is 15-52-15 to strong to use

can i use miracle grow 15-52-15 for the flowering stage of my plants or is that to much phosphorus?

Anybody???

Nooo... a bit too strong on the Phosphorus. You want something in the 1-3-2 range or lower for flowering.

is 1-3-2 the ratio or the actual NPK numbers?

sorry, ratio. ie 5-15-10, 10-30-20

If that is all you have to use and nothing else is in the budget...I would not feed more than twice during the flowering cycle.

main thing is you want a good balance of NPK, you dont want way more phosphorus than nitrogen or potassium, the plant will not like it. Thats why my ratio is better for flowering; a well rounded NPK which your plant will love. Might want to add a touch of bat guano if you want a bit more N

what would be the ideal NPK numbers? 10-30-20?

too heavy in the P... P can lock out iron, so if you have a lot of P floating around these will lock out iron ions and the plant may struggle to find enough iron. then if the iron suffers the plant will have difficulty processing other nutes and so it goes on like dominoes. However it would take quite a lot to make this happen, but still best to err on the side of caution. Maybe use it once at the start of flower then again in the middle, although it all depends on your growing style. often when we give advice we only keep our own styles in mind.
I wouldn't use it at all. Although high P availability is directly linked to increased yields plants don't really need that much P, so having unused P laying around in the medium and then adding more will eventually lead to problems.

get something better than MG. if nothing else buy Jacks Classic or Blue Mountain organics if you want weed that tastes like weed should taste...pure and sweet. otherwise you'll end up with weed that will be more harsh and not true tasting. garbage in, garbage out!

bill4588 said:

what would be the ideal NPK numbers? 10-30-20?

Click to expand...

Well, not quite. For flowering I use a mix of Jack's Classic all purpose (20-20-20) and bloom (10-30-20); 1/4tsp of each. That way theres a good amount of P but also a good amount of the others for the plant to utilize. So I suggest something in the middle. Something in the range of 3-5-4 (IMO) would be ideal for flowering.

bill4588 said:

what would be the ideal NPK numbers? 10-30-20?

Click to expand...

In an outdoor setting P is very easily locked out in soils and is particularly difficult to break down especially when farmers keep adding more and more each year. The main nutrient a plant needs is Nitrogen, without enough nitrogen a plant will have problems processing P properly anyway, those two go hand in hand.

So Nitrogen is the big one, it makes processing all the other nutrients possible for the plant. In Veg a plant isn't producing buds so doesn't need very much P, then in flower the energy the plant needs increases quite dramatically. The plant needs more of everything, it also needs more P... just because it needs more P, doesn't mean it needs more P than any other nutrient. Just that it needs much more than it did during veg. On a ratio terms it is believed by certain people that P isn't needed to excess and a 10-10-10 should do you fine.

that's just one side of the coin... the sceptical side don't believe it and insist that plants need a higher ratio of P than N in flower.

Here are Advanced Nutrients experiments in this area, aka The Great Phosphorus Myth:

[video=youtube;7-yFtzDigVc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-yFtzDigVc[/video]

[video=youtube;HtaVtCOpa0A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtaVtCOpa0A&feature=related[/video]

And the .pdf of the experiments and results: http://www.growersunderground.com/PhosphorusMyth.pdf

that guy is super annoying but he had some interesting info...id like to read more about that.

bill4588 said:

that guy is super annoying but he had some interesting info...id like to read more about that.

Click to expand...

the .pdf file is clickable at the bottom of my last post. here it is again though: http://www.growersunderground.com/PhosphorusMyth.pdf

you can use that nute to flower.... dont over due it... i would start feeding at 1/4 dose.... then slowly work your way up to half dose... dont go higher then half dose with miracle grow, especially if your growing indoors in small pots.... its not the best nute, nor the most balanced, but it will work... feed every 14 days-21 days

what if i use 30-15-15 for veg and 15-30-15 for flowering? im growing outdoors btw

Personally, I'd say you're better off with the 15-30-15 all the way through.....at LOW doses and infrequently.