Nute & Reverse Osmosis questions For Hydro

[OldMedUser]

Thanks dude! I think me stressing them out in the beginning is going to hurt my yield honestly. My next grow I’ll be going in with some extra acknowledgment about what it likes and doesn’t like. I want to see if going to Jacks over this AN works better for me. The cost to run jacks over AN is a no brainer.

Personally I'd stick with the AN. When I was doing DWC I maybe changed nutes once a grow most time and sometimes not at all so I wasn't tossing perfectly good nutes down the drain every week. Especially during the veg period there is no need to change nutes. Just keep adding small amounts of the same ratio as they get bigger. $144 for 3gal of the base nutes and another $75 for a 500g tub of Big Bud powder and I still have about a 3rd of everything left over after 6 years and a shitload of plants. Basically my nutes are about 5% of my cost and never having to check pH makes growing a lot easier. Buying RO water to grow with cost more than my nutes and power costs are the bulk of my expenses. 3gal jugs of the GH 3-part were going for $175 and pH checking would have been included as another cost, my time.

If you are going to grow the same strain again it should go better. It can take a few runs of the same ones to really dial them in. I don't think your earlier problems are going to affect your yields much if at all. They are looking really healthy and happy now right at the time they need to be that way for best results.

I've tried all sorts of nutes the last 20 years and keep having the best results with AN. Couple years ago I won some MegaCrop nutes here. 2kg of the 1-part version 2 nutes and other goodies. Plants did great in veg but started having issues as they went thru the stretch so the ending was not a happy one in my books. Plus the nutes absorbed a lot of water even in a well sealed bag and turned into mush so I stopped using them.

Seems those clones my buddy mailed me were infected with springtails and now I'm having to let the pots dry so much the plants droop bad but that seems to be the best way to wipe them out. I tried dosing the pots with Gnatrol but it had zero effect so as the pots dried I mixed in a bunch of diatomaceous earth and watered the first dried out pot from the bottom a few min ago. Should be more drying right out over the next couple days and will get the same treatment. Literally hundreds of them in every tsp and the plants look sickly as hell. Just want to get them healthy enough to take cuttings and put those in clean soil up in the pare bedroom away from the rest.

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

Personally I'd stick with the AN. When I was doing DWC I maybe changed nutes once a grow most time and sometimes not at all so I wasn't tossing perfectly good nutes down the drain every week. Especially during the veg period there is no need to change nutes. Just keep adding small amounts of the same ratio as they get bigger. $144 for 3gal of the base nutes and another $75 for a 500g tub of Big Bud powder and I still have about a 3rd of everything left over after 6 years and a shitload of plants. Basically my nutes are about 5% of my cost and never having to check pH makes growing a lot easier. Buying RO water to grow with cost more than my nutes and power costs are the bulk of my expenses. 3gal jugs of the GH 3-part were going for $175 and pH checking would have been included as another cost, my time.

If you are going to grow the same strain again it should go better. It can take a few runs of the same ones to really dial them in. I don't think your earlier problems are going to affect your yields much if at all. They are looking really healthy and happy now right at the time they need to be that way for best results.

I've tried all sorts of nutes the last 20 years and keep having the best results with AN. Couple years ago I won some MegaCrop nutes here. 2kg of the 1-part version 2 nutes and other goodies. Plants did great in veg but started having issues as they went thru the stretch so the ending was not a happy one in my books. Plus the nutes absorbed a lot of water even in a well sealed bag and turned into mush so I stopped using them.

Seems those clones my buddy mailed me were infected with springtails and now I'm having to let the pots dry so much the plants droop bad but that seems to be the best way to wipe them out. I tried dosing the pots with Gnatrol but it had zero effect so as the pots dried I mixed in a bunch of diatomaceous earth and watered the first dried out pot from the bottom a few min ago. Should be more drying right out over the next couple days and will get the same treatment. Literally hundreds of them in every tsp and the plants look sickly as hell. Just want to get them healthy enough to take cuttings and put those in clean soil up in the pare bedroom away from the rest.

