DIY and other hydroponic formulas.

[Creeperpark]

For the first 4 weeks, I water my plants in the organic mix with only pure rainwater. The rainwater going in the pot has only 7 &15 ppm! Sometimes I will get back run-off over 4000 ppm with a low pH from a one-gallon pot. It's a different type of EC from soil-less synthetic EC. The plant will adapt easily when water management is done correctly while they are growing in the one-gallon pots. If you keep the organic mix too wet it will burn the plant roots. Allowing the mix to dry between watering helps to regulate nutrients and the plant will adjust. When I put the core in a soil-less mix I still get 2000 to 4000 ppm for a while. It's ok as long as the high EC is going out the bottom and not in the top.

 

[Creeperpark]

I only use hydroponic nutrients when I feed but only after transplanting them into a large container. I wait until I get a good count of females in one-gallon containers water-only mix. Then I put the one-gallon pots into the five-gallon containers of Pro-mix HP and start feeding using synthetic nutrients with a very low ppm every watering. By the end of the grow the ppm will always be low out the bottom of the container, but the plant will have plenty of stored nutrients, in the end, to make up for it.

 

[Creeperpark]

After I insert the core into the 5-gallon pot I start feeding by watering around the core and not directly on the core. The reason is the anhydrous ammonia will temporarily reduce the populations of microorganisms in the center. By feeding around the core the plant will send out roots from the core to the ring and take what it needs from the ring as well as the core. With the new added high CEC the growth is extremely vigorous at this point.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are yesterdays photos

 

[Creeperpark]

The reason for dropping General Hydroponics’ Grow nutrient at this point is because the type of nitrogen it has in it, “ammonium nitrogen” has a positive charge and will bind with phosphorus and make it less effective. By dropping the Grow and increasing the Bloom I will add the same amount of nitrogen but different nitrogen that has a - charge. Nitrate nitrogen has a negative charge and will not interfere with phosphorus uptake because phosphorus is negative also. The plants are mostly using negatively charged ions and positive charge can limit absorption.

 

[Creeperpark]

I screwed up and made a mistake because I stopped using cal-mag during the last 3 weeks of flowering under LEDs. Plus I didn’t raise my lights and experienced leaf bronzing on one side of a plant under LEDS. The plants under the HPS showed no bronzing and thrived. I’m still learning about LEDs and how they can burn plants if you don’t have calcium in the water. However, using HPS is ok to run pure flowering nutrients with every watering at low ppm and the results are very good with extra resin production.

 

[Creeperpark]

This method is so easy. Today, I’m using 10 ml of cal-mag to 5 ½ gallons or (27 liters) of rainwater. Then add 8 ml of micro, and 16 ml of bloom to the same 27 liters, 369 ppm (0.7ec) total. The ppm inside the containers from testing the run-off is only 400 ppm, (0.8 ec). I'm feeding every beginning of the 3rd day and the plants are really thirsty by then.

 

[Creeperpark]

Since I changed to flowering nutrients that are mostly anions, I now water and saturate the "whole core" and the whole pot with every watering, but without discharge. Check this out, I put in 369 ppm of feed water in the top with every watering and don't allow any discharge out the bottom and still only get readings in the 400s inside the container. If you added 369 four times you would get 1476 ppm after 4 waterings but I don't get that because it remains the same low reading in the 400s ppm in the container. That tells me the plants are taking in the about same amount of nutrients that I'm putting in the container.

 

[Creeperpark]

A very important point to remember when using a low ppm every-watering feed is you should “NOT EVER” use plain water or you will disrupt the nutrient sequence and crash. If the EC in the container becomes too high, then you leach out the bottom with the same low ppm nutrient water that you feed with until the EC drops. In order to keep the nutrient sequence, you have to keep the low ppm available for the complete grow at all times...

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are 3 outdoor test plants, 2 got plain water at different intervals and one didn’t. The 1[SUP]st[/SUP] one on the left got only low ppm nutrient water the whole time. The 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] only plain water once and the 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] got plain water 2 times between feeds at different times. Since the nutrient sequence was broken with plain water the plant couldn’t find what it needed so it went to its private storage for nutrients by removing mobile nutrients from the leaves. This action changed the plant's productivity from flower production to flower survival. Even after giving the plant new food, it wouldn't respond and change this motivation and start where it left off before the plain water.

