The Mega Crop Thread

Emilya said:
What I understand about pH is that as long as it is within reasonable limits, it is not harmful to our plants to stray within the boundaries of normality. I heard an adage a long long time ago that I still believe in... if your water isn't harmful to you or your pets, it is not harmful to the plants either.
Many have found that in buffered mediums there is no need to adjust pH since the medium takes care of all your highs and lows... and to a point and as long as your buffers remain strong, this is true.
So why do we carefully adjust our pH to within certain ranges, different for soil and hydro? It is because of the chelated nutes. If it were not for the nutes that are designed to break apart in a certain pH range, there would be no need to care about a pH inside normal and reasonable boundaries. We pH for our nutes... not our plants.
So now we have MC... amino acid chelated... not salt chelated. Ph is inconsequential in a MC grow. Within normal limits, the MC is going to do what it does, not caring about the pH. I don't see any reason to not use plain old tap water, not worrying about what the pH of the MC mix is. I am slightly curious where it will fall, but until I see a need, I am not going to worry about pH or the chloramine in my water. I don't believe that I will need to... not with this new fertilizer technology.
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It will be interesting for me to see how this comes together when I (finally) get to running it in my RDWC.
 
I am working with gifted seeds, and only half of one batch of them at that... so I can afford to experiment. This next grow of mine is going to be an all out attempt to test the MC and to prove that with them not even mentioning pH on their website, that keeping pH within reasonable limits is all that we need to do, and that it does not need to be adjusted. I also wish to prove that the water is not as critical as we often think it is and that regular tap water with no attempt to air out the chlorine is going to be perfectly ok too.
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Emilya said:
I am working with gifted seeds, and only half of one batch of them at that... so I can afford to experiment. This next grow of mine is going to be an all out attempt to test the MC and to prove that with them not even mentioning pH on their website, that keeping pH within reasonable limits is all that we need to do, and that it does not need to be adjusted. I also wish to prove that the water is not as critical as we often think it is and that regular tap water with no attempt to air out the chlorine is going to be perfectly ok too.
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:nomo: This should be very interesting. Being legally limited to 4 plants makes experimenting challenging.
 
Homer Simpson said:
:nomo: This should be very interesting. Being legally limited to 4 plants makes experimenting challenging.
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Yes it would. I'm limited to 6 flowering, and when it all breaks down that's also 6 in veg, and 6 seedlings too.

Obviously timing would have to be right and the only time you're running 18 would be finishing off flowering, while vegging 6 more, and having just popped 6 more. Tight window between the seedling and veg, but still technically ok.

Most of the time it's going to be dealing with no more than 12, give or take.

So I could have 4 in flower, 4 in veg (just right for a 4x4 space) and still have 2 each in flower and veg (4 total) to experiment with.
 
Pennywise said:
I think they will tolerate higher ph than what google recommends
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I believe that to be true, and also that it matters on how the nute is constructed. The general belief is that hydro should be 5.8-6.0 but Dyna Gro (my previous favorite nute line) recommends higher...

"The ideal pH range for most hydroponic crops is between 5.5 and 6.5. At the lower pH range you may have issues maintaining a stable pH. So for simplicity it is recommended running between 6.0 and 6.2 for a purely hydroponic system and 6.5 and 6.8 for soil-less media or soil."

Both of those recommendations are .2-.4 higher than most of the info you will see online. Those that tried Dyna Gro in in pure hydro at 5.8 ran into a lot of issues trying to maintain a stable pH. I know we are discussing a completely different nute line, but if you are having issues in hydro with Mega, you may want to try a higher pH also. I think too many people rely on some of the nute uptake charts posted on this site. The most popular one you see quoted is just dead ass wrong.
 
farside05 said:
I believe that to be true, and also that it matters on how the nute is constructed. The general belief is that hydro should be 5.8-6.0 but Dyna Gro (my previous favorite nute line) recommends higher...

"The ideal pH range for most hydroponic crops is between 5.5 and 6.5. At the lower pH range you may have issues maintaining a stable pH. So for simplicity it is recommended running between 6.0 and 6.2 for a purely hydroponic system and 6.5 and 6.8 for soil-less media or soil."