I caught the VID guys lmao. Down for a day and back to it the next lol.
So, you’re saying sticking with the AN 3 part is wise. Don’t change my water weekly, top off with fresh nutes everyday or two. I’ll change it every three weeks to be honest then. Changing nutes every week sucks too! I use so much. I still have like 1/3 of all three bottles left. If I don’t do nutes changes every week that would save me sooooo much! I do like the nutes, just not the price. If I stayed with these 3 base nutes could I use the attitudes @rkymtnman recommended? my res got to 77 degrees yesterday. NY has been in the 60’s and I left my heater in the room on, it got warm and humid as fuck! Like 70% humidity.

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

Seems those clones my buddy mailed me were infected with springtails and now I'm having to let the pots dry so much the plants droop bad but that seems to be the best way to wipe them out. I tried dosing the pots with Gnatrol but it had zero effect so as the pots dried I mixed in a bunch of diatomaceous earth and watered the first dried out pot from the bottom a few min ago. Should be more drying right out over the next couple days and will get the same treatment. Literally hundreds of them in every tsp and the plants look sickly as hell. Just want to get them healthy enough to take cuttings and put those in clean soil up in the pare bedroom away from the rest.

Those things look nasty as fuck dude! That’s why I hate soil, I never have any luck. How are you doing with them now, all gone?

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

a pic would help.

and i run nutes all the way to the end. i run less EC though for the last 2 weeks or so.

I’m going to drop the nutes in half this next change Sunday, after I’m just going to put water with very little nutes in it. I read an article about how a blind study showed how people enjoyed the taste and smoke better with no flush at the end. I’m not going to use the flawless finish.

 

[rkymtnman]

I’m not going to use the flawless finish.

glad you caught that in my response. lol.

when i was running rdwc, i'd aim for about 0.6 to 0,8 EC for the last 2 weeks. they need to eat, they just dont eat as much

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

a pic would help.

and i run nutes all the way to the end. i run less EC though for the last 2 weeks or so.

the first two pics are the hairs that look burnt. They’re not really orange. I tried getting it as best as possible. Even the best iPhone isn’t that great with pictures. The third pic is the bleaching.

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

glad you caught that in my response. lol.

when i was running rdwc, i'd aim for about 0.6 to 0,8 EC for the last 2 weeks. they need to eat, they just dont eat as much

That’s what I’ll aim for. Dude, I can’t believe I almost have my first grow in yrs done. You guys have all been so great and I’m so grateful for all the help and advise. Haven’t used a filter either and the smell hasn’t been that horrible… until I open the bedroom door haha I sealed the room really good.

 

[Tolerance Break]

First grow ever with Jacks, RO, Flood and drain, in rockwool cubes. Can't say enough good things about jacks.

 

[Treesomewanted77]

First grow ever with Jacks, RO, Flood and drain, in rockwool cubes. Can't say enough good things about jacks.

That’s bad ass nothing but buds lol. Awesome grow If I may ask how many flood cycles per 24hrs did you do and for how long with the rockwool?

 

[Tolerance Break]

That’s bad ass nothing but buds lol. Awesome grow If I may ask how many flood cycles per 24hrs did you do and for how long with the rockwool?

2 a day the first 2 weeks in flower, then 3 a day until chop. One an hour into lights on, one mid day, one an hour before lights off. 2 minute floods. Ran the lights a bit too close and the nutes too high early, which is where the burned and twisted leaves came from.

Next run im going to start with 1 flood a day the first week or two and see if I can get by with only 2 a day through the rest of flower

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

2 a day the first 2 weeks in flower, then 3 a day until chop. One an hour into lights on, one mid day, one an hour before lights off. 2 minute floods. Ran the lights a bit too close and the nutes too high early, which is where the burned and twisted leaves came from.

Next run im going to start with 1 flood a day the first week or two and see if I can get by with only 2 a day through the rest of flower

So, I haven’t researched it enough to know enough. The rockwool holds enough moister in between the two or three watering a day? I’m going to research some, I’m interested in how they’re held into place and if the roots just grow in a flood tray. I’m still not passing over the jacks, but the Advanced three part hasn’t been horrible either. I want to honestly try one more with AN and see if I get it down, switch to jacks after, do a couple grows and see what’s better suited for me.

