Here's my proven feed schedule and WHY I use it.
Well start with the ROOTS. the first place to start is the pots and soil. I use smart pots but really any airpot or pot that forces the root system to air prune itself. Air prune with air pots essentially kills the tip of the root when it gets to the edge of the pot forcing it to branch out along the root stem and form a larger mass of roots instead of following the path of the edge of the bucket to the bottom and not branching as much. I also only use 5 gal and up. With auto's and any other mj the quickest way to stop growth and keep plants smaller is to limit there root growing space. So if you want small concealable stealthy plants by all means use a 1 gallon pot. I want them as big as I can get lol. I also germ and then go straight to final pot. I don't want my girls to be root bound by a smaller container for even one day. Imo that's one less day of flowering and with auto's every day counts.
I use pro mix bx with myco. Others are just as good I just prefer soiless mixes with little to no nutes so I'm in control of all feeds and how much, and promix is very light allowing those roots to travel anywhere they please with little effort . I add dolomite lime @ 1tbs/gal to help balance the ph to a neutral 7. Pro mix bx is a SOILESS mix and I feed it just above reccomended hydro ph and just below soil ph. So 6.0 to 6.2 ph feeds. Imo this allows me to feed @ 6.0 ph and as the pot dries and ph slowly creeps back toward 7ph the plant is able to absorb nutrients in all ranges in between. Also all my nutes from AN are chelated and designed to be absorbed over a wider range ph. But balancing is still the best way.
I do not water to run off. For me nutes are too expensive to be running 10 percent of them off into a catch pan.
I start seedlings for 10 days with plain water that I sit out and bubble for 24 hrs minimum prior to use to rid of chlorine to not kill some of the things we are trying to put into our soiless mix once feeding begins. It also saturates the H2O with oxygen and the more oxygen getting to the roots the better. This also helps prevent root rot and other root destroying problems. I begin seedlings with 1/4 liter each watering as needed and only water at the root base straight to the bottom of the pot in attempt to get the tap root straight to the bottom as quick as possible. I up the amount of water used by 1/4 L as needed as the plant grows. Once they are drinking 1L of water a day I up it to 2 every other day or as needed and use the pot weight to judge this. If needed to wet the entire pot but still get 0 runoff i will use 2.5L per feed/daily @ the flowering of most plants. I also feed every watering I do not use plain water til the flush
On now to the NUTES lol
Advanced nutrients grow / micro / bloom will be used from start to finish beginning on day 10 at a 1 / 1 / 1 ratio EVERY FEED I start the liluns out @ .5ml/L for the first few feed then go to 1ml/L for a bit to get them acclimated to the nutes. I watch closely and raise or lower my dose through to the end according to the leaves color and shape and the plants over all stance (hope that makes since) if the leaves are all nice green, flat, and pointing slightly up towards the light we are in business. The 3 part grow micro bloom will provide a plant with all of the BASE nutrients to live a healthy life but more will be needed later in the plants life as the plant needs more p and K during-flower. Also there have been many studies done that show the benifit of a plant having easier access to b vitamins and not using its energy to break down other components to generate it's own. Remember autos have a predetermined life cycle and anything that can reduce stress or allow the plant to put more energy into building flowers is a good thing. So I use the reccomended dose of AN B52 of 2ml/L for the entire life of the plant (day 10 til flush). Then the first 2 weeks of veg and the first two weeks of flower I also use vodoo juice and piranha as root mass expanders. I use the vodoo alone during veg and combine both products at the beginning of flower for 2 week periods each time. A plant can only grow as big as the root Mass that feeds it. The root mass expanders place benificial microbes , bacteria, and fungi in the soil to let the root system thrive and break down old root mass to allow new useful growth. The vodoo concentrates on the bacteria and pirahna on the benificial fungi. This is why I bubble or attempt to bubble out the chlorine that can kill these same things were paying good money to put into the soil. After 2 weeks I stop adding the vodoo juice since as long as your soil stays slightly moist the bacteria will thrive and no more needs to be added. About 3 weeks into it I add in a light dose of cal/mag plus from general organics and I follow manufacturer dose of light feed.
After the vodoo is stopped I continue to feed grow/micro / bloom, B52, and cal/mag until I get some pre flowers established. Not just see them, but the them start to grow a bit then this for me is about midway through my grow. Then it's time to add in the flowering nutes to the regiment.
Now i will begin feeding a few new products, Big Bud and carboload. I will also begin using the vodoo juice again this time paired with the pirahna to add to our benificial root tribe. The roots of your plant will continue to grow for MOST of your plants life..... feed the life that helps ensure that growth is optimal.
So the FLOWERING NUTE feed will be g/m/ b, B52, vodoo juice, carboload, and Big Bud, usually by now I'm feeding 2ml/L across the board. Maybe up to 2.5L H2O daily if they'll handle it. This is 1/2 recommended dose from-AN.The-big bud will provide The added P and K needed to produce nice buds on your plants and the carboload provides the sugars and complex carbs needed to put your flowering in overdrive. Same as in Veg once we get the bacteria and microbes established again we can stop the vodoo juice and piranha (2 weeks for me). I now up my feed of cal/mag as well to a medium/ heavy (LED users will need heavy) dose for flowering but watch for rust spots carefully some of these gals can be real hogs of cal/mag during flower and need even more than recommended heavy dose.
Ok once I see all verticle growth has stopped and some of the bud building begin to slow and get some cloudy trichs I switch out big bud for the last product called Overdrive. Overdrive is claimed to have a mix of things in it that will actually prolong flowering and keep the flowering stage building longer. I believe this to be true due to my sour cracks I see many many others chopping @ 60 to 65 days with amber trichs and since using OD on my plants I'm on day 63 with only a few orange hairs and not even all cloudy trichs and she's still building flowers.
Once I get to all cloudy trichs I begin to flush for 7 to 10 days or so but start it off with an actual pot flush to get any built up nutes and salts out that can cause bad taste in the buds . I use 3x the pot size H2O for my flush.....
Advanced Nutrients - Raising The Bud Weights And Reputations Of Top Growers
I reccomend looking up each product here for exact benifit and if there are any other questions or I wasn't clear please let me know. Hope this helps someone and I have to say this is not all me. I am still a relatively new grower and I have learned this knowledge form hrs of research and watching other established growers do there thing and putting together a system that works for me but imitates them. Happy growing to all.
so now I have an estimated 4 weeks left a picture of her from this morning
