LUCAS FORMULA - Hydroponic Grow Journal
- Thread starter GreenThumbSucker
- Start date
Sick grow, sick journal, sick yield - A+ all around my man.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
This time I kept the lights about 20 - 24 inches above the plants. Normally I go about 12- 15 inches above. My growth was very even. The plants along the walls were further from the lamps, but they got the reflected light off the Mylar as well as from the lamp. Many of the plants along the walls were actually bigger than those directly under the lights.
They seem to do better with the lights a little higher AS LONG AS your room isnt too wide and you use Mylar on all walls for reflection.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
I did not use any CO2 this time but I will in the future. I will have to get hoods that have vents before I can do that and they are expensive.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
I still have a couple of issues to work out next time.
Taste: The buds have a slight 'chemmy' taste. Can taste the ferts slightly. I have been studying up on properly flushing them. Next time when I flush, I will change the reservoir daily until the PPM of the flush water comes back within 50 PPM of tap water then run pure water until they are done. Before I was running them at about 350 PPM during flush. I will also start the flush earlier.
I will also start growing just one strain per room. When you grow two strains at once and they finish two weeks apart, one doesn't get flushed.
Drying: I somewhat suck at drying. They either end up too wet or too dry or smelling like hay. I have found that if you 'sweat' them, mist them with water to bring back some of the moisture level when they are too dry, the taste and smell goes away and they end up smelling like hay. Fuck that.
Someone I met at the dispensary does consulting and he gave me some tips on drying. He dries until all but the biggest colas snap clean when you break them. He then puts them loosely into paper sacks and lets them slow dry until the bigger buds are dry in the middle. He then cures them in gallon glass jars, opening the jars 4 times a day for about ten minutes each time for a few weeks. His stuff is sweet and dank and very yummy tasting.
All having been said I am quite pleased how this grow went.
Taste: The buds have a slight 'chemmy' taste. Can taste the ferts slightly. I have been studying up on properly flushing them. Next time when I flush, I will change the reservoir daily until the PPM of the flush water comes back within 50 PPM of tap water then run pure water until they are done. Before I was running them at about 350 PPM during flush. I will also start the flush earlier.
I will also start growing just one strain per room. When you grow two strains at once and they finish two weeks apart, one doesn't get flushed.
Drying: I somewhat suck at drying. They either end up too wet or too dry or smelling like hay. I have found that if you 'sweat' them, mist them with water to bring back some of the moisture level when they are too dry, the taste and smell goes away and they end up smelling like hay. Fuck that.
Someone I met at the dispensary does consulting and he gave me some tips on drying. He dries until all but the biggest colas snap clean when you break them. He then puts them loosely into paper sacks and lets them slow dry until the bigger buds are dry in the middle. He then cures them in gallon glass jars, opening the jars 4 times a day for about ten minutes each time for a few weeks. His stuff is sweet and dank and very yummy tasting.
All having been said I am quite pleased how this grow went.
You sure those are chemicals that you're tasting? Many growers who I respect don't flush at all and claim it to be a myth and only an issue for people who've over-ferted - apologies that I forget your specific grow, but did you over-fert at some point?
Because that would explain it, methinks.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Yeah, about two and a half weeks before they were done. Still, a proper flush should take care of that.
I'm no flushing expert at all (and try to not pretend to be one on the Internet - don't flush at all), but I do recall reading (can't remember the source for the life of me) that plants that are overferted need almost a month to fully absolve themselves of all the excess stored up nutes they have - running as much pure water through the system as you want won't help out matters, as the plant has enough nutes to last it for longer then your flushing period.
Also, forgive me for not looking back, and you don't have to answer and tell me to stop being so lazy, but how exactly did you overfert them? What was the PPM, and for how long?
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
They were over fertilized for one day after which they were given just water. They pulled out of it and went back to normal growth in about 4 or 5 days.
They got over-fertilized because my PPM meter had a broken probe. Not sure what the actual PPM was when they were overfertilized.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
To flood 15 pots takes about 12 gallons, or about a quarter of the reservoir. You would need about 35 gallons just to flood the pots (when using hydroton ) using a single 55 gallon reservoir.
