Info needed

[gr865]

I said I would never change from Canna but the MC looks promising.
But I have enough Canna product on hand for my next couple of grows, ordered double in a stoned stuper.
Also ordered some Canna Boost a short time ago, the company sent me Ionic Hydro Bloom instead. I called and informed them of the error, they shipped my out the Canna Boost and I got it in two days. I ask them to send me a return slip for the Ionic HB and they said to just keep it and use it if I can. Guess I will use it, can't hurt and shit it's free.

@InTheShed
So you do not have to use Cannazym/Rhizotonic or Boost when using MC in Coco/Perlite DTW.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

Hey @farside05 , I know you are up on the light meter stuff so thought I'd ask you. On the Mars Hydro TSW 2000 lights. Will a Lux Meter work or does it need to be a Quantum Board PAR Meter ? Lux Meters are about $50 where PAR Meters are about 3 times that. Never actually used either before so want to try it out.
Maybe there's a way to convert LUX to PAR ? I'm pretty sure you'll know.

This is what I have

Love it, works fantastic

 

[Old Salt]

PAR ≈ Lux/67
There are many free smart phone light meter apps available.

 

[farside05]

@Buds Buddy A lux meter will work. I have an Urceri from Amazon. $20. There are others that are two parts like @Chris Scorpio has. I might suggest one like that for $5 more. Sometimes its hard to read my display under the bright lights. I had no success with a phone light meter. I did a side by side against my real lux meter and tried 2 phones and several different apps. The whole thing is burried over in my thread somewhere including screenshots. The result? Phone light meters are highly inaccurate. A real lux meter has one more layer in it than a phone light meter. For me, after I spent all that money on lights, $20 was a worthwhile investment to make sure I had them dialed in.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Lux meter it is !!! Order one tonight. I'll get the 2 part like Chris has. Thanks.
@Old Salt , Just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. PAR = what the LUX Meter Reads divided by 67 ?

 

[Buds Buddy]

Well I got the siding done on the 2 long sides of my shed today. Doing the Front tomorrow along with moving the door jamb out a little because of the siding. If there's still time I'll start trimming it out. The Back wall is last so I can build the A/C & Vents in at the same time. Put the new floor in next weekend & frame in the Grow area.

 

[Old Salt]

Lux meter it is !!! Order one tonight. I'll get the 2 part like Chris has. Thanks.
@Old Salt , Just want to make sure I'm understanding correctly. PAR = what the LUX Meter Reads divided by 67 ?

That's a common value used between 3000°K and 5000°K. There are several of us using that figure.

 

[Buds Buddy]

That's a common value used between 3000°K and 5000°K. There are several of us using that figure.

Thank You .... That's good to know.

 

[InTheShed]

So you do not have to use Cannazym/Rhizotonic or Boost when using MC in Coco/Perlite DTW.

That's a question I can't answer gr8 because I'm in ProMix HP, but I don't see why you would need root boosters in addition. If you use something to keep the roots clean like Z7 I would think that would stay the same. Good question for the MC thread, unless the answer includes Bud Explosion .

Thank You .... That's good to know.

Here is an online calculator that can do lux to PPFD at different color temps:

Convert Lux to PPFD - Online Calculator | Waveform Lighting

Online calculator to convert illuminance (lux) to PPFD (micromoles per second per meter squared).

www.waveformlighting.com

 

[HorseBadoritz]

I've used MC V1, 2, and now 3, I think. Still has the balls, but I'm pretty sure it's 3rd iteration. They haven't changed the info on the bags since V1, I don't think.

I'm not sure if it matters on the coco brand, bags, blocks, or whatever. I just know that I wash it all, even bagged Canna, until I get the same ppms coming out as in. I actually like coarser and chunkier stuff, doesn't seem to compact as quickly for me.

Since I got the new bag of what I say is V3, I haven't used any additives. My plants look fine, and I don't want to mess with the stew, lol!

I use an ec meter, and just stay under the recommended numbers. No burned tips, and nice and green. It did take a bit to figure out, but I'm old and slow.

Never had a cal or mag issue except older seedlings, and a few mag foliars green them up . I use some quantum boards, and have seen where some folks have mag problems with led's, but I haven't.

I also use RO water, if that makes a difference. The stuff seems to pH balance by itself, but I still check it.

The stuff is so cheap that running DTW doesn't seem so wasteful, even with a good runoff.

Hope that helps

 

[Buds Buddy]

I've used MC V1, 2, and now 3, I think. Still has the balls, but I'm pretty sure it's 3rd iteration. They haven't changed the info on the bags since V1, I don't think.

I'm not sure if it matters on the coco brand, bags, blocks, or whatever. I just know that I wash it all, even bagged Canna, until I get the same ppms coming out as in. I actually like coarser and chunkier stuff, doesn't seem to compact as quickly for me.

Since I got the new bag of what I say is V3, I haven't used any additives. My plants look fine, and I don't want to mess with the stew, lol!

I use an ec meter, and just stay under the recommended numbers. No burned tips, and nice and green. It did take a bit to figure out, but I'm old and slow.

Never had a cal or mag issue except older seedlings, and a few mag foliars green them up . I use some quantum boards, and have seen where some folks have mag problems with led's, but I haven't.

I also use RO water, if that makes a difference. The stuff seems to pH balance by itself, but I still check it.

The stuff is so cheap that running DTW doesn't seem so wasteful, even with a good runoff.

