes sense - good decision!

 

[nivek]

i am starting a new painting and the background is a very wet to dry process so i am literally sitting here watching paint dry

thanks for the company y'all

 

[DrCannaCanadian]

I'd start by reading up on bloom boosters here, as farside does his research and has done a great write up on them. Additionally, cannabis needs nowhere near the P that FF has included in Open Sesame (I used to be a FF grower and have a lot of the OS left!). Here is a good link on the subject of whether cannabis need high phosphorus.

Also, the cal-mag that GLN sells is incredibly high in nitrogen (13-0-0) , and most growers here who have found a need for cal-mag (after seeing deficiencies rather than adding it pre-emptively) use a very low N cal-mag booster (1 or 2-0-0).

There's a big push for growers to use bloom enhancers, by manufacturers and growers alike (not that I've seen side by side identical clones run as a test). I would try running straight MC and see how you like it. I run it all by itself now and my plants love it. Any deficiency I see is corrected by boosting the grams/gallon.

Noted! And I can say for sure from just reading a few of your posts that you are thorough and very helpful here!

Wanna be my new best friend? I've still got so much to learn