You'll want the soft water version once you start using RO water. Your plants will LOVE YOU!
Even better would be to get a box of dry MaxiBloom and a bottle of FLoralicious+. I'll have to wait on that myself as the floralicious is like $40 a bottle LOL. Now that they've had that feed strength for a day.... up it to almost full strength now. 600w and above get full str.
floranova bloom currently, but i've used 3 part, without the grow, in the past.
Cal-mag is not needed with the Lucas formula, ever. No additives and nothing but RO water.
If you have a 'deficiency' then you need to up the pH to around 6.0-6.1 for a week or so (depending on your strain) to allow it more Mag availability. The Lucas formula has plenty of Mag and plenty of Calcium.
Try the new(ish) FloraNova line that Lucas has switched to, you'll really appreciate the ease.
Super simple. 5 to 7 ml of Flora Nova 'Grow' per gallon of RO during Veg.
8ml of Flora Nova 'Bloom' per gallon of RO during bloom.
The super super simple res maintenance method is to do a changout when you reach a 100% add-back.
To explain this we'll take a 10 gallon res as an example.
During Bloom:
First you mix your res.
10 Gallons of RO water.
If you're using General Hydroponics Flora 3-part you will add
80ml of Micro and mix it well.
160ml of Bloom and mix it well.
If you're using General Hydroponics FloraNova 1 part series you will add
80ml of Bloom.
Once you have your res filled, mark the solution level on the side of your tank somehow. Add pH up until you hit about 5.8. Keep track of how much you added.
Put in your plants and run it.
Every day, add RO water into the res until it comes back to that line. (This is called Topping Off)
Keep track of how much RO water you're adding back and when you've added back 10 gallons, dump the res and mix a new batch.
That's how simple the Lucas formula is.
During Veg you can follow any nute schedule your plants do best with. I use the same that Lucas uses and that's the FloraNova 'Grow' at between 5-7ml/gal.
I've never grown more beautiful plants than with the Nova series. The Lucas formula with the 3-part mix is fantastic but doesn't have the 5% organic content of fulvic/humic acids. The soft lush feel of the plants is really great.
Let me know if you're still confused.
If you have a float valve keeping your res topped off, drop your pH to 5.2. If you manually top off your res, set it at 5.4. Your plants will love you for it.
At least at that point you'll have a comparison to see if it's worth it for you. If you have a float valve keeping your res topped off, drop your pH to 5.2. If you manually top off your res, set it at 5.4. Your plants will love you for it.
If you have a ppm meter, try to keep your ppm steady by adding nutes every 3-4 days. Once the pH doesn't go down far enough, use a bit of pH down to bring it back to 5.2-5.4.
If you don't have a ppm meter, use the simple change out method. If your res is 10 gallons, mix it up, set the pH to 5.2-5.4 and then top it off with RO water. Once you've topped off with 10 gallons of RO, dump it and re-mix a new res. Uses a couple dollars in extra nutes but the results are definitely worth it.
As for carb loading and all that? Do yourself a favor and run 4-6 runs with plain nutes before you start messing with that stuff.
In a micro-grow environment I wouldn't recommend the 'Grow' Formula.... too much stretch.
I let it drift up to 6.0-6.1 before I drop it back down. I try to keep my ppm's adjusted for the light level I'm using but I definitely recommend the pH drift. You'll see much better results.
I just use the nutes from my veg tray so it depends. No real 'hard' pH setting.
)Mix 1:1 with warm RO water and shake for a good ten minutes, more if you hear crystals on the bottom of the jug. Only takes a quick 10 second shake after that before measuring out for a new res.