Hope that helps

Good Info ... Thanks. I wash my Coco the same as you. Usually to 5.8 in & out since I use Coco. Took about 50 gallons of pH water to do a bag last grow. Then prepped with 1st nutes before planting seeds. I plant seeds straight in the coco. It seems I get more to germ this way over the baggie method.
I don't quite understand the ec meter stuff. Need to read up on it. I usually just go by pH & ppm.
Just now buying a light LUX METER so going to have to figure out how to use it with quantum board LED's. Farside will help me out there as he has lots of experience with this.
I think these Mars Hydro TSW 2000's are Quantum boards ??? Different from my regular LED's for sure & way brighter. But just one of them is giving me heat issues in a 2.5' x 2.5' x 6' tent. Temps are in the mid 80's (not good). I put a 6 gallon humidifier in the tent to try to cool it some but didn't help much. I need to mount the ballasts outside the tent & buy a real 4" exhaust fan. I'm just using a 4" booster fan for the moment. They haven't germed yet so the warmer temps should be a + till they do. Might just buy a 4' x 4' tent instead as I have everything I need to make that work proper.
Looking forward to using MC for a grow. I started with the GH line up in soil & it worked well. Then Coco with a line up of about 10 AN products which used up about $300 in nutes for that grow. Wonderful grow, but way too expensive.
I'm starting my 6th grow now so I'm starting to get this figured out. Still have a lot to learn though. I dropped 13 Fire OG regular seeds in soil about 2 days ago. That was what I grew on my 1st grow & haven't grown anything near as potent since. These seeds are from the same batch I grew back then. Hope they are as good. I just hope to get 3 - 5 Females out of it.

 

[Old Salt]

EC and PPM measure the same thing, but use different scales. I don't use it at all for my grows, instead I accurately measure my water and nutrients..

 

[Slicknick909]

Another frustrated 10ish part AN user here switching to MC in coco with a quick question; what would be the best beneficial bacteria to use? Real growers recharge? Or is it totally unnecessary with the MC to use beneficial bacteria/mycorrhizae?

 

[Emilya Green]

Another frustrated 10ish part AN user here switching to MC in coco with a quick question; what would be the best beneficial bacteria to use? Real growers recharge? Or is it totally unnecessary with the MC to use beneficial bacteria/mycorrhizae?

totally unnecessary to have bacteria/myco in a MC grow. Microbes are for organic grows and would just sit there confused and with nothing to do in a Megacrop grow.

 

[shottafire]

totally unnecessary to have bacteria/myco in a MC grow. Microbes are for organic grows and would just sit there confused and with nothing to do in a Megacrop grow.

I beg to differ. But I dont know maybe im wrong. Been growing in coco for a long time now I worked at a hydro shop for a few years and used lots of different nutrient combinations. I always used innoculants and they definitely had positive effects.

 

[Slicknick909]

So I'm day 1 of flower with my MC grow now, the online chart says about 2tsp of MC for 2.5gal of water, that doesn't seem like much at all to me, but here we go! I will not be using an inoculate this grow and will use real growers recharge on my next grow to see if I see any benefit from the bacteria/mycorrhizae

 

[Old Salt]

So I'm day 1 of flower with my MC grow now, the online chart says about 2tsp of MC for 2.5gal of water, that doesn't seem like much at all to me, but here we go! I will not be using an inoculate this grow and will use real growers recharge on my next grow to see if I see any benefit from the bacteria/mycorrhizae

Emilya has given reasons for not using Real Growers Recharge, I think in The Mega Crop Thread.

 

[HorseBadoritz]

EC and PPM measure the same thing, but use different scales. I don't use it at all for my grows, instead I accurately measure my water and nutrients..

Not exactly, ec= electrical conductivity and ppm= parts per million.

For me, I didn't feel weighing something like MC is as accurate as ec. If MC was homogeneous, I can see it, but with the balls and powder, just seems to me you can only get close.

No need to measure water, reading ec, either. It's accurate at any volume.

I mix in 5 gallon buckets, one for early veggers, one for mid bloomers.

My plants are all in individual pots, and hand watered, so it's also real easy to tweak a feed for a finicky gal, or seedling.

Add a little water or bloom feed til it's the ec I want to see.

Just one more way to skin the feline, lol!

 

[Old Salt]

Not exactly, ec= electrical conductivity and ppm= parts per million.

True by definition, but usually false in practice. The way most of us measure both EC and TDS is by passing a current through the water to measure its resistance. EC is the current reading, while TDS is derived from that reading.

 

[shottafire]

Not exactly, ec= electrical conductivity and ppm= parts per million.

For me, I didn't feel weighing something like MC is as accurate as ec. If MC was homogeneous, I can see it, but with the balls and powder, just seems to me you can only get close.

No need to measure water, reading ec, either. It's accurate at any volume.

I mix in 5 gallon buckets, one for early veggers, one for mid bloomers.

My plants are all in individual pots, and hand watered, so it's also real easy to tweak a feed for a finicky gal, or seedling.

Add a little water or bloom feed til it's the ec I want to see.

Just one more way to skin the feline, lol!

I take my measurements in ppm but always convert it in my head to ec.
here’s a basic chart showing some conversions so yea ppm and ec may be different but you can translate it either way knowing what scale your meter is operating on
Nacl = .5 scale
Or 442 .7 scale

mS	µS	NaCl Conv.	442 Conv.
1.0 mS	1000 µS	500 ppm	700 ppm
1.5 mS	1500 µS	750 ppm	1050 ppm
2.0 mS	2000 µS	1000 ppm	1400 ppm
2.5 mS	2500 µS	1250 ppm	1750 ppm
3.0 mS	3000 µS	1500 ppm	2100 ppm