LUCAS FORMULA - Hydroponic Grow Journal
- Thread starter GreenThumbSucker
- Start date
I want to thank you for taking the time to document your grow, Very helpful, for im sure alot of cabb users ! Thanks!
I do have a few qestions:
1 Do you run any air stones in your res tank?
2 do you elevate your buckets? so that it does not leave as much water in the bottom?
3 have you tried sure to grow (STG) inserts? whats your thoughts about STG? I hate dealing with the clay pellets...
4 have you tried to put air stones in the bottom of each buckets? your thoughts..
Thanks again!!
I do have a few qestions:
1 Do you run any air stones in your res tank?
2 do you elevate your buckets? so that it does not leave as much water in the bottom?
3 have you tried sure to grow (STG) inserts? whats your thoughts about STG? I hate dealing with the clay pellets...
4 have you tried to put air stones in the bottom of each buckets? your thoughts..
Thanks again!!
DopeyTripod
Member
just read the whole journal... GREAT read!!
very helpful.
you da man!
very helpful.
you da man!
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
I run one big airstone in the reservoir barrel. The barrel that comes with the system is about 3 1/2 feet tall so there is a 3 foot plume of bubbles coming up in the solution. This stirs it nicely.
I do not elevate my buckets. Only the very bottom half inch or so of the inside bucket touches the water that stays in the bottom. The buckets wick this up between floods. Several methods of growing use this type of wicking, hempy buckets for instance. A good amount of this gets used up by the plants between floods. The roots that come out of the bottom of the buckets are nice and white and healthy so I wouldnt worry about it. They seem to love it.
I have never tried sure to grow. I love hydroton but I hate cleaning it. I have always had good results with hydroton so I will stick with it.
There is no need for airstones at the bottom of the buckets. Hydroton holds lots of air between the pebbles, so the roots are plenty aerated.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Funny that you should ask. I am using potash+ on this run, along with the Lucas Formula. Potash plus adds some extra phosphorus but a lot of extra potassium. The NPK ratio is .7-4-11 so it has just a little nitrogen but provides extra multi-source phosphorus and a nice kick of potassium.
I have read a lot of literature on pot growing that states potassium (the 'K' in NPK) is just as important as P in bloom and that extra potassium during budding will increase bud size considerably. Im still running at 1300 PPM but 100 PPM of that is Potash Plus. Im at 19 days now and the main difference is more a pronounced stretch. We will see what they look like in the end.
fatguyinaliitecoat
Member
What about the Technaflora Awesome Blossom that came with your kit?? Did you try it? It looks like the "P" and "K" levels are high without adding too much nitrogen (2-11-11). Just wondering.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
I havent used any of that Awesome Bloom stuff from the kit. I will probabally use it at some point.
I am more interested in the extra 'K' right now which is why I went with the potash plus.
Thanks for the reply !
I also have a ebb&Gro. I have only completed 1 grow in it so far, but I have just started the second round with it. I had some problems first time around but still had a completion and not a bad harvest. The first round i did have problems with root rot. as soon as the plants developed roots down into the bottom bucket it appered. I did have an air stone in the rez tank at the time, I was able to hit them with some h202 and I put some small air stones in the bottom bucket, thinking that this might be the problem with the roots sitting in that left over water after the flood cycle. The plants did recover shortly after that and havent had the problem since.
This was really my first exsperance with the lovely clay rocks.. Yuck! they are just a pain! So, This time around I thought I would try the Sure to Grow media, Just so easy... I couldnt resist. about 2lb VS. 100+lb of rocks? right up my lazy ass Stoner alley! anyway i thought i would make some other mods. to the system wile i was at it. So I said Im gona make sure theres some air to those roots and put a 4" round air stone in the bottom of each of those buckets! and did.. with a nice big air pump and a 12 valve manifiold. I also decided to place each bucket on a 1" peice of insulation foam. Now with this STG I was also worried that the light might shine down thru it and start the algee going so I had some old peices of kork board and cut round discs that will fit in the bucket on top of the STG insert to block the light, also coverd them with white plastic to relect the light.. sure that will do a buch HA.. Anyway I just put some newly rooted clones in there about 11 days ago. just bumped the nutz to 600PPM and there starting to get there first growth spurt. I orderd the STG inserts awile ago and could not find any reveiws on them at the time. now I have come acrossed a few comments about them. first of all they seem to compress an 1"or 2" after they get good and wet. wich i had read. and they do seem to retain alot of water. I think they will be fine with a tweak here and there. To early to know what problems down the road will bring at this point. Now I will say, that with the big air stones in the buckets that..hu, I did make a mess in the room the first few floods cycles, there is enogh air in there to lift the top buckets up and spurt water all over hell ! HAAHa! luckly I had put a control valve on each air line so i could turn it down some. But I really think its mainly because the air dosent move thru the STG quickly enough for it to escape out the top so the air builds up under the top bucket untill it lifts it up, and blurp.Blurp.. it comes out the side along with some water. I dont think this would be a problem with the rocks. The last round i could clear back the top layer of rocks and see the nice little bubbles poping around in the rocks from the small air stones. Im sure this is much better. but Im determend to make this STG work. I think they all ready have some 1" cubes that you use to just fill your bucket up with. maybe it will be the way to go. ether way im gona back out on the rocks for awile. or a least till I know the STG dosent work. We shall See.. O and I am also useing the Lucus formula, this time and past grow. seems to work just fine...
Let us all know how you like the POTASH and thanks again!
