The Mega Crop Thread

[Homer Simpson]

A little yellow or seeing deficiencies, up the dose .5g. Darker green or tip burn, drop down .5g or verify you don't have build up in your media.

I think you are right on with your advice but I have yellowing leaves with brown spots and dark green and tip burn so I am getting signs to go up and down. I took your advice and flushed yesterday and I know it is too early to tell if that did it yet but I think they are worse so far today so I fear some calmag is in my future.

I am conflicted because I would like to give it a while to see if the flushing works but I fear it isn't and I don't want to damage my plant but I don't want to start adding calmag before I am sure it isn't a flushing problem. I think I will give it a few more days and if it doesn't look like the flushing is helping I will add some calmag.

 

[InTheShed]

ask @InTheShed if he waters to runoff or his particular approach.
may make a difference.

I water to some runoff but nowhere near what I used to do with FF nutes.

Pouring through also lets you monitor the process. If you have a PPM meter, catch some of the first runoff. Based on personal experience, it's probably around 2000+ PPM. Run a couple gallons of tap through them and then your gallon of nuted water. Catch some of that last runoff towards the end of your nuted water addition. It should be within a couple hundred points of your input (around 1100-1200 PPM assuming 150 PPM tap water). Reset complete. If it's still pretty high, run another gallon of nuted water at them until your within that couple hundred PPM difference.

This ^

Every 3rd or 4th watering seems a little excessive to me,

This was what was recommended from my ProMix rep, as farside correctly remembered below. Of course, the rep wasn't accounting for the fertilizer type when he said that. Here is his quote:
"When any fertilizer is applied to a container, the plant will take up nutrients leaving some behind. This can create some imbalances in the root zone.

A plain water irrigation leaches out the elements that are not used or any waste ions such as sodium and/or chloride that may have accumulated... Irrigate plants to allow 15-20% of water to flow from the bottom of the container.

Generally, a good practice...is to irrigate with fertilizer solution three times and [do] the fourth irrigation with plain water to leach excess nutrients/salts. This would be applicable to all growing media."

Somewhere burried deep in @InTheShed thread I think there is a conversation he copied and pasted that he was having with the folks at Premier (makers of Pro Mix) that had recommendations along those lines.

He did. But I went with Emilya's suggestion of clearing out the substrate once about 2-3 weeks before expected harvest, and some of my plants did seem happier after I did it. They may like it even more if I did it every fourth watering, but I don't have that kind of time or water!

shed had a fair bit of experience before stopping the ph and knew his method put the plants in a stable space before doing so.

I didn't stop pH'ing my nutes because of any experience with my plants. I stopped because it was explained how it's not necessary in any buffered media, like soil or ProMix.

Here is the thread. The opening post has the facts, and the rest of the thread is just a discussion about whether the facts are facts.

Do we need to pH adjust our nutrient solutions?

Greetings all! I recently had a running email conversation with the "Grower Services & Product Development Director" at ProMix (aka Premier Tech). I began the conversation by posting a question on their website, asking if I should be treating ProMix HP as soil or soil-less when mixing...

www.420magazine.com

Here is a paper from Cornell U that backs up the original post, and here is the post where I explain the info in the paper if you don't have time to read through it.

MC is best used in anything where hydro rules apply. that includes promix.
the obfuscation occurring is simply the same old confusion over inert soil type mixes.

Though ProMix is not hydro, it's soil-less. It contains buffers and therefore does not require nutrient solutions to be pH-corrected as you do in hydro.

I am going to flush this one about every 2 weeks and see if that solves the problem

I'm with farside to say that dunking is not flushing. Nor is pouring 5 gallons through. 2-3x the pot size is necessary to clear the old PPM from the substrate. I know this because I've done it in ProMix with a PPM meter.

I just switched to MC nutes, in 24h my plants grew 2 inches from 7.5-9.5" and fixed my burn problem. Needless to say, imnsold, I put up to auto pots in 2 days then it'll be easy street. Here is before and after 1 feeding of MC

I don't think you can tell anything after one feeding in terms of deficiencies, as things like calcium or magnesium problems start a while before you see them in the leaves. Keep feeding and keep checking new growth for anything suspect!

 

[Ironmike340]

Anyone have any info on ordering direct from Greenleaf ? I’ve ordered,but no update,no contact number and there email doesn’t work? May be a good product, but not updating there website is gonna kill their business.

 

[InTheShed]

When I order from them I get a confirmation email.

