GH 3 part system vs. lucas formula

I use a 1:1:1 ratio of GMB for veg, and the Lucas formula (0:1:2) for flowering. Works like a charm.

petrol420 said:

Let me ask you this snutter, did you actually have ph problems where your plant was suffering before you started to monitor your PH as closely as you do?

I ask this because I know how easy it is to get caught up in getting too paranoid about our plants and it takes the fun out of growing.

Do you not agree that in Hydro that you see problems pretty quickly but you could fix them pretty quickly as well?

I feel that if you have been growing your plant one way the whole time and it was doing fine but suddenly the plant started yellowing and wilting, then I would assume that there is a nutrient lockout due to a PH imbalance or a salt buildup in the medium that would require flushing. This would be a quick fix, then you could go back to playing Xbox or something.

I think when you're growing your own, it should be an enjoyable experience, unless it's for profit. When you try to monitor everything and make changes too quickly, I feel it takes the fun out of gardening and makes it feel as if you're at work.

I'll tell you what. GreenThumbSucker said it's obvious that I've never grown Hydro for which he is correct. So far, I've successfully finished a veg stage where I hardly monitored my PH level at all and the 2 mother plants that I grew came out great. I'm almost in the flowering stage because I'm waiting for 7 more cuttings to root. I'm going to continue my grow without monitoring the PH on an OCD level and at the end, which should be around January, I'll let you all know what problems I had during the flowering stage.

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Well, I didn't to sound like I was agreeing with his OCD assesment. I generally don't like name calling and smack talking on forums....It's a waste of time, and uncool!

Anyways, yes I did have a PH problem that affected my plants. The PH meter that I bought was reading on point high (i.e. a reading of 7.0 would really be an 8.0). This was causing nute lockout.

My 2nd problem I've encountered was I was given the wrong feeding instructions from a fellow grow friend. I corrected this by doing some reading on this site, the web, and joining the forums here.

As far as checking my PH levels, I check them once a day. If they are within +3 or +4 tenths of my target of 5.3, I don't mess with them. If so, I correct them. I'm definitely not paranoid about PH levels needing to be perfect at all times, hahha. I'm happy to hear that the system you've found works so well for you, bro!!! That's killer! If it works, don't fix it...

I agree with you about why to grow. I do it because I love it, and I love to smoke. It's been the greatest hobby I've ever had and I'm very much enjoying the experience, even if I do get a bit stressed out by my girls every now and then.

petrol420 said:

Let me ask you this snutter, did you actually have ph problems where your plant was suffering before you started to monitor your PH as closely as you do?

I ask this because I know how easy it is to get caught up in getting too paranoid about our plants and it takes the fun out of growing.

Do you not agree that in Hydro that you see problems pretty quickly but you could fix them pretty quickly as well?

I feel that if you have been growing your plant one way the whole time and it was doing fine but suddenly the plant started yellowing and wilting, then I would assume that there is a nutrient lockout due to a PH imbalance or a salt buildup in the medium that would require flushing. This would be a quick fix, then you could go back to playing Xbox or something.

I think when you're growing your own, it should be an enjoyable experience, unless it's for profit. When you try to monitor everything and make changes too quickly, I feel it takes the fun out of gardening and makes it feel as if you're at work.

I'll tell you what. GreenThumbSucker said it's obvious that I've never grown Hydro for which he is correct. So far, I've successfully finished a veg stage where I hardly monitored my PH level at all and the 2 mother plants that I grew came out great. I'm almost in the flowering stage because I'm waiting for 7 more cuttings to root. I'm going to continue my grow without monitoring the PH on an OCD level and at the end, which should be around January, I'll let you all know what problems I had during the flowering stage.

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A couple of observations:

1) You shouldn't give out poor advice to people on subjects about which you are unawares - anyone who's ever grown hydroponically (myself included) will tell you that pH is massively important, and the swings that you describe (from 5.5 to 7 in a day) would be horrendous - long story short, you need to monitor your pH and keep it in an acceptable range, unless you're so dialed in that you know your pH will never drift +/- .5 from your goal.

Case closed.

2) I don't think that being attentive and managing one's grow "takes the fun out of it" - the "fun" for me is growing the best weed possible, which unfortunately entails some time and effort - "if it was easy, everyone would do it".

