Hello,
I'm hoping to exchange some info regarding the Advanced Nutrients line- how to mix them properly, what others are finding as their target ppm, as well as growing in general.
I have been reading many forum topics on this site and am hoping to open up a dialog with some experienced folks who can help me improve what I do. Here is an overview of my operation:
I have been growing for about four years with a perpetual system harvesting weekly for my first three years, bi-weekly currently.
I am growing Blue Hawaiian and Master Purps. The purps came from a garden where they were focusing on cross breeding and I am told it is an Og Kush bred with GDP (Becoming the strain known as "Gods Gift") and then rebred with the GDP to bring out more purple. I inherited the Blue Hawaiian from another grower and all I can say is it looks like a indica dominant hybrid. As none of these strains come with breeders paperwork I have had to take their word for it and shop it around to local cooperatives and see what their feedback is. Four locations state that the strain is Gods Gift, independent of each other. One location calls in Grape Ape. I will have pictures uploaded soon I hope. Their flower time falls into almost exactly 8 weeks on both strains.
Here is what I use:
Veg:
Ph Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom, B-52, Voodoo Juice- My plants seem to need watered twice weekly, and I use nutrients with each watering. The nutes are all at full recommended strength EXCEPT B-52 which I use at half strength/ Any more than this and the tips seem to get a little burnt on the very ends.
Once the roots are established and the girls are in their 5x5 grodan cube is the start of the advanced feeding. I am using as excloner aeroponic box for rooting my cuttings and then put the rooted cuttings into a grodan cube for planting. During the week they are in the grodan I water once with Clonex, then the next with a very light advanced nutrients mix. The medium they go into is roots organic soiless coco coir, starting out in a 1 gallon plastic bag and then transplanted into a 5 gallon fabric bag for the last 3 weeks of veg and all of their flower cycle. During each transplant I add the Mycos bacteria to the exposed roots and place into the container.
Lighting is alternating 1000 watt mh bulbs with Sun System t-5 8- bulb fixtures. This is giving me an excellent balance of node growth along with stem width and density. I top the girls at week 5 and week 7 a trellis out along bamboo poles so each plant has 6-8 solid grow colas.
Flower
Ph Perfect Connoisseur A/B as a base, then all additional nutrients listed on the feeding chart. Voodoo Juice, Piranha, Tarantula, Sensizym, Bud Candy, Bud ignitor, Big Bud, B-52, Nirvana, Overdrive, Bud Factor X. In addition to the items from the feeding chart I use Carbo-load and a product called Sugaree by cutting edge solutions.
The nutrient batch is given to them weekly about every 5 days, everything at full strength as recommended by Advanced support- except B-52 which I use at half recommended strength. At the end of week 6 I cut all nutrients and fertilizer, water three more times after that using pure RO water and the sugar additives ( sugaree, bud candy, and carbo-load), and a final watering with final phase to make sure all fertilizer has been washed out. My strains love the extra sugar through the end, they have a fantastic aroma as well as taste.
The nutrients are mixed with RO water from an Evolution 1000, starting out pre mix at about 10ppm.
The nutrient res has two pumps in the base- one for mixing the nutrients through a pvc pipe system that churns the mix, and a pump that runs to a piping system on the ceiling that lets me water each container with a water wand. I've been scolded by more than a few growers for hand watering a hydro medium, but I swear I get better results by spending the extra time with each plant... It takes about 60 seconds for the wand to distribute a gallon of mix and that lets me look through the plant, prune, ect. But it is time consuming.
When put into flower I "fim" the tops of all the grow tips and make sure the bottom two-thirds of the plant have no vegetation except for stalks.
The plants are under 1000 watt HPS bulbs, I only have a cheap light meter that measures in lux, new bulbs read 150,000 lux out of the box, about 120,000 lux average after about two weeks to a month.
All reflectors are air cooled, I have a 12" fan hooked up to a Titan Controls Hyperion 1 Controller bringing in the fresh air, as well as an air conditioner that keeps the canopy temperature around 75 degrees. The AC is not big enough to hold a temp at 75 without the atmosphere fan set to 70, or else it freezes over and stops cooling. We also have a dehumidifier that keeps the levels at about 45-50%, In the next couple harvests we will be adding a mini split AC and augment with C02.
Here are my questions:
Cal-Mag: Does anyone find they still have to use cal-mag along with the advanced line? Advanced support says no, several folks at the supply store say yes. Any advice is appreciated.
PPM Count: Advanced support says the ppm levels do not matter, as long as the plants do not seem to respond negatively. Does anyone else use these products and check the ppm afterwards? I'm seeing levels between 1800 and 2200 depending on the week. I've been told this is fine since my strains appear to be indica dominant?
Frequency of Nutrient Watering: Advanced states full amounts with each watering through week 6. Others have told me half strength each time, or full strength but alternate watering/feeding.
I'm looking for advice before I make any changes.
EZCloner:I'm pretty sure i'm doing something wrong- Its taking me almost 2-3 weeks to get some good looking roots when I've been told that it should be a week or less. I am cloning from 2 sources- I have a mother plant in a DWC bucket, and I take clones from some of the veg plants in week 7. I do not see a difference in which ones root faster. I use only pure ro water now with h202 added at 3 mil per gallon every 5th day. I've tried clonex and cal-mag additions to no avail. Perhaps this ezcloner question should be in a different forum...
Any feedback from experienced people on here would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for the long description I just want to be as clear as possible about the method I'm using.