I also have a ebb&Gro. I have only completed 1 grow in it so far, but I have just started the second round with it. I had some problems first time around but still had a completion and not a bad harvest. The first round i did have problems with root rot. as soon as the plants developed roots down into the bottom bucket it appered. I did have an air stone in the rez tank at the time, I was able to hit them with some h202 and I put some small air stones in the bottom bucket, thinking that this might be the problem with the roots sitting in that left over water after the flood cycle. The plants did recover shortly after that and havent had the problem since.
This was really my first exsperance with the lovely clay rocks.. Yuck! they are just a pain! So, This time around I thought I would try the Sure to Grow media, Just so easy... I couldnt resist. about 2lb VS. 100+lb of rocks? right up my lazy ass Stoner alley! anyway i thought i would make some other mods. to the system wile i was at it. So I said Im gona make sure theres some air to those roots and put a 4" round air stone in the bottom of each of those buckets! and did.. with a nice big air pump and a 12 valve manifiold. I also decided to place each bucket on a 1" peice of insulation foam. Now with this STG I was also worried that the light might shine down thru it and start the algee going so I had some old peices of kork board and cut round discs that will fit in the bucket on top of the STG insert to block the light, also coverd them with white plastic to relect the light.. sure that will do a buch HA.. Anyway I just put some newly rooted clones in there about 11 days ago. just bumped the nutz to 600PPM and there starting to get there first growth spurt. I orderd the STG inserts awile ago and could not find any reveiws on them at the time. now I have come acrossed a few comments about them. first of all they seem to compress an 1"or 2" after they get good and wet. wich i had read. and they do seem to retain alot of water. I think they will be fine with a tweak here and there. To early to know what problems down the road will bring at this point. Now I will say, that with the big air stones in the buckets that..hu, I did make a mess in the room the first few floods cycles, there is enogh air in there to lift the top buckets up and spurt water all over hell ! HAAHa! luckly I had put a control valve on each air line so i could turn it down some. But I really think its mainly because the air dosent move thru the STG quickly enough for it to escape out the top so the air builds up under the top bucket untill it lifts it up, and blurp.Blurp.. it comes out the side along with some water. I dont think this would be a problem with the rocks. The last round i could clear back the top layer of rocks and see the nice little bubbles poping around in the rocks from the small air stones. Im sure this is much better. but Im determend to make this STG work. I think they all ready have some 1" cubes that you use to just fill your bucket up with. maybe it will be the way to go. ether way im gona back out on the rocks for awile. or a least till I know the STG dosent work. We shall See.. O and I am also useing the Lucus formula, this time and past grow. seems to work just fine...
Let us all know how you like the POTASH and thanks again!
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Keep us posted on how the STG works out. I have never had root rot but I use a lot of H2O2 so it isnt an issue. Ive never grown in anything other than hydroton and yes, it is a bitch to deal with. Hard to clean, lotta work.
I dont find alot of time to post, but i will update when i can. i can tell you that the rez tank, control bucket, is SO much cleaner with the STG. If it stays like this thur out the grow.. then clean up for the next crop will be a snap. flush good and should be ready to roll again. no unhooking everything and hand washing. Hey we can alway dream!
testing flood level and air stone in pic.
what do you think about flood times? Im wondering if i couldn't flood alot more often with this much airation in the buckets? like a 15min every hr. about the same as a bubble ponics now.. currantly im only flooding twice a day
testing flood level and air stone in pic.
what do you think about flood times? Im wondering if i couldn't flood alot more often with this much airation in the buckets? like a 15min every hr. about the same as a bubble ponics now.. currantly im only flooding twice a day
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Well I found out what using a blossom booster with Lucas does. It locks out some unknown trace nutrient. The oldest shade leaves on the Blueberries are turning yellow between the veins, and it is spreading upward on the oldest shaders.
I did a half change out of the reservoir, actually a 2/3 change out. Pumped out roughly 2/3 of the reservoir and refilled it and just added Lucas. My reservoir change day is not for three more days and I didnt feel like going through all the cleaning with a full change out.
Interesting...........was thinking of going with Atami's Bloombastic as an additive for this round, but remember reading specifically in the "Ask Lucas" thread numerous times that additives are not only not beneficial, but they're actually harmful because Lucas has everything your plant needs already.
Greenthumb, did you ever try vegging with Lucas, or have you always run the 3-2-1 formula? If the former, why did you stop?
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Ive never vegged with Lucas. I still have about a half gallon of the grow lying around and will do the 3-2-1 until it is gone, then I might give lucas a shot on vegetative. Just seems a lot of P for vegetative stage.
I am using the lucas fomula during veg and it seems to work just fine. Now, I dont have alot of exsperance, and I started with the lucus fomula so i have nothing to compare it with. veg and flower r the same mix.. 1part micro 2 parts bloom, just a bit stronger mix for bloom.
So if you do try the lucas for veg next round, Please let us know your results.
So if you do try the lucas for veg next round, Please let us know your results.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
Hey, if you can upload any pics of your girls vegging using the Lucas Formula we would all like to see them. We love pictures!
I used Lucas for vegging for the grow I just completed; no complaints, and no deficiencies that I noticed.
That being said, I think I might go back to using the flora line instead of the nova line - the nova is just so damn thick and heavy that I get worried about it settling on the bottom of my reservoir.
Also going to be changing my rez every two weeks this grow, so the savings from using the flora line aren't gonna be too bad, either.
Also, when I get my new setup up and running (a few months, gonna be 4 600s covering 4 3x3 trays, running off of two reservoirs for experimentation purposes, two trays per 70 gallon reservoir), I'm gonna do some comparison grows/experiments, and one of them will be vegging with Lucas vs. GH's recommended vegging formulation.
GreenThumbSucker
Well-Known Member
One thing about waiting between change outs: I started having deficiencies at about two weeks on my first ebb and grow crop. If you see any discoloration or weird growth, change out the res immediately.
You should do a journal on your next grow.