3) Now, perhaps your "devil may care" attitude is a breakthrough and the next level in growing the best weed possible (I kinda doubt it, but I've been wrong before), but I would wait until you've harvested many (but for God's sake at least one) hydro crop before you begin dispensing advice to newbs who don't know any better.

Just my $.02.

snutter said:

Well, I didn't to sound like I was agreeing with his OCD assesment. I generally don't like name calling and smack talking on forums....It's a waste of time, and uncool!

Anyways, yes I did have a PH problem that affected my plants. The PH meter that I bought was reading on point high (i.e. a reading of 7.0 would really be an 8.0). This was causing nute lockout.

My 2nd problem I've encountered was I was given the wrong feeding instructions from a fellow grow friend. I corrected this by doing some reading on this site, the web, and joining the forums here.

As far as checking my PH levels, I check them once a day. If they are within +3 or +4 tenths of my target of 5.3, I don't mess with them. If so, I correct them. I'm definitely not paranoid about PH levels needing to be perfect at all times, hahha. I'm happy to hear that the system you've found works so well for you, bro!!! That's killer! If it works, don't fix it...

I agree with you about why to grow. I do it because I love it, and I love to smoke. It's been the greatest hobby I've ever had and I'm very much enjoying the experience, even if I do get a bit stressed out by my girls every now and then.

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I didn't mean any kind of insult by saying you or anybody else has OCD. Its just a terminology that me and my peers use all the time and we never mean any insult by it. I get all OCD at work sometimes because I enjoy my craft.

Anyways, peace dude.

Bob Smith said:

A couple of observations:

1) You shouldn't give out poor advice to people on subjects about which you are unawares - anyone who's ever grown hydroponically (myself included) will tell you that pH is massively important, and the swings that you describe (from 5.5 to 7 in a day) would be horrendous - long story short, you need to monitor your pH and keep it in an acceptable range, unless you're so dialed in that you know your pH will never drift +/- .5 from your goal.

Case closed.

2) I don't think that being attentive and managing one's grow "takes the fun out of it" - the "fun" for me is growing the best weed possible, which unfortunately entails some time and effort - "if it was easy, everyone would do it".

3) Now, perhaps your "devil may care" attitude is a breakthrough and the next level in growing the best weed possible (I kinda doubt it, but I've been wrong before), but I would wait until you've harvested many (but for God's sake at least one) hydro crop before you begin dispensing advice to newbs who don't know any better.

Just my $.02.

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Hey dude, no offense but you can't close the case if I hadn't had a chance to respond.

I do respect the fact that you may have however many grows under your belt but how is what I'm saying poor advice?

I'm not bragging or nothing but did you see my mother plant? I know this is my first hydro grow but before I got under way I prepared myself by reading what I needed to read. Also, I used common sense and stuff I learned from my mom a while ago about gardening because she loves to tend to her garden.

After I got my grow underway, I was waiting for my plant to tell me something was wrong with her but that never happened.

Why?

I think its because I followed proven instructions like the instructions on the back of my nutrient bottles and the instructions that came on the Grodan rockwool cubes.

I followed instructions to a T, waited for problems but none ever occurred. I do currently have 5 fully matured clones in flowering right now with some tiny flowers popping out. Again, I am following instructions and they are doing great. And again, I'm not monitoring my PH that much.

On the back of my nutrient bottle, it says to maintain the PH from 5.5 to 6.5 for best results. They don't zero in on a specific number and tell you that it HAS to be that certain number. They give a you range and as long as you're in that range, there's nothing to worry about.

What I'm trying to preach is mainly for new growers, not seasoned vets like yourself. I feel I'm a perfect example that if you follow proven instructions that everything will be fine. I see a lot of good info on this site but I also see some bad info on this site. The bad info causes new growers to freak out and get all antsy.

For instance, I saw a post where somebody posted a pic of their growbox. He was real proud of his modest grow box. It was really modest in that it was just a cardboard box and it only had like 2 CFLs. The dude lined the walls with aluminum foil and had 3 little plants growing in soil. He just wanted people's opinions on his grow. Some asshole said he NEEDED to rip the foil off the walls of the box and he either needs to paint it flat white or use mylar because of it's superior reflective properties. The dude responded by saying that he ripped off all the foil and that he's saving money to buy mylar. You know, the foil was fine, and cheap.