I'm hoping to exchange some info regarding the Advanced Nutrients line- how to mix them properly, what others are finding as their target ppm, as well as growing in general.
I have been reading many forum topics on this site and am hoping to open up a dialog with some experienced folks who can help me improve what I do. Here is an overview of my operation:
I have been growing for about four years with a perpetual system harvesting weekly for my first three years, bi-weekly currently.
I am growing Blue Hawaiian and Master Purps. The purps came from a garden where they were focusing on cross breeding and I am told it is an Og Kush bred with GDP (Becoming the strain known as "Gods Gift") and then rebred with the GDP to bring out more purple. I inherited the Blue Hawaiian from another grower and all I can say is it looks like a indica dominant hybrid. As none of these strains come with breeders paperwork I have had to take their word for it and shop it around to local cooperatives and see what their feedback is. Four locations state that the strain is Gods Gift, independent of each other. One location calls in Grape Ape. I will have pictures uploaded soon I hope. Their flower time falls into almost exactly 8 weeks on both strains.
Here is what I use:
Veg:
Ph Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom, B-52, Voodoo Juice- My plants seem to need watered twice weekly, and I use nutrients with each watering. The nutes are all at full recommended strength EXCEPT B-52 which I use at half strength/ Any more than this and the tips seem to get a little burnt on the very ends.
Once the roots are established and the girls are in their 5x5 grodan cube is the start of the advanced feeding. I am using as excloner aeroponic box for rooting my cuttings and then put the rooted cuttings into a grodan cube for planting. During the week they are in the grodan I water once with Clonex, then the next with a very light advanced nutrients mix. The medium they go into is roots organic soiless coco coir, starting out in a 1 gallon plastic bag and then transplanted into a 5 gallon fabric bag for the last 3 weeks of veg and all of their flower cycle. During each transplant I add the Mycos bacteria to the exposed roots and place into the container.
Lighting is alternating 1000 watt mh bulbs with Sun System t-5 8- bulb fixtures. This is giving me an excellent balance of node growth along with stem width and density. I top the girls at week 5 and week 7 a trellis out along bamboo poles so each plant has 6-8 solid grow colas.
Flower
Ph Perfect Connoisseur A/B as a base, then all additional nutrients listed on the feeding chart. Voodoo Juice, Piranha, Tarantula, Sensizym, Bud Candy, Bud ignitor, Big Bud, B-52, Nirvana, Overdrive, Bud Factor X. In addition to the items from the feeding chart I use Carbo-load and a product called Sugaree by cutting edge solutions.
The nutrient batch is given to them weekly about every 5 days, everything at full strength as recommended by Advanced support- except B-52 which I use at half recommended strength. At the end of week 6 I cut all nutrients and fertilizer, water three more times after that using pure RO water and the sugar additives ( sugaree, bud candy, and carbo-load), and a final watering with final phase to make sure all fertilizer has been washed out. My strains love the extra sugar through the end, they have a fantastic aroma as well as taste.
The nutrients are mixed with RO water from an Evolution 1000, starting out pre mix at about 10ppm.
The nutrient res has two pumps in the base- one for mixing the nutrients through a pvc pipe system that churns the mix, and a pump that runs to a piping system on the ceiling that lets me water each container with a water wand. I've been scolded by more than a few growers for hand watering a hydro medium, but I swear I get better results by spending the extra time with each plant... It takes about 60 seconds for the wand to distribute a gallon of mix and that lets me look through the plant, prune, ect. But it is time consuming.
When put into flower I "fim" the tops of all the grow tips and make sure the bottom two-thirds of the plant have no vegetation except for stalks.
The plants are under 1000 watt HPS bulbs, I only have a cheap light meter that measures in lux, new bulbs read 150,000 lux out of the box, about 120,000 lux average after about two weeks to a month.
All reflectors are air cooled, I have a 12" fan hooked up to a Titan Controls Hyperion 1 Controller bringing in the fresh air, as well as an air conditioner that keeps the canopy temperature around 75 degrees. The AC is not big enough to hold a temp at 75 without the atmosphere fan set to 70, or else it freezes over and stops cooling. We also have a dehumidifier that keeps the levels at about 45-50%, In the next couple harvests we will be adding a mini split AC and augment with C02.
Here are my questions:
Cal-Mag: Does anyone find they still have to use cal-mag along with the advanced line? Advanced support says no, several folks at the supply store say yes. Any advice is appreciated.
PPM Count: Advanced support says the ppm levels do not matter, as long as the plants do not seem to respond negatively. Does anyone else use these products and check the ppm afterwards? I'm seeing levels between 1800 and 2200 depending on the week. I've been told this is fine since my strains appear to be indica dominant?
Frequency of Nutrient Watering: Advanced states full amounts with each watering through week 6. Others have told me half strength each time, or full strength but alternate watering/feeding.
I'm looking for advice before I make any changes.
EZCloner:I'm pretty sure i'm doing something wrong- Its taking me almost 2-3 weeks to get some good looking roots when I've been told that it should be a week or less. I am cloning from 2 sources- I have a mother plant in a DWC bucket, and I take clones from some of the veg plants in week 7. I do not see a difference in which ones root faster. I use only pure ro water now with h202 added at 3 mil per gallon every 5th day. I've tried clonex and cal-mag additions to no avail. Perhaps this ezcloner question should be in a different forum...
Any feedback from experienced people on here would be greatly appreciated. Apologies for the long description I just want to be as clear as possible about the method I'm using.