 

[Tolerance Break]

[

So, I haven’t researched it enough to know enough. The rockwool holds enough moister in between the two or three watering a day? I’m going to research some, I’m interested in how they’re held into place and if the roots just grow in a flood tray. I’m still not passing over the jacks, but the Advanced three part hasn’t been horrible either. I want to honestly try one more with AN and see if I get it down, switch to jacks after, do a couple grows and see what’s better suited for me.

I used coco mats last time, next time I'm using cotton batting, coco is more prone to mold and thicker, the batting should be totally submerged during the flood next time.

Edit: the cubes were ontop of the mats

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

[


I used coco mats last time, next time I'm using cotton batting, coco is more prone to mold and thicker, the batting should be totally submerged during the flood next time.

Edit: the cubes were ontop of the mats
View attachment 5048856

Can you only grow smaller plants with this method? I’ve been doing some reading and everything I’ve seen has been smaller plants, almost like sea of green. I did see a couple DIY setups to put buckets in the system. I wonder what’s water proof and safe for plants to build one. Most take so much fucking water!

 

[Tolerance Break]

Can you only grow smaller plants with this method? I’ve been doing some reading and everything I’ve seen has been smaller plants, almost like sea of green. I did see a couple DIY setups to put buckets in the system. I wonder what’s water proof and safe for plants to build one. Most take so much fucking water!

I used a 17 gallon plastic tub (think storage box) I only filled it to about 15 or 16 gallons. I topped it off once or twice a week as needed, mainly to prevent the EC from getting to high. I drained and cleaned the tub once a week and I always flushed my cubes at the same time to prevent build up, I may add a bit of h202 to the flush water if I am worried about anything growing down there. I bought a botanicare tray, but you can use garden liner I believe. Theres a user named renfro who deleted their account, but their posts about ebb and flow are invaluable if you plan to DIY. You can grow them bigger than I did, but ideally you fill a flood tray with more cubes and grow a bunch of thick fuckers. My first grow was literally a test run, I wanted to burn some freebies and make my mistakes early before using the seeds I actually paid for. I will probably veg 6 weeks again and run 6 clones of the same plant my next go around, if that goes well, and I can get patients, I will see if I can do even more in my tray.

 

[OldMedUser]

I caught the VID guys lmao. Down for a day and back to it the next lol.
So, you’re saying sticking with the AN 3 part is wise. Don’t change my water weekly, top off with fresh nutes everyday or two. I’ll change it every three weeks to be honest then. Changing nutes every week sucks too! I use so much. I still have like 1/3 of all three bottles left. If I don’t do nutes changes every week that would save me sooooo much! I do like the nutes, just not the price. If I stayed with these 3 base nutes could I use the attitudes @rkymtnman recommended? my res got to 77 degrees yesterday. NY has been in the 60’s and I left my heater in the room on, it got warm and humid as fuck! Like 70% humidity.

There's really no reason to change nutes at all during veg. I'd just check ppm every 3 days after topping up with RO then add small amounts of nutes in the same ratio to bring the ppm back up to where I wanted it ±50. No need to check pH so all done quick. A week before the flip I'll boost ppm with a half dose of Big Bud, either add another light or a bigger one and start burning my alcohol lamp while letting the temp rise in the room so they go into flowering already primed for rapid growth. Totally makes a big difference.

Sometimes I would change nutes after the stretch and feed Lucas style but let it go a couple times and didn't seem to make a difference so stopped changing at all. Even revegged sometimes in the old nutes but watered down to about half with some fresh Grow and Micro.

It's lazy people like me that come up with easier ways to do shit.

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

I used a 17 gallon plastic tub (think storage box) I only filled it to about 15 or 16 gallons. I topped it off once or twice a week as needed, mainly to prevent the EC from getting to high. I drained and cleaned the tub once a week and I always flushed my cubes at the same time to prevent build up, I may add a bit of h202 to the flush water if I am worried about anything growing down there. I bought a botanicare tray, but you can use garden liner I believe. Theres a user named renfro who deleted their account, but their posts about ebb and flow are invaluable if you plan to DIY. You can grow them bigger than I did, but ideally you fill a flood tray with more cubes and grow a bunch of thick fuckers. My first grow was literally a test run, I wanted to burn some freebies and make my mistakes early before using the seeds I actually paid for. I will probably veg 6 weeks again and run 6 clones of the same plant my next go around, if that goes well, and I can get patients, I will see if I can do even more in my tray.

