The Best N-P-K
- Thread starter RickWhite
- Start date
The best answerer is there isn't one.. It's like asking what is the best beer.. Hamms of course but that's not the point. 
There are some crazy expensive stuff out there.. they work but is it worth it to you? Then you have to ask if you plant can handle it.. or how much can it handle. Not every plant is the same.
In a perfect world it might be best if you just did a grow with base nutrients. A good grow and a good bloom. You'll do fine. Then next run you pick up a PK booster and try it out on top of what you already know works.. Then you can judge with your own eyes if it's better or not.
There are some crazy expensive stuff out there.. they work but is it worth it to you? Then you have to ask if you plant can handle it.. or how much can it handle. Not every plant is the same. In a perfect world it might be best if you just did a grow with base nutrients. A good grow and a good bloom. You'll do fine. Then next run you pick up a PK booster and try it out on top of what you already know works.. Then you can judge with your own eyes if it's better or not.
DontDoDrugs
Well-Known Member
idk the "best" but my npk is somewhere like 5-20-20. i use gh nutes with lucas formula (micro= 5-0-1) (bloom= 0-5-4) and i ad 1.5 tsp per gal of kool bloom (0-10-10).
idk exactly how much is in the water but i do know last time i filled the res (20 gal) i used 1 part micro and 2 part bloom until the ppm was at 1,150 and then added 20 tsp kool bloom which bumped it up to 1,250 so idk can you do the math to figure out the npk in the water? its kind of a hard question...
DontDoDrugs
Well-Known Member
thats for flowering stage of course.. but mark has the idea.
generally speaking you want a double dose of nitrogen for veg (maybe 10-5-5) for a fast growing plant during veg. and vise versa for bloom (5-10-10) and dont forget the trace minerals! because those are very important. (cal mag) weed loves magnesium. stable ph 5.3-6.3 is what i try to keep mine at. and you should be set. and honestly npk wont matter if your trace minerals or ph are fucked up.. you can have a ppm of 400 with stable ph and trace minerals and have a healthy growing plant and still would be better than a ppm of 1400 with a ph of 9 and small amounts of trace minerals (this would probably stop growth altogether lol)
generally speaking you want a double dose of nitrogen for veg (maybe 10-5-5) for a fast growing plant during veg. and vise versa for bloom (5-10-10) and dont forget the trace minerals! because those are very important. (cal mag) weed loves magnesium. stable ph 5.3-6.3 is what i try to keep mine at. and you should be set. and honestly npk wont matter if your trace minerals or ph are fucked up.. you can have a ppm of 400 with stable ph and trace minerals and have a healthy growing plant and still would be better than a ppm of 1400 with a ph of 9 and small amounts of trace minerals (this would probably stop growth altogether lol)
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
Yep, what I've been saying for years, and you'll only find such wacked NPK values with such stuff as cannabis specific foods, the "lucas formula", etc. Think of cannabis as a flowering foliage plant. For some screwie reason, guys like GH always include more K than N, even in their "grow" foods. It's a plant nutrition farce. As a rule of thumb, use a high N food like a 9-3-6 to promote foliage, a 10-30-20 food to promote flowering, UNTIL, you begin to see premature yellowing of the lower fan leaves or overall plant which will result in necrosis if not corrected. Forget bud production and concentrate on leaf health and maintenance. Think outside of the box.
A 10-10-10 is a safe bet for an all-around NPK value.
UB
del66666
Well-Known Member
Woomeister
Well-Known Member
veg 17-8-9
flower 3-13-14
works for me!
flower 3-13-14
works for me!
IgrowUgrow
Well-Known Member
I reccommend Jacks Classic 20-20-20 for veg and Jacks Classic 20-50-30 for flower, use these at 1/4 strength to start then upgrade to 1/2 strength, and then when the plant is fully mature move to full strength if you get nute burn just flush with distilled water and stop the nutes for a week but I havent burnt my plants with jack classic as long as you work your way to full strength.
aeviaanah
Well-Known Member
say u mix one nutrient and it is a 10-10-10 and another that is a 5-5-5 is the final product 15-15-15? how do you know when it is good and/or bad to mix?
a friend of mine just gave me a box full of nutrients, plus i have some....which would you use along with the coco and/or soil? (anyone feel free to answer)
veg:
supernatural gro terra 20-20-20
general hydroponics maxigro 10-5-14
age old grow organic 12-6-6
pura vida grow organic 6-4-3
fox farms grow big organic 6-4-4
fish emulsion organic 5-1-1
flower:
supernatural bloom terra 11-31-15
general hydroponics maxibloom 5-15-14
fox farms tiger bloom organic 2-8-4
age old grow dry fruit organic 2-10-20
supplements:
general hydroponics kool bloom 2-45-28
supernatural super boost 10-49-10
fox farms big bloom organic 0.01-0.3-0.7
bio grow 1.8-0.1-6.6
humboldts countrys own snow storm 0-0-3
general hydroponics flora nectar 0-0-1
general hydroponics chi 0.2-0-0.2
grandma enngys humic acid
cal mag 2-0-0
botanicare cal-mag
age old grow mycorrhizae
i know it is a big list...possibly you are familiar with any of these products and how they react with soil/coco?
