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Using the flora nova series ferts and a soilless mix is easy

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sproutco

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Get your basic soilless mix like the 1/3 peatmoss + 2/3 perlite and add some dolomite lime or promix, majestic, fafard, sunshine,etc..with lime already added. You want as little dolomite lime as possible because your adding cal/mag in your water. Only use enough lime to get your ph to 5.8 to 6. You don't want any long term nutrients in the soil to start like bone meal, bat poop, etc... Then use the General hydro flora nova series ferts. They are excellent. 1 bottle grow and 1 bottle bloom. They contain all macro and micro nutrients a plant needs to grow. You can always tinker by adding other ingredients but is probably not needed.

Flora nova series
• The marriage of hydroponic & organic gardening methods.
• Extremely easy to use.
• Outstanding for all plant types.
• Superb for Hydroponic, Soil-less, and Soil Cultivation.
• Super Concentrated and pH Stabilized.
• Optimum nutrient absorption is aided by Natural Humic Extracts.


the following specs are in N-P-K-Mg format
Flora Nova Bloom 4-8-7-2
Flora Nova Grow 7-4-10-1.5

ml per gallon (3.8L) of water; numbers are in parts per million

8ml GH Micro 16 ml GH Bloom, is my guru pH's baseline bloom formula (pH is a person) derived from the Mel Frank targets, which suggest a 100-100-200-60 goal for NPKMG values in bloom Both GH Flora series nutes and the Flora Nova series, achieve Mel Franks targets without additives. Here is a link to Mel's specs http://www.angelfire.com/cantina/fo...es/profiles.htm
pH's "Lucas Formula" values for 8ml micro, 16ml bloom
n 130
p 106
k 183
Mg 73


8ml Flora Nova grow. Flora Nova is the one bottle solution to nutrients, note this mix is almost identical to Canna Aqua Vega, and GrowGreen's Nute Recipe; [This resembles Hoaglands nutrient solution which is excellent]
n 217
p 54
k 257
Mg 46


8ml fnBloom [compare to the lucas formula above; its identical]
n 124
p 108
k 180
Mg 62

Directions:

>Only use 3 to 4ml of the grow formula only on seedlings. Start applying when seedlings first true leaves fully form not just the first cotyledons that emerge

>increase grow formula to 5.5 ml or even up to 8ml once plants have gotten some size :chin:

>switch to 6.5 to 8ml bloom formula only at 12/12 time schedule

>last one to two weeks of bloom use straight water only

Of course:

>FloraNova must be shaken vigorously before each use!

>provide at least 50 watts per square foot light using hps or mh lamps; using less intense lighting like florescents may require a reduction in suggested fert rates

>Good ventilation with air temps 75 to 85 degrees

>water used before adding anything should be low in ppm's from things like calcium or metals

>Always adjust the ph of your fert water after mixing for best results. In soilless mix like I suggested, aim for 5.8 to 6 ph. Directions for making your own own ph down and ph up are in my signature below.

>Apply enough fertilizer water till it runs from the drain holes then allow the media to dry out quite a bit but not to the point the plant begins wilting

>monitor your soil ph and ec using the directions in my signature

How's that for easy. :bat:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21119
 
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sproutco

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FYI I use Veg and bloom. In promix and RO water, I hit slight burning of the leaf tips feeding at 5ml/gal and they were 30 days old and mature. I wouldn't go over 4ml/gal in veg for soil.

In bloom I never go over 5ml a gallon in soil... as I have burned in bloom going over as well. Esp. with the additives.

I know of the Lucas Method, which I have run in my waterfarms using GH 3 part, but in soil the numbers will be less than his calculations. Even for FLoraNova.
Stretchpuppy made these comments. You may find a reduced rate of floranova works better.
 

sproutco

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stretchpuppy said:
I also switched from hydro buckets to Promix/OF
Maybe you could use the higher rates of flora nova if you did not have ocean forest organic enriched soil containing nutrients in your soil mix at the start. Great looking buds! :canabis:
 

inflorescence

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8ml Flora Nova grow. Flora Nova is the one bottle solution to nutrients, note this mix is almost identical to Canna Aqua Vega, and GrowGreen's Nute Recipe; [This resembles Hoaglands nutrient solution which is excellent]
n 217
p 54
k 257
Mg 46

These aren't the numbers I get in the nute calc. I get:
n 148
p 37
k 175
Mg 32

Am I using the calc wrong?
 
G

Guest

what is lucas formula? how are your skills so exceptional? do you feed at every watering? i am the newb
 

sproutco

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inflorescence said:
These aren't the numbers I get in the nute calc. I get:
n 148
p 37
k 175
Mg 32

Am I using the calc wrong?
You did not enter the net weight of the bottles and total ml of the bottle so your answers will be off. You left the default setting of 1 and 1 for net weight and total ml of the bottle.
 
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inflorescence

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Edit: nevermind, I dl'ed the premix excel sheet and it answered all my questions. :)

When I enter 1 for the net weight in grams and 1 for liquid volume in ml I get the numbers I posted.
When I enter 350 for the net weight in grams and 236 ml for the liquid volume in ml I get the numbers you quoted.
My bottle says it's 236 ml/8 fl ounces so I assumed I could convert the fl ounces to grams but this was way off, due to the density of the flora nova.
So I actually weighed the bottle and got a total weight of 390 grams. When I adjusted the numbers to 350 grams for net weight the numbers matched exactly.