 

[exploziv]

After feeding about the same as you do, low doses of around 400 ppm of veg nutes with a bit of PK booster, everything was good with the plants, my old Fe def fixed, but ofc plants got slight Mg def and a bit later small Ca spots. I did a feeding of root stim and Cal Mag booster and now I am waiting to see if it fixes things. Last 2 weeks when I checked runoff ppm it was 1750, lowered from the 2400 I got first time I checked. But I do see some burned lead tips that don't look like Mg def.
Should I lower the 400 ppm feed and wait for runoff to go lower ppm, or continue like this with 400 ppm?
My fear is that since I started fixing PH I may have made too much of what was in soil available too fast. Over 2 weeks I fixed my PH from maybe 8+ to PH6.5 now.
Any opinion or advice on how to go from here?
Thank you!

 

[Creeperpark]

I use the same low ppm feed water that I feed with to lower the EC by allowing leaching out the bottom of the pot. If I use an extra 500 or 1000 ml of feed water to leach out the bottom of the container on watering day, the high EC will fall lower each time. That being said, you can keep the high EC with limited leaching or maintain a high EC with only 10% to 20% leaching out the bottom. This is the cool part because you have a little control by using low feed water as a ppm supplier or use as a reducer of the EC in the pot.

 

[Creeperpark]

In regards to a previous post, I made a BIG mistake by dropping the Cal-mag too early and burnt one of my plants on one side. Using LEDs and not having enough calcium in pure water will result in leaf bronzing. Keep the cal-mag until the very end and wait until you can raise the lights a foot or so to avoid leaf bronzing. .

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are today's photos.

 

[exploziv]

I use the same low ppm feed water that I feed with to lower the EC by allowing leaching out the bottom of the pot. If I use an extra 500 or 1000 ml of feed water to leach out the bottom of the container on watering day, the high EC will fall lower each time. That being said, you can keep the high EC with limited leaching or maintain a high EC with only 10% to 20% leaching out the bottom. This is the cool part because you have a little control by using low feed water as a ppm supplier or use as a reducer of the EC in the pot.

Yeah.. basically thats what I did, too. Just put 2-3 times more water than the mix can soak and let it carry some of the accumulated nutes out the bottom. Will do this once again soon to make sure it won't burn them because of the PH making everything too available.

Your plants look nice and lush, and probably even better looking in normal light without that pink led hue.

 

[Creeperpark]

I like to keep some of those excess nutrients and allow the plant to have plenty of excess nutrients. You can hold on to some of the extra ppm if the pH is in the right place. Here's an example, If you get a discharge that has an 800 PPM and a pH of 6.0, that is fine. However, if you get a PPM of 600 and a pH of 5.3 you are on the borderline of poisoning the plant. Maintaining the proper pH is crucial when it comes to high EC discharge.

 

[Creeperpark]

I have run into a common problem with using this low ppm, high CEC feed method. The top of the plant weight is becoming so heavy the plants can hardly support their selves. There's nothing worse than walking in and finding your plants on the ground because they fell over. They are never the same after falling over and breaking, so I have to make changes. The only solution is to start minimizing the growing conditions to slow down the plant's vigor. I have raised the LED lights 10 inches or 25.4 centimeters from where they were. I will stake the plants with stakes as they show weakness in the rest of the grow.

 

[Creeperpark]

Something very important and even critical must be practiced using this method. Never let the plant suck up discharge (run-off) from the drain tray. It will cause problems in due time if you allow it. I put 3 mason jar lid rings in my drain trays to keep the pots out of the liquid. The discharge is out of normal nutrient sequence, and will pollute the root zone with a sequence that's missing key nutrients. Pardon the mess in the photos this is another grow thats mostly outdoors. .

 

[Creeperpark]

Here's an update. I've been feeding 8ml of Micro and 16 ml of Bloom to 5 & 1/2gallon or (22. Liter) of rainwater. I mix the rainwater with 10 ml of cal-mag and let it sit for 8 to 12 hrs before mixing the fertilizer. When I put the fertilizer in the calmag and rainwater the pH is always "perfect 6.2". I don't use acid or pH-up anymore. The EC for the whole mix is only 329 ppm or .3 EC with every watering, every 3rd day..

However, the weight of the plants is signaling to start the fade and shut down production. So the next feed will be more limited with less fertilizer. I will work my way down to 0 feed rain only by the end of the grow.

 

[Creeperpark]

Here are some bud shots.