Soil: GH 3 part Flora series

[Faran]

Hey everyone, I just started my first grow. (skunk#1 and Cali. Orange Bud).
The nutrients i bought are GH 3 part Flora series. I was told that these are nice to start off with.
My soil is:
ProMix (the orange/red bag)
Added approx 15% perlite

Lights:
6x 4' T8's for now

Until some time ago i had them in jiffy pots, or most anyway, and they hated it. They seemed to go limp, but that was corrected once they were put into normal plastic pots.

Now im having some problems finding the right formula for my nutrients.
I looked around and found the following things:

"Lucas Formula" values for 8ml micro, 16ml bloom
n 130
p 106
k 183
Mg 73

But i also found this, which is from GHfound on icmag though)
GH's baseline Flora Series, the 3 bottles, green purple and red, (different from Flora Nova series) veg formula
GH 15grow, 10micro, 5bloom
n 211
p 46
k 263
Mg40

and GH 3 part bloom formula
GH 5grow, 10micro, 15bloom
n 159
p 92
k 219
Mg 66

Now i planted my seeds on the 22nd of December 06, so they are still relatively young. Should i go with the veg. formula from GH but only 1/3 of the strength?
Another problem is, when should i start to feed the nutrients?
If anyone has any advice for how strong i should make the nutrients, and when i should start to feed them, i could really use it.

Faran

P.S: I am currently feeding them normal water with added Liquid Gold Fulvic acid. It says to use 1mL per liter of water, but i only went 1/2 strenght since they are seedlings. If anyone can say if i should go full strength, please do so. As you can see i have no experience.

 

[sensirocker]

Faran-
I havent used GH 3 part series. Just so you know, i only use pure blend pro and liquid karma, so its prolly close the same thing when its all mixed up. Anyways, i use 1/2 strength nutrition when the plants are 3 - 5 nodes large.... it can change depending on the health and size of the leaves/plant.... theyre all different of course. Nodes are the armpits each branch makes. 5 nodes IMO is pretty safe to start feeding. At this point, i would also suggest sticking them in a 1 gal container if you plan to veg them for another 2 - 4 weeks before flowering, at whch point you can transplant them in larger containers, like a 3 or 5 gal ( i recommend the 5 gal).
Im sure your also looking for a reliable watering schedule. This is one of the toughest issues to explain to a new grower but i will do my best. During veg and when the plants are relatively small, i prefer to spread out watering as much as possible, for a couple of reasons. The first is to figure out the plants vigorosity and to determine how it deals with low levels of water. In practice, i will water and leave it for a couple of days, or at least until it begins to wilt or droop down (this is assuming of course, that your plant is devoid of any diseases or heavy nutrient deficiences). This way i know that i am not over watering them, and i know that the plant wants more water. Then i will water it a bit and come back in a couple of hours... almost all of the time, she perks back up. There! now youll know that she usually needs water every ____ days until she will begin to wilt. The second reason i do this is to make sure that the root system is developing. When there is too much water the roots will not work as hard to grow. When there is a "drout" the roots will travel down in search of more water.
So when you get that ____ number of days, water/feed them every other time. So lets say your day is 3 days and you start on a sunday: feed sunday, water only wednesday, feed saturday etc....

Hope this helps!

-sR

 

[sensirocker]

also, start saving your money and get an aircooled HPS light for flower. those floros wont reward you equally to the amount of work your putting in right now.

 

[Faran]

Thanks, ive been watering to that respect.. well i didnt notice they needed water until they started to wilt. I have the pots ready to transplant as well.
The HPS has been in my mind for some time now, im not sure the cooltube will fit inbetween the CF and Fan (size of grow room is the issue). I gotta measure it out once and adjust the fan and CF, else i will never know.
Faran

 

[Faran]

Im just wondering, im currently using 4 inch pots. I checked this morning and 7/9 plants are already potbound. Do you think i should move to 1 gallon or straight to 2 gallon pots?
I was going to0 end with 3 gallon pots, but now im not sure. They seem to be developing roots much faster then i thought they would.
Faran

 

[Guest]

70's pothead has GH 3 part for years he'll know.

GCG

 

[sensirocker]

Faran, go for those 1 gallon pots, no question about it. a jump from 2 > 3 gal is pointless, and 2 gal is too big for them right now.
Also, transfer to those 1 gal post ASAP because it is best to transplant atleast a week before flowering to make sure theyre nice and comfy. The last thing you want is for some transplanting problem to surface 5 days into flower. And of course, go for the 3 gal pots for flower.
And try and get some pictures up.... they help alot.

