Nutrients!

[NolaGrow]

Well new guy on the block.. Names Brad! As I get all my ducks in a row for my first grow indoors.. ordering my 2.5x5 grow tent, new design mars hydro 600 w light, along with fox farm soil, even ph meters for both the soil and water and so on...Waiting on my auto flowering sends from Ministry.com (has anyone personally use them before?). BUT my main question I’m seeking for is nutrient regiments from start to finish. What are the go to brands? I’ve spent hours of reading threads of some of you mastergrowers so I’d love to hear some of yalls most up to date techniques. Any helpful hints for growing in a smaller set up like mine are much appreciated!

 

[NolaGrow]

Auto Blueberry Domina are the seeds btw if anyone had any experience with this stain what are some of the things she favors for growing properly?

 

[TysonOG]

Depends how you want to grow, organic or not. Honestly, most of the base stuff is generally the same. I've been growing for 8 years now and one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is start small with your nute regimen. Dont go crazy with all the additives. Learn to get it right with base nutes and then tweak from there. I've used technaflora, roots organics, fox farms, and now gen hydro floratrio. They all honestly worked pretty good, just needed tweaking in different areas. Until everything else is dialed in, most of the additives, especially bloom boosters, won't do much.

 

[TysonOG]

Blueberry domina is indica dominant but I dont have any experience with autos so someone else will have to chime in.

 

[TorturedSoul]

You'll find nutrient-related information all over the forum. But here is a section that is specifically for discussion of autoflowering cannabis strains:

Auto-Flowering

With the introduction of Ruderalis to indica/sativa genetics, auto-flowering cannabis allows growers to achieve incredible results much faster

www.420magazine.com

A good rule of thumb in general with nutrients is "Less is more."

 

[NolaGrow]

Depends how you want to grow, organic or not. Honestly, most of the base stuff is generally the same. I've been growing for 8 years now and one of the best pieces of advice I can give you is start small with your nute regimen. Dont go crazy with all the additives. Learn to get it right with base nutes and then tweak from there. I've used technaflora, roots organics, fox farms, and now gen hydro floratrio. They all honestly worked pretty good, just needed tweaking in different areas. Until everything else is dialed in, most of the additives, especially bloom boosters, won't do much.

Thanks man I plan on getting the fox farm trio. Far as perlite goes, what do you believe a good ratio is? Is there any brand/type you like to use? Also is vermitculite used for the same purpose or no?? Sorry for so many questions man lol just trying to figure it all out so I’ll have a upper hand going into this

 

[Virgin Ground]

Skip the vermiculite. 30% perlite is a good ratio to add to Fox farms . I ran it without and they did fine.
Lots of folks around here are using one or two part nutes lately. I've been using Mega Crop.
Maxibloom and Jack's professional are a few I've seen around here. Dynagro is a good two part system.
I used the Fox farm trio previously. It worked great.

 

[NolaGrow]

Skip the vermiculite. 30% perlite is a good ratio to add to Fox farms . I ran it without and they did fine.
Lots of folks around here are using one or two part nutes lately. I've been using Mega Crop.
Maxibloom and Jack's professional are a few I've seen around here. Dynagro is a good two part system.
I used the Fox farm trio previously. It worked great.

When growing autos do you use the same feeding schedule suggested far as the time and amounts?

 

[Carcass]

Welcome to 420,NolaGrow

Another Mega Crop user here-1 thing,start to finish,cheap and easy...You can add their Sweet Candy and Bud Explosion if you want,but it's not really necessary...the stuff works well.
Same nute regimen for photos or autos...so easy,a caveman could do it...

 

[Nunyabiz]

Are you doing soil or coco?

You need at least 30% aeration.
I would use Biochar and Pumice instead of perlite, it stays put doesn't float to the top and has lots more nooks crannies and holes for oxygen.

Autoflowers in general usually have lower nutrient requirements than photo periods, so I would do about 1/4th of what's recommended to start.

 

[NolaGrow]

Welcome to 420,NolaGrow

Another Mega Crop user here-1 thing,start to finish,cheap and easy...You can add their Sweet Candy and Bud Explosion if you want,but it's not really necessary...the stuff works well.
Same nute regimen for photos or autos...so easy,a caveman could do it...