SO my question is, how do I use the calulator if the bottle only gives the volume and not the weight.
I mean if I have a half used bottle I can't just weigh it right cause that won't give me the net weight so how do I figure out the net wieght of each bottle without weighing it myself or calling the company to find out?
I have another product that just says 1 gallon with no weight given so how do I use that in the calculator. It lists the NPK etc and volume but not weight.

I assume the calc is using the density of the liquid to figure the elemental ppm but since I have a product that is practically water (which is a density of 1 grams/ml right) why can't I just convert the gallon volume to grams using fl oz conversion since a fl oz is the weight of just water, right?

At the bottom of the calc is liquid weight in grams/ml which is basically the density right? Flora nova gives me a density of 1.4 whereas if I use the GH grow example built in that gives a density of 1.1.
 
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MedUser420

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On the back of the bloom bottle it says to use 3.75 ml/liter for fast growing plants. Thats roughly 14 ml/gallon, is this too much for MJ plants?
 

sproutco

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What you can do to check the strength is enter net weight of the bottle of bloom in grams, total ml of the bottle, 14 ml suggested per gallon, and % of each element like 5% calcium into the calculator located in my signature below. The answer will be given in ppms. Your aiming for about 100 pppm nitrogen in flower. See what you get and let everyone else know.

Here is an example. Click on it to enlarge. Once larger put your cursor in the bottom right corner of the picture to make it even larger and clear.



All my math is based on what someone else came up with. http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=21119
I dont have the bottles to check.
 
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mace_ecam

Active member
On the back of the bloom bottle it says to use 3.75 ml/liter for fast growing plants. Thats roughly 14 ml/gallon, is this too much for MJ plants?
GH uses a .5 conversion on the TDS ppm numbers on the FN series label.
IMO those numbers are way too strong, i wouldn't go over 10ml FN Bloom per US gallon of water in hydro at most.

btw., we had the specific weight once for the FNB, but it was lost when CW was lost, maybe PH himself still has them.

peace,

mace
 

inflorescence

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Veteran
mace_ecam said:
GH uses a .5 conversion on the TDS ppm numbers on the FN series label.
IMO those numbers are way too strong, i wouldn't go over 10ml FN Bloom per US gallon of water in hydro at most.

btw., we had the specific weight once for the FNB, but it was lost when CW was lost, maybe PH himself still has them.

peace,

mace

If we have access to a calculator that can figure elemental ppms then why wouldn't GH use the same sort of thing and put elemental ppms on it's label so to avoid the potential conversion factor error?
 
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mace_ecam

Active member
Hi inflorescence,

If we have access to a calculator that can figure elemental ppms then why wouldn't GH use the same sort of thing and put elemental ppms on it's label so to avoid the potential conversion factor error?
Thats a question that only GH could answer ;)
Probably it has to do with people using EC/TDS meter for measuring their nute strength and a bit of sloppiness on GH's side, at least they should have mentioned the conversion factor somewhere, but they didn't, so it had to be calculated...
5ml FNB in RO water will have an EC of around 1.2mS/cm (or 1200uS/cm), your 14 ml per US gallon would be around 3.4mS/cm.. thats way too high, with most nutes you shouldn't go over 2.0mS/cm.

Anyways, lets hear what PH has to say about specific weigth and percentages on nute bottles(stolen from his spreadsheet):
* Traditionally fertilizers have been manufactured and packaged as dry products in powdered or granular forms. Consequently the guaranteed minimum analysis percentage figures are based on weight measures (eg-10% of 1 gram = 100 milligrams). However, few premixed fertilizers give dilution instructions based on weight, most use volume measures (teaspoons, cups, millititers, etc) to make measuring convenient for the hobby hydroponicist. However, to accurately determine the elemental ppm (mg/liter) content of nutrient solutions the weight of the fertilizer must be known. For dry products this is straight forward, simply weigh the powder on a scale. Liquid fertilizers still follow the traditional labeling scheme designed for dry products in their guaranteed analysis. When liquid fertilizer concentrates are used, milliliters are commonly substituted for grams, both in the way the fertilizer dose is measured and in the calculations used to determine the elemental ppm (mg/liter) content of the nutrient solution. While it is scientific fact that 1 mL of pure water weighs 1 gram, it is not accurate to assume the same for liquid fertilizer concentrates just because they too are a liquid. In fact, some liquid fertilzer concentrates can weigh 20% or more than water, thus introducing an equal degree of inaccuracy to your nutrient profile when just the mL measure is used instead of the weight. To assist you in finding the liquid weight of your fertilizer without the need for a digital scale you can use the calculator located at the bottom of the Guaranteed Analysis sheet with information from the label for your product. If you don't know the weight just use the default 1mL=1gram by leaving the weight space blank, you'll still get a proportionally accurate rendering of your profile, although each ppm value will be proportionatley lower by appx 10-25%. Read your labels carefully, in the rare instance where traditional weight/weight based labeling has not been used there should be a specific note made to that effect.

peace,

mace
 
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