 

[Old Salt]

On the bag the instructions for early bloom are 20ml/4G and this equals 5ml/1G
Late bloom 20ml/3.5G or 5.7ml/1G

Using volume seems much easier than weight.

Not really. I switched from General Hydroponics' Flora Trio and supplements. I had to measure by both weight (dry KoolBloom) and volume (everything else). I'm using a 100gm X 0.01gm scale with a small container on the platform.

If you really want to stay with volume measurements, use a graduated cyclinder and weigh 100ml, then do the conversions. A measuring cup will be wildly inaccurate. The fun part will be finding measuring spoons to handle the quantities needed.

OK, just for S's & Giggles, I measured this. Most folks won't have a graduated cylinder around the house. The SG (specific gravity) of Mega Crop is 1.206 ±0.02. That means 1 cc (or 1 ml) of Mega Crop weighs 1.206gms. A 5.7ml sample will weigh 6.875gms. I think @Homer Simpson pushed it above 7.0gm/gal in late bloom, and had to cut back to about 6.0gm/gal due to nutrient burn. You can find the details in his journal. Also note that most measurements here are in US gallons (128 fl oz), not Imperial gallons (160 fl oz). US is assumed, unless it's specified.

I'm not going to search for the appropriate measuring spoons.

 

[Jack420]

Res change 15 gal mix 6 gram per gal boy they are thriving

 

[Jack420]

Will stay at 6 grams

 

[bluter]

nice going @Jack420

thanks for all the info and links to discussions @InTheShed

 

[Homer Simpson]

Nor is pouring 5 gallons through. 2-3x the pot size is necessary to clear the old PPM from the substrate. I know this because I've done it in ProMix with a PPM meter.

This vital info would have been more beneficial yesterday when I was flushing, lol...

I am curious if you have any opinion about the notion that MegaCrop needs Calmag sometimes because I know you have been a proponent that it is complete on its own or if my problem can be solved by flushing?

 

[InTheShed]

All I can say is that my plants never had a deficiency that wasn't solved by adding more MegaCrop, and that the additional MC did not burn the plant. That's just me and my tap water with whatever is in it (including chloramine ) and my eight or nine different strains. As they say on the internet, YMMV!

 

[bluter]

I am curious if you have any opinion about the notion that MegaCrop needs Calmag sometimes

i believe there are instances where cal-mag or another additive would be beneficial.

just blew up a white cookie on the stuff. i'm not blaming MC, i either misread what was going on, acted too late, or likely all the above.

not every plant or strain is happy with the same diet. i was too lazy to make amendments for 1 plant and paid the price.

 

[MrSauga]

I hope we didn't break our new toy, the MC rep!

 

[InTheShed]

I'm sure the rep has loads of better things to do than monitor our yapping. Like look for IronMike's order!

I mean 6 pages over the course of a weekend? Just on this journal and this site alone? They would need a full-time person for that job!

 

[MrSauga]

i was too lazy to make amendments for 1 plant and paid the price.

Guilty. But I've been lucky and I never got to the point of having to lose a plant. Sorry for the loss brutha.

 

[Jack420]

nice going @Jack420

thanks for all the info and links to discussions @InTheShed

Thanks man def really easy to use so far guess it does better hydro then soil I always had issues in soil ph buffering what not hope y’all get the kinks worked out

 

[Jack420]

I'm sure the rep has loads of better things to do than monitor our yapping. Like look for IronMike's order!

I mean 6 pages over the course of a weekend? Just on this journal and this site alone? They would need a full-time person for that job!

One person not enough for one person to wrap there head around everyone’s prob lol hahhahahah

 

[Homer Simpson]

All I can say is that my plants never had a deficiency that wasn't solved by adding more MegaCrop, and that the additional MC did not burn the plant. That's just me and my tap water with whatever is in it (including chloramine ) and my eight or nine different strains. As they say on the internet, YMMV!

Hmmm... That makes me feel I should give flushing another better try before I add cal/mag. YMMV...? You make me vomit?? Sorry, didn't mean to be a bother.

 

[Jack420]

Prob 2 would b awesome

 

[InTheShed]

YMMV...? You make me vomit??

That's as maybe, but I meant "your mileage may vary."

 

[732002]

1/2 tsp or 2.5ml in 1/2 gallon gave me a ppm of 900-1000.

For me keeping a measuring spoon, or the provided scoop, in the bag is the simplest solution.