The Mega Crop Thread

[Hydroholic]

So I got my mega crop yesterday and my question is should I wait to start using it or go for it now.....my plants look green and healthy to me, they have been in fox farms ocean forest soil for 2 weeks now, should I wait untill they start to turn lighter green before using mega crop.

Those look nice and green and healthy. I would wait.

 

[ColonelBlake]

It looked like that only is accurate to whole grams. I have a old scale that weighs to 0.5G now.
I'm thinking 0.1 gram is needed to be more accurate than using a tsp?

I think you're right ( ml as well ). I usually mix up 50 gallons at a time ( 300g ), so getting to the tenth of a gram isn't a big deal for me. But I can see why it may be an issue if you're mixing a gallon or less.

 

[multiVortex]

During 3rd week of flower would it be a bad idea to use calmag thats 2-0-0 or 1-0-0 with straight ph water? Since theres no p or k present.

Interesting on your position for BE, i do remember reading a discussion with some that think BE works and others that dont believe in it.
Im kind of on the fence on it, even if its just using a bit to increase buds slightly i would go for it as bag is cheap for 500g which i know would lasts me years. I grow about 10 a year

I know a few others in this thread have tried it. Most have ended up with issues. IF one were to use it, and that's a big "if", then you wouldn't want to use more than 1g/gal and only for a couple weeks.

Personally, I wouldn't do it. Not much, if any, gain from it but you have a lot to lose if things go wrong. I can think of a current grower in this thread that is having issues while using this. Maybe it's the BE, maybe not. However I can see a lot of folks running the same, but without the BE, and nailing grow after grow.

Shed's example of LOS is excellent. The results people get with it speak for themselves, and they're not adding any boosters like BE.

IMO there is an established diet for these plants. That's nothing new. Feed them right, and they will thrive. I'm pretty sure ol' Mama Nature isn't adding BE into the rains that come down as fall approaches and the grows outside are flowering either. Effectively soil has X amount of nutrients in it, and that's that. We can amend as things are used up to help replenish the soil. But back to the LOS example, the put what the plant needs in the dirt, then water. That's that. They do on occasion feed the microbes in the soil to keep them happy and in turn keep them feeding the plants.

How does that relate to MC though? It's pretty simple. MC is quite similar to the nutrients in dirt, but we need to replenish frequently. However the ratios and amount of nutrients in the mix are what counts, and there is plenty to go around without the need for multiple products. It works, and works very well. If your plant shows a deficiency, just add a little more food.

Now this doesn't really cover where some grows need more calcium, magnesium, or both. That's not the nutrients, that's influenced by water source and lighting. MC "assumes" the water source has some calcium and magnesium, so they don't over do it in their mix.

And when @multiVortex says "Here is a general feeding schedule from @farside05 that works extremely well," it needs to be noted why farside has decided to modify his feeding with MegaCrop. He can explain it better than I can, but it begins with what he feels is an insufficient amount of silica in MC, not N, P, or K. The blend he makes is necessary because silica rides along with potassium, and to keep the NPK ratio he wants intact, he needs to add nitrogen to balance the mix. His schedule was not designed to add calcium or magnesium. It rides along with the nitrogen he seeks.

Yessir, you're correct. His foundation for his recipe (which he noted shortly after but I didn't want to burn up with another quote) is definitely for more silica. It just also happens to work for adding additional calmag as well (and dealing with the N:K ratio to keep it in check. )

I think you're right ( ml as well ). I usually mix up 50 gallons at a time ( 300g ), so getting to the tenth of a gram isn't a big deal for me. But I can see why it may be an issue if you're mixing a gallon or less.

I mix anywhere from a gallon to 50 gallons. I'm not really sweating over 1/10th of a gram either. Even with a gallon. I just add real slow until the scale tips to the mark I'm looking for. Now for the 300g mark, meh, 302g is close enough.

 

[bluter]

Wow, this thread grows faster than my plants!

I was battling PH dropping. Has kinda tapered off, not dropping near as fast. Have noticed that when I add the Heisenberg tea it aids in keeping the PH stable for a day or so. Think today I’m gonna take some time to learn what I can about managing my NPK levels, understanding the math behind what I’m adding. I understand that silica is a natural PH buffer, was thinking of adding silica blast to help with my PH, not wanting to throw off my NPK ratio.

