Rexel
Active member
Don't listen to manufacturers who only want to sell product. They want you to overfeed for profit. Crop steering is utterly stupid in terms of efficiency in my book. More is not better in terms of nutrient strength. It's all about what the plant is able to tolerate and synthesize at the stage of growth and transpiration rate.I hope someone with experience crop steering can chime in to help me out. I have not managed to find the information I need.
My situation:
I have recently transitioned to crop steering in 1 gallon coco pots, under 600W LED, 12 plants per 5x5.
- Irrigation: Scheduled based on the crop steering guide provided by Floraflex. The schedules are adjusted (P2's added or removed) to reach desired dryback percentages.
- Environment: Optimised in terms of VPD. No CO2 supplementation.
- Nutes: Floranova bloom nutrients @ 1.5 ml per liter, which gives an EC of only 1.2. To note, this formula is more or less equivalent to H3ad nutrient formula for coco. Using Floranova as I do not have access to the Flora line. I am using tap water, with 0.3 EC, and adding 0.1 EC of CalMag, so my final EC is 1.5-1.6 (1.2 + 0.1 + 0.3).
The dilemma:
All of the companies pushing crop steering recommend to feed around 3.0 EC throughout the grow cycle, even in veg (for example Athena handbook and Floraflex guides). I understand that 3.0 EC requires a fully optimised environment. If environment is not optimised, EC should be reduced to approx. 2.5.
According to the Athena handbook, when feeding 3.0 EC, runoff EC should be 4.0-6.0.
I am reluctant to increase EC, as historically everyone would say that in coco less is more, and I suspect that companies are pushing high EC to sell more ferts. Ressources such as cocoforcannabis.com, who do not sell nutrients, recommend much lower EC (1.1-1.6) for fertigation.
My questions:
- Is it justified to feed at higher EC in crop steering? Does crop steering enable the plant to optimise nutrient uptake and yield?
- How far can I push my fertilisation to maximize yield (how high of EC), without compromising quality of end product?
- What are the risks of increasing EC? And how to avoid nutrient burn?
- What is the difference in terms of yield if I increase EC?
- Is 4.0-6.0 EC runoff ok? Cocoforcannabis advises that runoff EC should not exceed input EC by more than 0.3.
- Would it be reasonable to double the dosage of Floranova bloom, such as to obtain an EC of 2.4 (or 2.5 with CalMag)? Or do I need to use a different nutrient line to be able to push higher EC? Or should I just keep on feeding with EC 1.2?
- Any other tips for crop steering in coco?
Thank you for any help. I hope we can sort out how home growers can get the best out of crop steering.
Peace. Keep it growing.
Like we did back in the day it's better to dial in nutrient strength according to plant response and following growers journals from real world practice.
I most often end up feeding 5-6 times a day depending on light schedule at 1.0-1.2 EC in flower. I only feed what the plant let me and its better to stay at the lower end to keep mineral sensitivity and optimal uptake. Cannabis doesn't like drastic changes and feeding high EC that constantly fluctuates with "drybacks" will leave sub par results.
I don't agree about the repeated droughting practices. Arguable that droughting can have negliable positive returns in late flower in a very controlled setting but it will always be terrible for nutrient uptake and keeping the root zone stable.
As a general rule I try to keep runoff below 1.8 EC on sativa dominant strains. How one take a runoff reading is another question but the reading should be taken of only the last couple of drops or deciliters of the total runoff. Taking the reading at the start will only give you a very false reading.
Currently I feed 1.0 EC 5 times a day in Coco Coir and runoff comes out at 1.4-1.5 EC. If you need to feed 3.0 EC on the input to keep the plants healthy and green you're not doing a very good job in terms of efficiency and making the nutrients available for uptake in my book.
Cannabis likes tailored meals at the lower end for optimal growth. Like humans, force feeding is very contra productive for optimal performance.
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