General Hydroponics

[Smoky27]

Hey,

I'm doing DWC.

I have read many comments about ratios for the Flora series.

Many that said "only use half amounts" and other stuff.

I just did two decent grows using 1/2, 1/2, 1/2 - teaspoon per gal.

I recently saw that The official ratios were almost 6 times that.

Any DWC experienced growers opinion would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Treesomewanted77]

You’re good starting at half strength. Nutrient manufacturers schedules are crazy high and only want you to buy more.
If your EC/PPM is falling daily then plants are eating more than drinking so raise the dose a little till it holds steady. If it’s easing daily then lower the dose till it holds steady.

 

[Treesomewanted77]

Here is a good reference

 

[rkymtnman]

I just did two decent grows using 1/2, 1/2, 1/2 - teaspoon per gal.

I recently saw that The official ratios were almost 6 times tha

increasing EC isn't going to get your grow from decent to awesome if that's what you are asking.

1:1:1 is a good veg ratio. you could try Lucas formula for bloom if you want to: 1:2 micro/bloom ratio (no grow bottle)

 

[Smoky27]

Update:

Been using almost the recommended amounts since I first posted this thread.
There is a very noticeable difference in the plants health and growth rate.
I will go with full strength next feeding.

 

[OldMedUser]

I have about 50 DWC grows under my belt since 2001 and full strength will likely burn your plants.

I've used AN nutes for most of those grows but have tried GH and a few others over the years and never went full on any of them.

You should have an EC or TDS pen and feed according to the ppm/ec of your sol'n. Start clones at around 300 and work up from there as they get bigger. No need to change nutes during veg as the plants use very little and you can monitor their feeding levels by how much the ppm drops after topping up with plain water preferably RO or distilled so your tap water ppm isn't affecting your numbers tho that can be factored in if you're half ways handy with a calculator and have decent math skills.

For the old AN 3-part which is the same as the GH 3-part now I would start with 1ml/L of each and have around 300ppm then as that dropped I would fill up the tubs with RO, wait a bit until well mixed in from the airstones then check ppm and pH. Then I would just add small amounts of each nute using a syringe for accurate measure and a few drops of conc. sulphuric acid to drop the pH from around 6.2 to 5.4. 3 days later check again and it would be back to 6.2 and the ppm down a bit.

Then I ran out of my gallon jugs and bought the new pH Perfect 3-part and never checked pH again which saves a lot of work. Could go the whole grow and never change nutes and the plants grew fine. Good RO water is the key to making that work tho. Different formulation with these so had to adjust amounts to get the same results. Their Iguana 3-part is the same mix as the old 3-part but isn't pH Perfect.

Top part of that chart was missing so here's the whole one.



And the EC/PPM conversion chart so we're all talking the same language about nute strength. I have this one printed out for reference.



Good luck and good growing!

 

[Smoky27]

You most likely prevented the plants from burning.
I will keep with the amount I'm currently using.
It works.

Thanks for the info.

 

[OldMedUser]

You most likely prevented the plants from burning.
I will keep with the amount I'm currently using.
It works.

Thanks for the info.

Glad to help.

It's always better to have to add some because you're low that have to fix a screw-up from overfeeding and a lot of damage can be done before long term overfeeding shows itself unless it's so high burnt margins on the leaves give it away. If you keep it at a medium level and the plants are doing fine they usually won't do any better with lots more. Stay at that level unless you notice maybe some lower fan leaves begin to fade all across the surface of the leaves then bump up your ppm 10% or so.

A week before you flip to flower add some Bloom nutes and half a dose of bud booster. I've been using Big Bud since it was invented and hate to flower without it. You can go up to 50% higher ppm as once you flip the plants go into overdrive and a huge growth spurt. If you have any extra light this is when to use it. Higher temps and some CO2 will tweak performance to the max for the 3 weeks of stretch then I just go back to what I was doing in veg. I do switch feed to Lucas Formula style by not using Grow and half as much Micro as Bloom. That reduces N and tho you still want some too much can retard flowering. After the stretch feeding slows to what it was before the flip so high ppm is no longer needed nor wanted. After week 5 I'd just add some extra K and epsom salts for the Mg and S which is what bigger buds and resin glands need at that stage. P is overrated and too much will give that 'chem' taste when you smoke it later. Plants want lots of P during the stretch but need less after. Big Bud is 0-15-35, 10%S 20 amino acids with ascorbic and citric acids. Seems to work great and you don't need lots. I like the powder for longer shelf life.

I remember how amazed I was with the explosive growth you can get once the clones get some roots in the nutes and they take off with my first DWC grow and that was under 8 - T12, 40W fluoro tubes. Even better once I got a 400W MH and HPS.

A scan of a shitty instant film pic I took back in '01 with my first DWC grow. Tub on the right was just loaded with clones.



My first ever grow that got small buds from bag seed in '78. Farm dirt and sheep shit in 5gal pails. Also under T-12s. Didn't have a clue back then.

 

[Smoky27]

Do you use a cooler or bacteria?

TY.

 

[OldMedUser]

Do you use a cooler or bacteria?

TY.

Never used bacteria and saw a lot of good hydro grows ruined using them so always ran sterile using small amounts, (0.5ml/L), of 35% hydrogen peroxide twice a week for maintenance.

Then I made a DIY chiller from an old water cooler, small fountain pump and about 20ft of clear plastic tubing. Could keep the tub at 65 - 68F and stopped using the peroxide. Cost me all of $14 for the pump as I had the tubing and was gifted the cooler when the boss got a new one for the office.

 

[Smoky27]

That was a good score for $14.
I ended up getting a couple of these after several bouts with root rot - - my coolers

I got an Arduino that uses a couple temperature probes to control them.
Schedules the lights and sends the info (current temp, lights on or off ) to a web page that can monitor and control them.

Have a couple PH probes that stay in the water, but I'm having too many problems with them to be of use.

It is a giving hobby.

 

[OldMedUser]

That was a good score for $14.
I ended up getting a couple of these after several bouts with root rot - - my coolers

I got an Arduino that uses a couple temperature probes to control them.
Schedules the lights and sends the info (current temp, lights on or off ) to a web page that can monitor and control them.

Have a couple PH probes that stay in the water, but I'm having too many problems with them to be of use.

It is a giving hobby.

That cooler looks like the radiator setup in my desktop PC. What do those use to cool the nutes? If blowing room temp air thru you should have room temp nutes but I'm a retired chemist not a retired physicist.

I got an arduino and Raspberry Pi a year or so ago and just couldn't get into them much so sending it all to my 13 yo grandson for him to play with. Got the Arduino in a kit with 16 different little projects to learn on but didn't really use any. Got the Pi online and even got my Proton VPN installed and working on it. Got a Chromebook for him too but have to ship it all to the coast ASAP.

Scored a bunch of fly tying gear as I lost all my fur and feathers on the move up here in '01. Still have everything else tho and got a couple thou worth of those for $300. Was the guy's late dad's stuff but he wasn't into it. I'd rather go fishing.

 

[Smoky27]

The coolers have a Peltier plate near the top and cools the blue block that has has water pumped through it into tubing attached to a metal block that is in the bucket.

The coolers are outside the tent to keep the heat away

Never fly fished much but I have spent summers in the bush living on mushrooms and trout.