Haha well that’s good to hear... ! I like to perfect the things I do but im definitely still wet behind the ears when it comes to all this. Glad there’s actually some experienced growers on the site willing to help out. This grow has been a long time in the process so I’m not trying to cut any corners. Like for instance is my 600 W mars Hydro light significant enough for say four plants inside the 2 x 4?

 

[TysonOG]

I agree with @Nunyabiz . I used perlite because I already had so much, but if you can get it, biochar or pumice is the way to go.

 

[NolaGrow]

Are you doing soil or coco?

You need at least 30% aeration.
I would use Biochar and Pumice instead of perlite, it stays put doesn't float to the top and has lots more nooks crannies and holes for oxygen.

Autoflowers in general usually have lower nutrient requirements than photo periods, so I would do about 1/4th of what's recommended to start.

It will be soil, Fox farms. Seems to be the common deal I read with going 1/4 strength with the autos for the first few
Weeks.... but thanks on that perlite alternative tip I wasn’t aware it did that

 

[Carcass]

Like for instance is my 600 W mars Hydro light significant enough for say four plants inside the 2 x 4?

Depends on the actual watts used-you need at least 30 watts per sq ft,so if that light pulls 240 watts at the wall,you'd probably be ok..Mars are very good lights...but the coverage in that shaped room might be a challenge for only one light,even a good one like the one you have
more watts is better...30 is the minimum per sq ft

 

[NolaGrow]

Depends on the actual watts used-you need at least 30 watts per sq ft,so if that light pulls 240 watts at the wall,you'd probably be ok..Mars are very good lights...but the coverage in that shaped room might be a challenge for only one light,even a good one like the one you have
more watts is better...30 is the minimum per sq ft

So you’re saying that I need 240 W for the square footage of my tent. But just because it’s a 600 w light doesn’t mean it’s the correct wattage or did I misunderstand?

 

[Carcass]

600 watt would be what it's equivalent to in a Metal Halide or Hi Pressure Sodium light-I'm running a 1000 watt equivalent cheapie,
and it actually uses 200 watts of power-I'm growing in a 2x2,so it works out to 50w/sq ft.
The better lights like yours usually consume more actual watts than the no-name cheapies,which is a good thing.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Far as perlite goes, what do you believe a good ratio is? Is there any brand/type you like to use? Also is vermitculite used for the same purpose or no??

No. While not precisely true, a good working definition for vermiculite would be "the opposite of perlite." Perlite is for aeration and improving the drainage (ability) of your soil (or as a standalone when doing handwatered/passive hydroponics (aka "hempy")). Vermiculite, on the other hand, seems to improve the medium's ability to hold water.

I generally add one part perlite to three parts soil. If the soil that cannabis is growing in is allowed to become waterlogged and stay that way, the plants will quickly begin to suffer. It does best in a medium that has good drainage. Water it thoroughly, then allow it to dry out (not "bone dry so that the plant goes all crunchy," lol, just dry) before watering again. You'll get a feel for it; lift a container after a good watering, then wait until the plant just starts to droop and weigh it again (with your hands, no need for scales). Afterwards, you'll probably be able to tell by regularly checking the weight when it's getting pretty dry and should be able to time your watering so that the plant doesn't droop next time. But if it does, it's no big deal as long as it doesn't happen on the first evening of your four-day trip out of town or something.

But just because it’s a 600 w light doesn’t mean it’s the correct wattage or did I misunderstand?

It's not a 600-watt device. That's just marketing-speak (in other words, a f*cking lie), like "we're hear to help you," "the customer always comes first," "your satisfaction is more important to us than your money," "sure, I'll pull it out," et cetera. What is the actual model name/number of your LED panel? With that, one of us should be able to do a web-search and figure it out for you, if you can't find out by reading the product's specifications. For example, (if I remember correctly), an ECO 600 is a 235-watt device.

600 watt would be what it's equivalent to in a Metal Halide or Hi Pressure Sodium light-I'm running a 1000 watt equivalent cheapie,
and it actually uses 200 watts of power-I'm growing in a 2x2,so it works out to 50w/sq ft.

Well... no. Don't believe everything you hear or read, lol. Consider: You've just stated that your LED product is equivalent to a 1Kw HID, and that you have it in a four square foot space. If that was true, you could replace it with a 1,000-watt HPS and you wouldn't crisp your plants. But I'm guessing that 250 watts per square foot of intense light would do that for you chop chop .