I’m not seeing any drop in ppm levels as I would with flora nova bloom. I upped my ppm from 540-650 since I last posted here. I’m use to seeing a drop of 10-30 ppm (plants eating food) is that not going to happen with MC?

hi RD - seems this got missed in traffic lol

with the handle i am assuming you are hydro - have a look @farside05 's journal for using silica and cal-mag in balance with MC in hydro. @multiVortex is following the recipe and i see he's hanging about.

they can set you on the right path. strongly suggest you look at farside's schedule and adopt it. additives with MC can blow stuff up like nothing you've seen.

 

[Chris Scorpio]

hi RD - seems this got missed in traffic lol

with the handle i am assuming you are hydro - have a look @farside05 's journal for using silica and cal-mag in balance with MC in hydro. @multiVortex is following the recipe and i see he's hanging about.

they can set you on the right path. strongly suggest you look at farside's schedule and adopt it. additives with MC can blow stuff up like nothing you've seen.

I may look at this myself

For science sake of course

 

[bluter]

I may look at this myself

For science sake of course

@farside05 's got some amazing shit going on...

i can't find the time to get through all the journals.. barely updating mine lol

 

[Chris Scorpio]

@farside05 's got some amazing shit going on...

i can't find the time to get through all the journals.. barely updating mine lol

Totally relate

But I like paroosing a few regularly

 

[nivek]

If I don't I have undissolved CalMag. Caught some undissolved white one day and passed it to a buddy and he tested it, undissolved Cal and mag.

i would be extremely interested in seeing more info on this,, tested,,

quote"he tested it",,,,,, please expand this

 

[Rdwcfishing]

hi RD - seems this got missed in traffic lol

with the handle i am assuming you are hydro - have a look @farside05 's journal for using silica and cal-mag in balance with MC in hydro. @multiVortex is following the recipe and i see he's hanging about.

they can set you on the right path. strongly suggest you look at farside's schedule and adopt it. additives with MC can blow stuff up like nothing you've seen.

I’ll have a look, thanks. Yes I’m in hydro, posted a few pics at the bottom of page 162. Was just updating what’s going on and observations I made related to MC.

 

[Old Salt]

I have been at one heaping tsp/gallon since week three, I assumed that was 6G

I need to get a good scale accurate to 0.1 gram, any recommendations?

These are what I use:

Weight Measurement:

​

Scale	Typical Usage
50Kg X 10gm	water 2l - 20l for nutrient solutions
3Kg X 1gm	water 250ml - 2l for nutrient and chemical solutions, also larger harvests
500gm X 0.1gm	water 50ml - 250ml for chemical solutions, 50gm - 300gm harvests
100gm X 0.01gm	5 - 50 gm dry goods such as Mega Crop, Dry KoolBloom, buds
50gm X 0.001gm	anything less than 20gm (rosin, Dry KoolBloom, chemicals for STS)

Weigh Scales and Their Usage​

A full explanation can be found here.

​

 

[Rdwcfishing]

Anyone know of a good UVA/UVB thread they can link?

 

[multiVortex]

hi RD - seems this got missed in traffic lol

with the handle i am assuming you are hydro - have a look @farside05 's journal for using silica and cal-mag in balance with MC in hydro. @multiVortex is following the recipe and i see he's hanging about.

they can set you on the right path. strongly suggest you look at farside's schedule and adopt it. additives with MC can blow stuff up like nothing you've seen.

I missed it, yep. Thanks for the heads up.

Wow, this thread grows faster than my plants!

I was battling PH dropping. Has kinda tapered off, not dropping near as fast. Have noticed that when I add the Heisenberg tea it aids in keeping the PH stable for a day or so. Think today I’m gonna take some time to learn what I can about managing my NPK levels, understanding the math behind what I’m adding. I understand that silica is a natural PH buffer, was thinking of adding silica blast to help with my PH, not wanting to throw off my NPK ratio.

I’m not seeing any drop in ppm levels as I would with flora nova bloom. I upped my ppm from 540-650 since I last posted here. I’m use to seeing a drop of 10-30 ppm (plants eating food) is that not going to happen with MC?

