Botanicare Nutrient Users

[crawlintbss]

Question for anyone using Botanicare :

I picked up the Pro Grow, Bloom and Calmag a few weeks ago.

The bottle and nutrient calculator on their website say to use with every watering. Is anyone else using it with ever watering?

I currrently have 4 girls going under a 400w hps and I have been doing just as the bottle says. Add to every watering. I was just curious what other users do as i see on RIU and any information that hte most common thing is water > feed > water > feed etc etc. I know some say to test and see how your plants react. I tried the watering every other and noticed 2 plants lower end where yellowing and wanted more N, so i started feeding with every watering.

Ive been using it with every watering lately and they are showing no signs of problems. Nice green growth with the fans showing nice color and no nitrogen tox. They are loving this bloom formula. Everyone is getting 20ml Bloom 5ml Calmag per watering. ( i went by the calculator setup on their site, not the bottle. bottle calls for a bit more )

With doing it every watering should i look at needing to flush once a week? I havnt done a full flush in about 3 weeks now as no one has been showing signs of needing it. I try not to mes with them much aside for checking light height and temps a few times a day, and check pot weight once a day. I only like to add / change routine when they show they need some kind of attention to.

Much love

 

[mike4c4]

I used it in the past and loved it. I did not do what the chart said i watered,watered fed and so on. the Botanicare is a 3 part mix. there is Base,grow that is used together. that may be the problem.
And i only flush once when i flip to flower.

 

[crawlintbss]

No one else? Still curious as to if anyone is constant feeding during every watering. My plants are still taking to it very well.

Also curious as to about how PH UP everyone is needing to use to get a good ph level. Im finding that once i add my nutes it drops from 6.3 to about 4.3 and its taking me roughly 50 drops of PH UP to get back up to the 6.5 range. Does that sound right? If i go PH just regular water, it takes like 2-5 drops to change. Im guessing the acidity of the nutes is causing me to need more UP to get the ph back up.

 

[az2000]

No one else? Still curious as to if anyone is constant feeding during every watering. My plants are still taking to it very well.

Also curious as to about how PH UP everyone is needing to use to get a good ph level. Im finding that once i add my nutes it drops from 6.3 to about 4.3 and its taking me roughly 50 drops of PH UP to get back up to the 6.5 range. Does that sound right? If i go PH just regular water, it takes like 2-5 drops to change. Im guessing the acidity of the nutes is causing me to need more UP to get the ph back up.

PH up is adding potassium to your nutrients. The companies don't show NPK values on ph up/down because it's not sold as a nutrient. But, it is.

The reason you have to add so much more ph up to nuted water is that the higher ppms act as a buffer. Pure water (RO, distilled) has virtually no ph because there are no buffers to hold a ph. (One drop of ph down in a gallon of RO water lowers the ph about 0.5.).

I still encourage you to cut your nutes by 50% and see how it goes. When I fed too strongly (and had acidic soil), I poured huge amounts of ph up into my mix. Additonally, I was pouring even more in to raise it even higher to 6.8 to help pull the soil higher. Looking back on it, that amount of phup should have been a strong indicator I was feeding too much. Now that I feed about 60% of what I used to, I use about 1/4 the ph up. (Even less when you consider how much I used to raise the ph higher than 6.5 to raise the soil's ph. The whole thing was a vicious cycle.).

 

[crawlintbss]

Interesting info. Thank you as always AZ! The buffer info explains it perfectly to me.

I will try cutting in half next go around. If i do cut in half should i continue at constant feed then since im cutting the amount? I was contemplating going to feed-water-feed-water etc. Im just more concerned as if it will be enough nutrients seeing as they are taking up the 1000ppm nutes no problem. Id hate to slow down bud production. I am on week 4 now of flowering with tons of buds going all over. I didnt get my botanicare grow nutes in time. I started feeding on week 4 of veg and all 4 plants started to mature and show girl sex that week by themselves under 24/0 so i then did 2 more feeds of grow, and then moved to bloom transition. So they didnt get very much N in the veg stage ( aside from what was in the soil ). Im just hoping it wont show N deff too soon.

you are right about the distilled and ph. 1 drop into regular untouched water was changing around .5 or so. ( i never knew about not using both up and down in same gallon, just learned that )

Thanks again!