I would split 50 plants between two ebb and grow systems. 50 plants would use at least 20 gallons of water per day. Would be nightmarish trying to keep up with it in a single ebb and grow system.
leethewarmage
Active Member
what happens if you dont give them enough nutes? i ave some claw on one of my plants just one out of the four i have in my tote hydro set. i used bag see my frist run so i ave two sativas and two indicas. one satvia looks like poop the others doing great. think it might be b/c my ppm was low or my sprayers we clogged pretty bad
tom__420
Well-Known Member
Leaf claw is from your pH being messed up, do you have a pH meter and keep the pH in check at all times?
smokingrubber
Well-Known Member
What's the poop on dealing with a dispensary? I have a script and I'm signed up with a disp in Santa Barbera. Do they buy weed from patients off the street? Do I have to know someone on the inside? Basically, can I take what I've got (don't have it yet) down there and just ask em if they want it? Should I go hand out sample bags to a couple shops and wait for them to call me? How exactly does it work? What kind of prices would I expect?
I've never sold to a dispensary so a little guideance would be helpful.
poundpusher2009
Well-Known Member
Great grow GTS... Very inspiring I was thinking of doing hempy buckets but this would really be alot easier and not take time for self watering. I think Im convinced. I do have some questions for you. I read you grow journal twice now and believe these questions have not been answered or have been but I am not very clear on what the answer is.
1. How long was your veg period? I seen you let them get to 24 inches but how long did it take. How long was the flower Period for the ak.
2. Are you using any air conitioners in your basement grow? If not how has the basement environment treated you?
3. I have heard your supposed to keep the bucket off the floor to keep the roots from getting to cold and locking up? Have you had any problems
4. For beginners in hydroponics the lucas formula although seems easy to advanced people is very confusing. Is there any videos or articles that are easy to understand as far as lucas forumula for dummies.. LOL
Great grow again.
1. How long was your veg period? I seen you let them get to 24 inches but how long did it take. How long was the flower Period for the ak.
2. Are you using any air conitioners in your basement grow? If not how has the basement environment treated you?
3. I have heard your supposed to keep the bucket off the floor to keep the roots from getting to cold and locking up? Have you had any problems
4. For beginners in hydroponics the lucas formula although seems easy to advanced people is very confusing. Is there any videos or articles that are easy to understand as far as lucas forumula for dummies.. LOL
Great grow again.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Not sure how they do it in California. Go to the dispensary and ask them. I have heard that dispensaries in Cal will buy the overflow from their patient growers but they are very very finicky about the finished product.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
When my clones go into the system, I run them at low PPM for a week. This is necessary for allowing the plants to spread their roots. Plants that have roots take off immediately when you turn up the PPM.
After letting them spread their roots for a week, I turned the PPM up to a level that would have them grow rapidly (500ish ppm). In my mind, this is the beginning of the vegetative period. Once I turned the PPM up, they stayed in vegetative stage for 2 1/2 more weeks. I believe I should have only let them go for 2 more weeks because they ended up so tightly packed together. They tripled and quadrupled in width when they flowered.
From the time I put them into the system until I started flowering them was a total of 3 1/2 weeks. 1 week idling and 2 1/2 weeks vegetating.
------------------------------------------------------
I did not use any air conditioners. I vented directly to my chimney. My exhaust is in one upper corner and my intake is in the opposite bottom corner. I also have four fans in the room stirring up the air. I had no heat problems. The basement is unheated. This means that my reservoir stays cold - about 56 degrees most of the time. It also means that the room gets cold during the dark period, in the mid 50s. It didnt seem to affect the yield at all having the cooler room.
------------------------------------------------------
The ebb and grow uses two buckets, one that holds the water and one that sits inside it that holds the plant. There is about a 1.5 inch gap between the two that has solution in it. This inch and a half of water insulates the roots. Remember, the buckets have to be at the same height as the controller at all time. No problems whatsoever.
------------------------------------------------------
The Lucas Formula can be summed up as such:
Using General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom parts of their three part formula, you use them at this ratio at all times:
1 part Micro to 2 parts bloom
for every tablespoon of micro use 2 tablespoons of bloom always.
The PPM is maintained at 1300 PPM at all times. The PPM can drift between 1200 and 1400 but when adding back water, the solution is brought back to 1300 by adding more micro and bloom at the 1:2 ratio.
I top off my ebb and grow reservoir about every two days.
Lucas says to use the formula during vegetative but I only use it during flowering. During vegetative I use the normal General Hydroponics 3-2-1 formulation. 3 Parts grow, 2 parts micro, and 1 part bloom.
Lucas had a long running thread on Cannabis world called 'Ask Lucas' where growers asked questions about growing with the Lucas formula. He gives a lot of detailed information and it is a must read! I have read it several times and it will help you a lot!
See it here:
http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892
Hope that all helps, if you have anymore questions dont hesitate to ask, I check this thread every day or two!
GTS