That’s really good to know, I appreciate it dude! My issues with doing a bunch of little fuckers is my state I can only have three budding and three vegging. I have a high ranking police officer who lives below me and I don’t completely trust the dude, like at all. So, I have to keep it 100% legit for now. I like the fact that with flood and drain the roots aren’t submerged in water 24/7. I was thinking about this hard last night, I have Covid and can’t sleep good. If I take four totes, union the two on the bottom and the two on top I could put a 5 gallon bucket in each totes. The totes on the bottom and top aren’t union together, just the two on the bottom together and the ones on top together. I love building shit, keeps my mind occupied. Or a 40 gallon top tote for two bucks and a 60 gallon tote on the bottom. I could build a frame with 2x’s. Do you have a link to that dude’s renfro pages? I’m not very good navigating thru this site, I’ve tried and I’m getting better.

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

There's really no reason to change nutes at all during veg. I'd just check ppm every 3 days after topping up with RO then add small amounts of nutes in the same ratio to bring the ppm back up to where I wanted it ±50. No need to check pH so all done quick. A week before the flip I'll boost ppm with a half dose of Big Bud, either add another light or a bigger one and start burning my alcohol lamp while letting the temp rise in the room so they go into flowering already primed for rapid growth. Totally makes a big difference.

Sometimes I would change nutes after the stretch and feed Lucas style but let it go a couple times and didn't seem to make a difference so stopped changing at all. Even revegged sometimes in the old nutes but watered down to about half with some fresh Grow and Micro.

It's lazy people like me that come up with easier ways to do shit.

I haven’t even been adding RO water during the week. My PH keeps dropping on me again, so adding pure spring water with light nutes brings it back up for two days before it drops again and I have to put more spring water in it.

So, as they drink the water they don’t take all the nutes too? I never realized that at all and I’ve been better about adding water to the res every day or two. If I put like 5 gallons in, it will last two days. If I put two or three I’ll have to add some the next day. I was letting the water get low and adding what I thought I needed. I feel I was wrong. They do way better over filling the system from my original estimate on water content.

when you say you add grow big, that’s fox farm nutes, right? When I grew back in the day, I used fox farm nutes.The grow shop guy said he puts his bloom nutes in a week before flip to get them use to the influx and start of new ones. Even when I grew back in the day I only used fox farm and didn’t experiment with other stuff. I’m a little wiser now and get things easier. I’d like to try and find a good combination for me.

I want to be that lazy, good grower lol

 

[OldMedUser]

when you say you add grow big, that’s fox farm nutes, right?

Not Grow Big, Big Bud made by AN. They have an organically derived version too. Lower in P than K at 0-15-35 with 20 amino acids, 10% S, citric and ascorbic acids.

I grew in Rubbermaid tubs, no rez, and every 3 days would top up to an inch under the net pots, wait a bit to let the bubbles mix everything up then check ppm. It would have dropped some depending on how many plants and their size so I would guesstimate how much of each nute to add back to raise the ppm to my target level and just use a syringe to squirt little bits of each into the tub to get back. When you flip to flower in just a few days the drop would be a lot more and after monitoring for a few grows found it could increase up to 4X during the stretch which means the plants are feeding like crazy. Right after the stretch the daily drop would slow down to before flower levels and begin slowing as flowering went on.

If you use the AN don't ever try to adjust the pH. Most people do and it screws it right up. Seems to want to read around 6.2 and works just fine sitting there.

I just got 3 - 1L bottles of their Jungle Juice so will be checking the pH when I start using it as it's not pH Perfect but uses the same formulation as the old 3-part and is about twice as concentrated. Got a new small can of the BB powder too. I'm hoping it comes out at a decent pH when mixed up in RO water so I don't have to adjust.