Any other Botanicare users that care to chime in would be great. Still interested to know if anyone else is following Botanicare's instructions of constant feed during every watering. Would like to see some mixed reviews on what everyone does.

Much love!

 

[az2000]

When you say your plants liked 1000ppm, that's kinda like saying a parachutist enjoyed his jump -- leaving out the part about the chute not opening. Your soil turned acidic, most likely from overfeeding. The plants didn't like the lockout.

I agree, at this point (after the flush), it probably doesn't matter what you do from now till harvest. It took awhile for salt to build up. It will again. By the time it's a problem again you'll be near harvest, probably starting a 10-day water-only cleanse (probably advisable if you're overfeeding).

I'd strongly recommend feeding 50-70% next time and see how your plants do (both growth and soil ph). My guess is they'll grow just as well, and you won't have salt buildup. The plants will take what they need (like they've done this grow), but you won't be giving them more than they need (requiring a flush).

Fertilizer products are evidently different. When I used GH Flora 3-part, I knew when I fed too much because I got immediate nute burn. When I changed to a more soil-appropriate nutrient containing organic ingredients in addition to synthetics, I didn't get nute burn (much), but I got salt build up.

The only way to know is to try a grow (even if it's just one plant) at a lower amount. Or, just get used to flushing at transition. Some people do that. Just like they alternate feed/water. To me it seems like, why not give a constant amount, just what they need? I would do feed/water/feed if I wasn't comfortable feeding a constant (lessor) amount every feeding. But, I'd try to get the feed/water/feed amount down to where you don't need to flush in transition to flower.

 

[TheYokel]

I use PureBlendPro, CalMag, Hi-Brix, and Botanicare pH up (and yes, it has the nutrient analysis on it).

Most new strains I start out feeding every other watering and go up from there as they need it. After the third or fourth week of flower I might feed every watering, but that's only if I know the strain can take it. Easier to feed more than to un-feed.

And always water your plants enough to get a *good* run-off from the bottom of the pot/bag. Always.

Some strains, like some OGs, just don't feed very much, and can be easy to over-nute. If your plants are doing fine being fed every watering, then there's no harm other than the money in nutes if the plants aren't using it all.

Also, I grow in Happy Frog... and I literally never flush. Ever. Even when ripening off the last 2 weeks, I just cut down to 50% the 2nd to last week, and then pure water the last week. No way in hell I'm wasting 15 gallons of water on every 5 gallon pot, lol.

Botanicare is some good stuff...

 

[crawlintbss]

Thanks guys! Great information.

Yokel - Are you using the botanicare in the amounts they recommend or personal from experience?

One of the 3gals needs a watering tonite. Just got my ph calibration solution so im about to see how off my pen is. cause i feel it is, tho its only a month and half old.

This plant is the one with pretty much no problems at all, and hasnt given me any all grow, so im going to test the smaller dose. my chart calls for 30ml bloom 5ml calmag. Im gonna try out 15ml bloom but still keep the calmag at 5 for now due also using distilled. If she takes well, ill try a constant lower amount feed every watering.

Greatly appreciate all the advice and deffintely taking it into effect to see how she does! The other 3 got 30ml/5ml last night and are looking good. Going to check the soil ph when i go downstairs to feed the last one.

Thanks guys!

 

[TheYokel]

Thanks guys! Great information.

Yokel - Are you using the botanicare in the amounts they recommend or personal from experience?

One of the 3gals needs a watering tonite. Just got my ph calibration solution so im about to see how off my pen is. cause i feel it is, tho its only a month and half old.

This plant is the one with pretty much no problems at all, and hasnt given me any all grow, so im going to test the smaller dose. my chart calls for 30ml bloom 5ml calmag. Im gonna try out 15ml bloom but still keep the calmag at 5 for now due also using distilled. If she takes well, ill try a constant lower amount feed every watering.

Greatly appreciate all the advice and deffintely taking it into effect to see how she does! The other 3 got 30ml/5ml last night and are looking good. Going to check the soil ph when i go downstairs to feed the last one.

Thanks guys!

The highest dose they say to feed is 25ml Bloom and 3-5ml Cal-Mag in the peak of flower. Not sure what variety of Botanicare you are using, but PureBlendPro doesn't recommend that strong of a feeding.