a friend of mine just gave me a box full of nutrients, plus i have some....which would you use along with the coco and/or soil? (anyone feel free to answer)
veg:
supernatural gro terra 20-20-20
general hydroponics maxigro 10-5-14
age old grow organic 12-6-6
pura vida grow organic 6-4-3
fox farms grow big organic 6-4-4
fish emulsion organic 5-1-1
flower:
supernatural bloom terra 11-31-15
general hydroponics maxibloom 5-15-14
fox farms tiger bloom organic 2-8-4
age old grow dry fruit organic 2-10-20
supplements:
general hydroponics kool bloom 2-45-28
supernatural super boost 10-49-10
fox farms big bloom organic 0.01-0.3-0.7
bio grow 1.8-0.1-6.6
humboldts countrys own snow storm 0-0-3
general hydroponics flora nectar 0-0-1
general hydroponics chi 0.2-0-0.2
grandma enngys humic acid
cal mag 2-0-0
botanicare cal-mag
age old grow mycorrhizae
i know it is a big list...possibly you are familiar with any of these products and how they react with soil/coco?
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
There shouldn't be an issue mixing them. But, do the jar test if in doubt. Come up with a final NPK value, add them together and toss into a jar, add water, shake and observe. High quality foods will not form precipitates and drop out of solution. I can, and do, take 15 lbs. of plant food, say, a 30-5-15, add to 5 gallons of warm water and it dissolves perfectly and fast with some stirring without precipitates. (In case you're wondering what I'm doing, I'm drip fertilizing thousands of plants.)
The following list is not a complete salts profile, but I'll pull what I don't recommend based on the NPK values only:
If you need supplements, then the above fails to provide complete nutrition.
Someone pissed off alot of money:
supplements:
general hydroponics kool bloom 2-45-28
supernatural super boost 10-49-10
fox farms big bloom organic 0.01-0.3-0.7
bio grow 1.8-0.1-6.6
humboldts countrys own snow storm 0-0-3
general hydroponics flora nectar 0-0-1
general hydroponics chi 0.2-0-0.2
grandma enngys humic acid
cal mag 2-0-0
botanicare cal-mag
age old grow mycorrhizae
With coco and soil-less mixes, you need 16 essential elements with no one element "outweighing" the other. The only one-for-all product I know of is Dyna-Gro. IOW, for $26 you can have a liter each of a 9-3-6 and a 3-12-6 of a very complete, well designed food which doesn't scam you into buying alot of other crap because the base products are incomplete. Remember, the cannabis industry is all about the money. Profits are OK in my book, scams aimed at noobs who don't know any better are not.
With well prepared potting soils - additional compost, worm castings, peat moss, alfalfa meal and such, you should be using a food designed for such soils like Peters or Schultz. Cheap and it works great. You'll find they have up to 12 essential elements. For example, look at this food's profile:
http://petersabc.com/PDFs/Peters Pro/99720ppro24-8-16FPL.pdf
UB
RickWhite
Well-Known Member
I just ordered Dyna Grow foliage and bloom. Foliage is 9-3-6 and bloom is 3-12-6. Seems like a well balanced high quality mix. Hummert.com was $39 per gallon.
I have been using Ionic which people said was great, but I'v noticed weak stems which is a K deficiency and they don't advertise what is in their stuff.
Also, I don't like mixing because for a couple reasons. A) If you have issues you have more variables. B) A well balanced fertalizer should not need supplimenting.
Although, Dyna Grow does have supplimenta products which I might use if my weak stem issue persists. But, I'm hoping the straight mix resolves the issue.
I have been using Ionic which people said was great, but I'v noticed weak stems which is a K deficiency and they don't advertise what is in their stuff.
Also, I don't like mixing because for a couple reasons. A) If you have issues you have more variables. B) A well balanced fertalizer should not need supplimenting.
Although, Dyna Grow does have supplimenta products which I might use if my weak stem issue persists. But, I'm hoping the straight mix resolves the issue.
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
That's a great price, but holy shit, what are you gonna do with all of that! At 1/2 tsp./gallon, that will last you and the city you live in for years.
Yep, but the more complicated and confusing they can make it, the higher the sales.
Yep.
Weak stems can be caused by alot of issues, not just NPK values. You can be using a 15-30-15 but without quality light and other well honed cultural factors you'll still be prone to weak stems, and no, a fan does not induce strong stems as the parroting goes.
If you give your garden profile I'm sure I can come up with what's wrong.
UB
seasmoke
Active Member
I'm having weak stem issues with my Sativa Spirit. Every one of them cannot support the weight of their buds, and the buds are not even big....all of my other plants do great, they are indica dominate and support the weight just fine.
UB, maybe you can help me? i saw the pure sativa you grew and this one would never hold anything like that up. I know they grow tall and lanky, but this is ridiculous....
UB, maybe you can help me? i saw the pure sativa you grew and this one would never hold anything like that up. I know they grow tall and lanky, but this is ridiculous....
Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
Sativas naturally have weak stems and must be staked. You may have seen my shot of a Dalat. I had to hold up the colas with chains and they still bent over. Here's a side shot.
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Uncle Ben
Well-Known Member
What foods are you using?