 

[Azra3l]

Hello,

I use GH flora series 3 part:

Peace

 

[Faran]

Awesome, thanks alot. Ill get some pictures up soon, they are at home, so i dont have any access right now.
Alright i guess i will end with 3 galons pots, which is what i had planned. If i go to 1 gallon pots now, should i then, once in flowering, transplant into 3 gallons straight or 2 gallons. I guess its the same question as before just different asses
Trying to plan ahead.
Thanks for the feed chart. Ill try and figure it out when im home... its french right??

Im probably gonna get the pots today, although im not too worried about goin into flower soon. They are only 4-5 internodes big, and about 2-3 inches tall, so quite a bit to go.
Another thing, if i got into flowering with the plants comfortable, how long should i wait until i can transplant them ito bigger pots? Just dont want to cause them too much stress.

Faran

 

[Faran]

Alright, well these are my 9 little lovely plants.. kinda droopy right now!













The last one is a root mass of a Skunk#1.
Faran

 

[Blackvelvet]

Should i go with the veg. formula from GH but only 1/3 of the strength?

Yes. Good rate to start. 1/2-2/3 strength once they are larger. I doubt you will need full strength. For flower, try the gh bloom formula but at only 3/4 strength.

 

[sensirocker]

hmmm 9 plants huh? Under 6xT5's, those things are prolly a week away from starting flower. You really can let them grow much bigger because you dont have a ton of light to work with. Your going to have to do some sort of sog style growing. In fact, i wouldnt even put them in the 3 gal bucket because of the size of the light. I would put them each in 1 gal buckets today and then flower them in a week, in the 1 gal buckets only, because of space issues.
If you do this 1 gal bucket thing, you can place them close to each other, and they will grow straight up. Dont do any training.
It also looks like theye going through some sort of ph or watering problem.... theyre kind pale, so be gentle.
Here is are two pics of an OG Kush that im growing right now as a tester. Its in a 1 gal bucket and i started to flower it when it was only 4 nodes large:








Its the one in the front.

In this one, its the one on the bottom right, a couple of days later:



So anyways, you can see that its getting larger, and in the above pic, it was only on day 5 of flower. Its much much larger now, and its only been a couple of days.... i dont have a picture of it now.
Even in these 1 gal buckets, you can prolly produce close to 1/2 ounce per plant if everything goes well.

lemme know what you think about that.....

 

[Faran]

Thanks guys, im planning on getting some bigger lights. Either a 400 Watt HPS or 400Watts worth of purple Enviros (which arent on the market yet).
I know that these arent ideal for growing right now, but im a bit close on budget, so i gotta scratch some stuff together for a HPS with Cooltube.
Anyone know the dimensions of a Cooltube?
My fan is definatly ready for it, its a Elicent 6" 326 CFM.
Light shouldnt be a issue right now anyway, they are only 1 1/2 Inches tall.

The ph has puzzled me for some time now. The Ph tester i got cant measure water Ph, which is stupid. So i used a liquid one and it said that my water is about 7. The Soil i use is made for plants that like a acidic environment, so thats good. The ph tester i got doesnt read shit unless you constantly twist the probe, and i just tested the soil and it says around 7.25 - 7.5 so its not too high.
The Ph tester is a rapidtest single probe. I suppose i should have bought a better one.
If you got any suggestions about that, id be grateful. (im assuming that the ph will fall once i use nutes since they are acidic)

Faran

 

[Guest]

If you are using GH 3-part the first thing I recommend before using it is getting a good PH meter!!!!!!!!

Don't even mess around without it. This stuff is strong and you will either lockup or burn the chit out of your plants.

The 3 part will drop your PH threw the floor like to about 4.5 so you better balance it before you use it.

A PH of 7.0 or higher is too high. the best Ph is around 6.0.

GCG

 

[Faran]

Alright thanks alot for the recommendation. Do you know any good Ph meters? if its not too expensive its a bonus. I just bought a terrarium so im a bit short of cash, but if it means the survival of my plants, i guess the cash has to be used.
Any advice on ph meters is good.
Faran

 

[Guest]

Most Meters by Hanna are good and not very expensive.

Got to General Hydros web page and look at there feeding charts. genhydro.com

Sorry I'm computer illiterate and can't get a link for you.

GCG