I hardly ever go over 15ml Bloom, 5ml CalMag, and my molasses. But like I said, my OGs are light feeders.

Edit: just noticed you are referring to the Grow formula. I don't use any Grow other than on my mama bushes, and they only get 15ml every time I water along with the calmag and molasses.

On my clones/seedlings, I grow in Happy Frog and never really need to feed them until I go into flower anyways. I just pot them up if they need it.

 

[crawlintbss]

Thanks dude! Im refering to just PureBlendPro Bloom right now i guess. not using grow since thats past due.

Oddly my bottle is what is recommending it. I did a nute calculator on their site and that says 20ml peak.



Gave the 1 plant 15ml bloom/5ml calmag at 6.5ph. Gonna stick to that for now and see how it goes, and the rest will get the same.



Thanks guys!

 

[kmog33]

Get a tds meter and just mix for ppm. I use these in hydro and keep it around 700 when I was doing soil i think i hit them higher but its way easier and more trustworthy than trying to use the ratios on the bottle.

Sent from my LG-LS980 using Rollitup mobile app

 

[TheYokel]

Thanks dude! Im refering to just PureBlendPro Bloom right now i guess. not using grow since thats past due.

Oddly my bottle is what is recommending it. I did a nute calculator on their site and that says 20ml peak.

View attachment 3305746

Gave the 1 plant 15ml bloom/5ml calmag at 6.5ph. Gonna stick to that for now and see how it goes, and the rest will get the same.

View attachment 3305747

Thanks guys!

What's really weird is that my bottle says differently. I'm curious now... check the manufactured date on your bottle. I wonder if you have a newer/older ratio printed on yours.

Either way, I would never use 30ml per feeding in every watering with my OGs... that is way way overboard for my plants. A really hungry strain may be different... but I don't come anywhere near the feeding schedule printed on your bottle.

 

[TheYokel]

Also remember that if you are adding supplements, you need to account for the ratios. If you add in 5ml of a bloom booster, you may want to cut back the PBP by a few ml. Every set-up is different though.

 

[TheYokel]

@crawlintbss

I see the issue.

You bought the hydro formulae.

Read the top line on your bottle. "For use in hydroponic and soilless systems".

 

[crawlintbss]

Correct i did get the hydro version. Ive read that it works fine in soil mediums tho.

I didnt notice the soil formula until about a week ago when i was on their site. Gonna pick some up for the next go around but i think even on their site they said the hydro version was okay for soils.

 

[Dirtfree]

I have used Botanicare for over four years. I ran their feeding chart in the begining but found it to be excessive. I quickly learned to read my plants. I was running a RDWC system so signs of overfeeding were instantly noticable.
I used...
liquid karma- for bennifical bacteria. Used more than anything else.
Grow-
Bloom-
cal-mag
sillica
Tryed a few of the sweet addatives but never noticed a differance from when i didnt use them.
I would always flush for a few days before giving fresh nutes.

 

[TheYokel]

Correct i did get the hydro version. Ive read that it works fine in soil mediums tho.

I didnt notice the soil formula until about a week ago when i was on their site. Gonna pick some up for the next go around but i think even on their site they said the hydro version was okay for soils.

it'll work just fine. just don't keep up the 30ml every watering lol

 

[crawlintbss]

haha Yeah thanks. 1 plant got a 30ml water few days ago and no problematic signs so far. shes gonna get just a regular watering next tho.

Will continue at 15ml from now on and see how it goes!

 

[waterdawg]

I run hydro and just bought a gallon of power flower and added 2/3rds of recomended mix. Checked EC it was at like 2.4 , checked PH and it dropped to 2 . This all happens day before Im heading to Mexico so now Im down here trying to fix this by phone, PH is all over the board, add 5ml up and it goes upto 8 WTF. Last time I switch nutes day before leaving and possibly last to for botanicare.

 

[crawlintbss]

No problems with botanicare here. 5ml of ph up sounds like way to much dude. i go by drops not ml. 15ml bloom and 5ml cal mag drops my water to about 4.25ph before adding ph up.

@Yokel - Im going to take a trip to the grow store tomorrow since they are open only on weekdays and very short hours. I need more bloom food. should i continue with what i have, or switch to the botanicare soil bloom version? or best not to change half way thru and wait for next round?? I did notice the soil vs hydro has some different nutes #s.