wow ok, directions say the opposite.... to flush every 2 weeks. What nute line are you using where it still tastes good without flushing?
It’s my belief that Fox Farms suggests a regular flush (w/ Sledgehammer) for a couple reasons. One, to simply sell more product…..they’ve overlapped and duplicated extensively with their feeding schedule lineup already….might as well add another for flushing.
Two, a flushing will almost certainly be needed by following their schedule, because of the certainty of a salt buildup from pouring so much of this and that Into the medium.
Since you asked, I’ll tell you that with my Ocean Forest grows, the primary nutrient source is just Ocean Forest. Add in some EWC, some form of microbial catalyst, and extra perlite. That mix alone should take a plant a long ways. Once you get to the 5-6 week stage, you can top dress with more of the same….or add in a little dry organic fert. Flower Girl, Dr. Earth, Gaia Green to name a few)…..Fox Farms has their own line which works great….
Depending on whether you’re growing autos or photos, that first top dress can be a N rich veg option or one that’s more heavily leaning to flowering (lower in N, higher in P & K).
Ive had a lot more success with this simple process than mixing and managing a dozen different liquid synthetic nutes.
One last thing, I also wanted to try Coco for similar reasons. My current grow is 3 photos in Fox Farms 70/30 Coco. It’s pre-buffered and already has a good amount of perlite mixed in.
Since it is inert and has not been amended, I mixed in (according to the directions on the label) a dry organic. I used Gaia Green 4-4-4. Added about 20% EWC, a light amount of kelp meal and some Myko.
The growth has been incredible and not a single sign of any problems. They went from 1 gal pots into 5 gal of the same mix about 5 weeks ago. The only thing other than ph’ed tap water that I’ve given is stump tea about once a week. You could use ReCharge or any microbial catalyst instead of the tea.
I flipped them to 12/12 around 10 days ago and am about to give the first top dress…..it’ll be about 1/3 of the 4-4-4 and 2/3 of the Gaia Green flowering, which is 2-8-4……mixed with EWC of course.
With any luck I’ll only have to top dress one more time….I’ll cut out the 4-4-4 and replace with 100% 2-8-4.
FOR ME, this has been the best option as I didn’t want to be handcuffed to my plants watering daily or even worse, multiple times a day.
I PH my water to 6.0 and water every third day or so……much like soil but favor a tad lower PH and run it a little more on the moist side. Once they get deeper into flower I’m sure I’ll need to water more often.
The pic is my little closet, which is 2.5’ X 6’.
I’m growing 3 different strains, which i normally wouldn’t do, but it ended up that way.
They are all quite different and the tallest (Jack Herer) may have to be super cropped if she keeps stretching. That pic is maybe 2 weeks old and they’ve stretched a good bit since. I’ve also defoliated an unbelievable amount since week 3…..
Anyway, sorry if I got too far off topic but it all seemed applicable to your situation and questions. Good luck and I’m happy to share my experiences, both good and bad.