It's just an underhanded way to sell product to the newbies, plain and simple. Which does not automatically mean that any given product that is advertised this way is sh!t, only that the people tasked with writing the ad copy, product descriptions, et cetera are... well, not the kind of people you'd ever want to loan $100 to, because they might end up handing you $37.50 and telling you that it's equivalent to a C-note, and then you'd have to explain (by demonstration) that denting their skull with a crowbar is equivalent to you stating that you do not agree with their non-math. And vegetables aren't much for earning wages, so you'd still not get the money back, probably.

 

[Carcass]

Don't believe everything you hear or read, lol. Consider: You've just stated that your LED product is equivalent to a 1Kw HID,

well,what I meant is that it's advertised or claimed to be a 1000 watt equivalent,but it is actually a 200 watt light,that's how I came up with 50w/sq ft. in my space.
I knew what I meant,but I could have explained it better...

 

[TysonOG]

Heres why and how the LED companies do it. Technically speaking a light marketed as a 1000w LED, is in fact a 1000w light. If you add up the max wattage across all diodes it would equal 1000. The problem is, if you ran those cheap diodes at full wattage they would fry in a month, with nice diodes, maybe 6 months. So they run it at a significantly lower wattage to protect their LEDs. The light is 1000w, the power supply is not.

 

[NolaGrow]

600 watt would be what it's equivalent to in a Metal Halide or Hi Pressure Sodium light-I'm running a 1000 watt equivalent cheapie,
and it actually uses 200 watts of power-I'm growing in a 2x2,so it works out to 50w/sq ft.
The better lights like yours usually consume more actual watts than the no-name cheapies,which is a good thing.

I guess what your saying is the

No. While not precisely true, a good working definition for vermiculite would be "the opposite of perlite." Perlite is for aeration and improving the drainage (ability) of your soil (or as a standalone when doing handwatered/passive hydroponics (aka "hempy")). Vermiculite, on the other hand, seems to improve the medium's ability to hold water.

I generally add one part perlite to three parts soil. If the soil that cannabis is growing in is allowed to become waterlogged and stay that way, the plants will quickly begin to suffer. It does best in a medium that has good drainage. Water it thoroughly, then allow it to dry out (not "bone dry so that the plant goes all crunchy," lol, just dry) before watering again. You'll get a feel for it; lift a container after a good watering, then wait until the plant just starts to droop and weigh it again (with your hands, no need for scales). Afterwards, you'll probably be able to tell by regularly checking the weight when it's getting pretty dry and should be able to time your watering so that the plant doesn't droop next time. But if it does, it's no big deal as long as it doesn't happen on the first evening of your four-day trip out of town or something.



It's not a 600-watt device. That's just marketing-speak (in other words, a f*cking lie), like "we're hear to help you," "the customer always comes first," "your satisfaction is more important to us than your money," "sure, I'll pull it out," et cetera. What is the actual model name/number of your LED panel? With that, one of us should be able to do a web-search and figure it out for you, if you can't find out by reading the product's specifications. For example, (if I remember correctly), an ECO 600 is a 235-watt device.



Well... no. Don't believe everything you hear or read, lol. Consider: You've just stated that your LED product is equivalent to a 1Kw HID, and that you have it in a four square foot space. If that was true, you could replace it with a 1,000-watt HPS and you wouldn't crisp your plants. But I'm guessing that 250 watts per square foot of intense light would do that for you chop chop .

It's just an underhanded way to sell product to the newbies, plain and simple. Which does not automatically mean that any given product that is advertised this way is sh!t, only that the people tasked with writing the ad copy, product descriptions, et cetera are... well, not the kind of people you'd ever want to loan $100 to, because they might end up handing you $37.50 and telling you that it's equivalent to a C-note, and then you'd have to explain (by demonstration) that denting their skull with a crowbar is equivalent to you stating that you do not agree with their non-math. And vegetables aren't much for earning wages, so you'd still not get the money back, probably.

Well when my lights come in I can do a little test... I’ll read the amps it draws and multiply it by the voltage 110* and that will give me the actual wattage. Guess perk of being electrician come in handy to when growing that you so much for this useful bit of information!! I attached a chart for the light I’ve bought. They suggested a 2x4 tent for the light so hopefully all will be well!