Both of those recommendations are .2-.4 higher than most of the info you will see online. Those that tried Dyna Gro in in pure hydro at 5.8 ran into a lot of issues trying to maintain a stable pH. I know we are discussing a completely different nute line, but if you are having issues in hydro with Mega, you may want to try a higher pH also. I think too many people rely on some of the nute uptake charts posted on this site. The most popular one you see quoted is just dead ass wrong.
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And we've come full circle back to what Em said about pH being for the nutrient, not the plant. Which makes sense at face value on a chemical level. Different nutes within the mix breakdown at different rates based on the acidity of the water. In turn, for soil, the same thing happens but it's for the microbes which then feed the plant.

And this also brings us back to the pH and whatnot for promix, and that whole discussion.


All very fascinating to me, really. Especially the different type of chelation being used. Typical salt, or the MC amino acid type.

See, this type of innovation couldn't really happen without legalization. Where were we 10 years ago with all of this? Not very far at all. Now that it's becoming more and more widespread, the ability for companies to actually do research is creating the ability to push the envelope farther and farther because they are no longer limited to guessing or trying to use plants that are "similar" for what is the intended use.

Not a bad time to be alive and watch it happen, and it certainly isn't boring! :rofl:
 
Ironmike340 said:
Ok so with mega crop in soil are people still feed,water,feed? I’ve read to feed every time, but not sure I agree with that?
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I am going to feed every time, because that is how they have said that it works best. This is not a soil grow where the feed builds up in the soil and needs a water only run to clear it out... these nutes move with the water right up into the plant, and apparently the amount the plants need is figured into the suggested mix rate. Feed every time and watch the green and adjust based on that, is what they suggest. I would think that water only every other time would make that judgement a bit iffy.
 
Emily, I would watch the green very closely, Not sure what mine are doing, but when you look at the green, I am getting too dark and the tips curling, it might be a good idea to back way off of the feeding or maybe even skip a feeding or two depending on JUST HOW much green you can actually get. I know I am working handy-capped with my grow because I came in late and tried to water with 6 and 1/2 grams per gallon, and that is too much for my plants in the soil they are in FFOF with 1/4 perlite and a lot of extra pelletized dolomite lime that I can not get out completely. So the feeding I did today was 1/2 gallon pure distilled water for each plant , kindo of trying to give the plants time to use up some of the excess food I Hope!
 
I have seen a number of grows in FFOF suffer from N toxicity. I wouldn't skip any feedings if you see that, I would just lower the grams/gallon of MC to account for what's in the FFOF.
 
Ima Paradox said:
Emily, I would watch the green very closely, Not sure what mine are doing, but when you look at the green, I am getting too dark and the tips curling, it might be a good idea to back way off of the feeding or maybe even skip a feeding or two depending on JUST HOW much green you can actually get. I know I am working handy-capped with my grow because I came in late and tried to water with 6 and 1/2 grams per gallon, and that is too much for my plants in the soil they are in FFOF with 1/4 perlite and a lot of extra pelletized dolomite lime that I can not get out completely. So the feeding I did today was 1/2 gallon pure distilled water for each plant , kindo of trying to give the plants time to use up some of the excess food I Hope!
Click to expand...
Yes indeed, and I suspect I will have a similar experience with my strong soil coming into the mix in my MC grow. I am not sure I want to skip any feedings, but I will adjust way down in early veg if I see the signs that I should. Your problem all along has been that dolomite and because of the pH not being able to get at the FF nutrients for very long, and I think that moving to the MC system where pH is not a factor is going to help you out of your mess quite nicely. We will see, but you particularly are in a tough situation trying to figure out what to do.... trust your gut... you got this.
 
InTheShed said:
I have seen a number of grows in FFOF suffer from N toxicity. I wouldn't skip any feedings if you see that, I would just lower the grams/gallon of MC to account for what's in the FFOF.
Click to expand...

Which is why I'm partial to a blank canvas like a peat based mix or coco where you know what they are being supplied with each meal.
 

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