Got this chart for DWC but never really used it myself.

 

[Treesomewanted77]

That’s really good to know, I appreciate it dude! My issues with doing a bunch of little fuckers is my state I can only have three budding and three vegging. I have a high ranking police officer who lives below me and I don’t completely trust the dude, like at all. So, I have to keep it 100% legit for now. I like the fact that with flood and drain the roots aren’t submerged in water 24/7. I was thinking about this hard last night, I have Covid and can’t sleep good. If I take four totes, union the two on the bottom and the two on top I could put a 5 gallon bucket in each totes. The totes on the bottom and top aren’t union together, just the two on the bottom together and the ones on top together. I love building shit, keeps my mind occupied. Or a 40 gallon top tote for two bucks and a 60 gallon tote on the bottom. I could build a frame with 2x’s. Do you have a link to that dude’s renfro pages? I’m not very good navigating thru this site, I’ve tried and I’m getting better.

Flood and drain is a really easy way of growing once you get your system dialed in and you can make it small or as big as you would like and grow the plants as big or as small as you would like. There is so many options. I parts i bought pre made we’re the flood and drain fitting kits but you can make those as well. I live in upstate NY as well. Don’t worry about your neighbor lol NY is catch and release these days

 

[Incredible4Mr2E]

Not Grow Big, Big Bud made by AN. They have an organically derived version too. Lower in P than K at 0-15-35 with 20 amino acids, 10% S, citric and ascorbic acids.

I grew in Rubbermaid tubs, no rez, and every 3 days would top up to an inch under the net pots, wait a bit to let the bubbles mix everything up then check ppm. It would have dropped some depending on how many plants and their size so I would guesstimate how much of each nute to add back to raise the ppm to my target level and just use a syringe to squirt little bits of each into the tub to get back. When you flip to flower in just a few days the drop would be a lot more and after monitoring for a few grows found it could increase up to 4X during the stretch which means the plants are feeding like crazy. Right after the stretch the daily drop would slow down to before flower levels and begin slowing as flowering went on.

If you use the AN don't ever try to adjust the pH. Most people do and it screws it right up. Seems to want to read around 6.2 and works just fine sitting there.

I just got 3 - 1L bottles of their Jungle Juice so will be checking the pH when I start using it as it's not pH Perfect but uses the same formulation as the old 3-part and is about twice as concentrated. Got a new small can of the BB powder too. I'm hoping it comes out at a decent pH when mixed up in RO water so I don't have to adjust.

Got this chart for DWC but never really used it myself.

View attachment 5049219

I used Big bud this grow, I didn’t even remember the name, slap self in forehead lol. I didn’t know they had a different version of it. To be honest, I’ve been reading a lot since getting sick bc I can’t do anything else and apparently, you can feed a certain nute towards the end to hurry up finishing, potassium, I believe but not 100%. I think that was the night I downed the bottle of NyQuil, or maybe the day after that hahaha.

Thats the point I’m at now, trying to mix different ratios of RO, spring water and nutrients. I keep adjusting the PH thinking a little isn’t going to hurt. It’s funny you threw out that 6.2, that’s what mine always lands on. Then, like an idiot, I throw in smaller amounts of PH down to see what works. I thing, no ratio, nothing!!! It ends up crashing it and I have to add pure Spring water. Four gallons will always bring it up .4 I don’t regularly test my EC, I just check my PH. I got a cheap meter but I have no idea how reliable it truly is.

I do like the AN 3 part ph perfect shit, and the plants really seem to like it. I just don’t know if in the long run Jacks would be cheaper. I’m going to run a sterile system next time with Shock possibly. I can’t seem to find if I should run an enzyme with it or if it would kill them. I see I could potentially run them with H2O2. If I run the jacks in two grows and I get the same results or slightly less I’ll go with cheapest. 100 bucks for the 3 part AN ph perfect shit wasn’t bad. I think if I change my res during flower every three weeks, it would make it more of a consideration to keep. I know I want to add Si to the next grow, see what that will do. What is BB powder?

That chart is a really good tool to use if needed, thank you for sharing that with me, I’ve never seen it before.