With my RDWC, I am seeing a drop in ppm. I just flipped them yesterday. My setup is 50gal, and over the course of a week I'll see my ppm drop about that (on a 700 scale.) Now I don't feed by ppm or anything like that, but it's on my monitoring setup (Blue Lab Guardian) along with temp and pH. I can just as easily switch it to read the EC or TDS (500 scale.) With MegaCrop, you're not really concerned about the ppm in terms of it needs to be here or there. But I do understand tracking it to see progression and whether or not it's going down, steady, etc.

Managing NPK levels seems pretty perplexing from the start. Really though, it's just a little math. Somewhere in farside's journal he explains it. He may have even done so in this thread. Can't recall specifically where, but it was in the last month or so IIRC. The biggest thing to remember is to keep your N:K ratio under the 1:3 mark. (1 part nitrogen to 3 parts potassium.)

As was pointed out earlier, farside's schedule was based around his desire to add a little more silica to his grow. To balance that addition (which the product is labeled 0-0-3, but actually closer to 0-0-4) he uses calmag that is labeled as 2-0-0. If you have equal parts of each, the combined ratio becomes 2-0-4 (effectively, although by the bottle it would be 2-0-3) which then can be expressed as a ratio of 1:2 that is 1 part N to 2 parts K. (Technically 1.9 K, since IIRC the value is like 3.8 or something.) Either way, close enough for this purpose.

Silica will raise your pH. For my RDWC I've cut back the amount of silica (Dyna Grow Pro-TeKt, but there are others like Armor Si, etc) by half. So for every gram of MC, I add 1ml of calmag, and 0.5ml of protekt. This make the ratio closer to 1:1, which is fine for me. This lets me use less pH down, and causes less of a rise in my pH over the first 48 hours of a fresh mix. I will note that with silica, it will fight pH down a bit. You'll get it set right, and then the pH will rise a bit over the next day or two. Not a big deal. I pop 5ml of pH down when it gets to 6.2 and let it mix. Check again later, and do another 5ml if needed. As long as it's 5.8 to 6.2, I'm ok with that. On a full feed of MC at 6g/gal (I think I was closer to 6.1g/gal, but whatever), with 2ml/gal of protekt (100ml total), I initially used about 30ml of pH down (recommended dose on the bottle is 1ml per gal for every full point) to get it down to 5.7 from it's 7.3 starting point. The next day I added 5ml twice when it hit 6.1 to get it down to 5.8. Now it's sitting stable two days later at 6.0 which is fine.

When I tried using the full amount (per the schedule, not the bottle) I was using almost twice as much pH down, but still less than the pH down bottle said I would need. This is with RO water, for reference. When I first tried it with hydro, it wasn't good. Between my water source and the silica, it took an 8oz bottle to get it down and keep it there.

So if you're having issues with your pH dropping, silica may help.

The bigger concern is why is your pH dropping. It will naturally drift a bit, depending on if your plants are eating more and drinking less, or drinking more and eating less. There is a really good chart floating around that lists all the conditions and what is happening, along with pointing you where to look for a fix. Covers water level steady or falling, pH and ppm steady, rising, or falling.

Here's the chart:

According to this chart, if your ppm is not changing (static) and your pH is falling, you have 2 possibilities based on if your water level is going down or staying the same.

If your water level is staying the same, it says to look at media being rinsed at a lower pH (doubt it) or that too much CO2 is in the air being pumped into your water.

If your water level is falling, then it recommends for a static EC and falling pH to change your res. If your EC is above 1.4 (or 980 ppm) then lower your nutrient level. If your EC is under 1.0 (700 ppm) then add more nutrients.

But I like paroosing a few regularly

Translation: He likes laughing at me when I screw up.

 

[NewLedFarmer]

Those look nice and green and healthy. I would wait.

Ok I'll let it go another week or 2 or when they start to get lighter in color

 

[nivek]

ok,, regarding the incomplete dissolvation of the mega crop issue,, this one,,

(i never ever noticed the ability to adjust photo size when uploading pic,, cool)

i have read the posts from @bluter on the pro side and @Old Salt on the neg side and the mega crop emails from i forget who,, and i have concluded this,,

perhaps the email had a point when it said the product needs the full volume of water added 'before' it will fully dissolve

saturation of the original water volume 'could' be the culprit

does not fully answer saltys thot that he stirs beyond necessity, possibly,, but,,

worth pursuing further,,

so i will,, cheers

edit,, and, to add,, i have a small garbage pail where i mix my final volumes,, and, well, there is 'not' a lot of residue at the bottom,, near none actually,, tho i do empty and mix by pouring from one bucket to another often,, but,, thot i might see some residue,, mega crop test one i guess,, passed

edit 2,, must say i never once read the directions for use on the bag,, ha,, i don need no feakin derections,, ha

 

[bluter]

ok,, regarding the incomplete dissolvation of the mega crop issue,, this one,,

(i never ever noticed the ability to adjust photo size when uploading pic,, cool)

i have read the posts from @bluter on the pro side and @Old Salt on the neg side and the mega crop emails from i forget who,, and i have concluded this,,

perhaps the email had a point when it said the product needs the full volume of water added 'before' it will fully dissolve

saturation of the original water volume 'could' be the culprit

does not fully answer saltys thot that he stirs beyond necessity, possibly,, but,,

worth pursuing further,,

so i will,, cheers

how much is in that quart jar nivek ? wondering how much you were pre mixing to the amount of material it leaves

 

[multiVortex]

Ok I'll let it go another week or 2 or when they start to get lighter in color

Good plan. Just be sure to watch them. They'll tell you when that FFOF runs out of juice.

I haven't used it inside myself, but IIRC it has about 4 weeks worth of nutes in it to get the plants going. You could possibly start at 2g/gal after 3 weeks to compensate for depletion, but could just as easily wait another week and start at 3 or 4 g/gal.

Maybe on the next run give Happy Frog, Promix HP, or Sunshine #4 a try if you want to stay in that type of medium. Then you know exactly how much, and when from the start.

 

[nivek]

got another q for y'all,, this has nagged at me for years, gotta say. never read a definitive answer to this, or never looked,, one of those

something @Old Salt (i think) posted recently,, about the temp of his res,, being 70 or so when mixing and 60 or so when put to reservoir.

i have always been concerned that the water i water with is too cold,, in hempy,, which is hydro,, mostly

i know some folks even have to buy chillers to keep res temp down,, so

am i being unnecessarily paranoid about the temp of the water i water with?

,, and note i never use 'freezing' water

probably sixty degrees minimum ever

 

[nivek]

how much is in that quart jar nivek ? wondering how much you were pre mixing to the amount of material it leaves

great question,, and i feel kinda silly telling you how much is in there,, now that i am thinking deeper into all this

so i wont tell ya,, you will think less of me,,

ok, ya i will,, ha,, there is 12.7 grams of mega crap in there,, ha

 

[nivek]

ya know,, logic tells me there is no way that quart jar could be 'over saturated',, no way

that quart jar is 1/8th of the full volume of water,,

no way full volume would be that saturated at the end for 1/8th to be 'over' saturated,, nope,, logic says no

 

[bluter]

got another q for y'all,, this has nagged at me for years, gotta say. never read a definitive answer to this, or never looked,, one of those

something @Old Salt (i think) posted recently,, about the temp of his res,, being 70 or so when mixing and 60 or so when put to reservoir.

i have always been concerned that the water i water with is too cold,, in hempy,, which is hydro,, mostly

i know some folks even have to buy chillers to keep res temp down,, so

am i being unnecessarily paranoid about the temp of the water i water with?

,, and note i never use 'freezing' water

probably sixty degrees minimum ever

don't worry. have fed with some pretty cold water. colder than from the tap. it will inhibit some initial uptake, but for such a short period that it doesn't matter. some purposefully use colder water cause it carries more oxygen. so it can be beneficial.

great question,, and i feel kinda silly telling you how much is in there,, now that i am thinking deeper into all this

so i wont tell ya,, you will think less of me,,

ok, ya i will,, ha,, there is 12.7 grams of mega crap in there,, ha

that is a bunch. you were mixing for a fair sized res tho, correct ?
i'm wondering how it worked out once it hit the rest of the water. that is still a fair bit of material for 13g, even in a quart jar.