There are so many people insinuating that there are no alternatives.

Look, I'm just a lazy cat in a dog eat dog world and I'd imagine some of the stoners growing their own are like me. Growing a garden is a lot of hard work and I was trying to ease the pain for some peeps.

It just goes to show, It's not what you grow, its what you know.

Anyways, unless you have something else to say, I could now say:

case closed.

Peace, dude.

petrol420 said:

Hey dude, no offense but you can't close the case if I hadn't had a chance to respond.



On the back of my nutrient bottle, it says to maintain the PH from 5.5 to 6.5 for best results. They don't zero in on a specific number and tell you that it HAS to be that certain number. They give a you range and as long as you're in that range, there's nothing to worry about.


Peace, dude.

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Petrol,

That is a VERY GENERIC PH reference for general usage. It isn't marijuana SPECIFIC bro!!! Please read some of the other threads that talk about maintaining correct PH levels for hydroponic growing on this site. It will definitely help with your growing culture if you plan on continuing to grow hydroponic.

On another topic, my girls are back and kicking ass!!!! This is day two since I diagnosed and fixed my problem and I am already seeing new significant growth! I just couldn't be happier!! It was a LOT of hard work figuring out the prolems (running many different tests on each plant trying to figure it out), but it was worth it. The knowledge I gained is invaluable.

Here's a pic:

the plant on the left is one that is coming back from the brink of dieing. The one on the right used to look like the one on the left, but is making a great come back for me!!!

I'm really late to posting to this thread, but I'm going to for the benefit of the people that were arguing here, and for the benefit of those that come after like me that read this.

A) Chloramines, a more advanced form of chlorine, takes longer to break down, immensely longer, rendering the tired and true leaving it out overnight null and void. Because of the prolonged nature of their breakdown they will cause severe pH flux, I personally experienced this issue. There's a few ways to tackle it, firstly consider investing in RO, as chlorine filters, are less effective on chloramines, but they do remove quite a bit of it, and less means less of a problem. Secondly Wikipedia says "Chloramine can be removed from bathwater and birthing tubs by adding 1000 mg of vitamin C (as the ascorbic acid form) to a medium size bathtub (about 40 gallons of water)", so if you can acquire liquid vitamin c, you now have an idea of how much you should use for your particular reservoir.

B) Organics, when I started Hydro I used Liquid Karma, and Botanicae's Pure Blend Pro, both semi-organic nutrients and additives, this was at a point where I was dealing the chloramine issue my self, and until I had switched to RO water I didn't know this, but organics pH flux naturally, unlike chemical nutrients like GH, and Supernatural Brand in my personal experience which have pH buffering agents in them so that they will stabilize at the desired level. W/ organics you do not have this buffering, this is the reason pH fluxes. There was ways around this in organic hydro, though in my opinion it will be costly. Firstly one would need to acquire what is known as a fertigator, which is a device which provides features, like connecting to a water line, using a float valve to auto top off your reservoir, it has compartments for liquids, which can contain and dole out as needed, your nutrient, pH up and down, etc. The electric brain in the fertigators job is to monitor the user set pH, to top off the reservoir, add in the nutrients, and then adjust to the perfect pH. For me, this would be the only way I would do organic in hydro as it has a lot of headaches associated with it.

I can tell you in closing using RO w/ Lucas Formula and MaxiBloom 7 Grams per gallon RO, has thanks to GH's buffers lead to a rock solid pH, I can attest for Supernatural Brand also buffering out to the ideal hydroponic pH w/ minimal adjustments if at all.

In closing, I would like to suggest that those without, look into the ReefKeeper from Digital Aquatics and consider it as the brain of your grow room, I myself have a Nutradip Tri-meter EC version, and it has helped me tremendously with its constant monitoring abilities. If I could go back in time though, I would acquire a ReefKeeper as it has all the bells and whistles of far more expensive environmental controls for horticulture. Good luck and happy growing, I feel bad seeing all the people make the same mistakes I did, hopefully someone will save you from the trouble.

Another late post here but I just wanted to add that I use the Lucas Formula from beginning to end and have been having excellent results. Very easy to control pH and never and nute problems.

Peace

An even later response... Like 5 Years!

Monitoring pH is more thanks just nutrient uptake/lockout... PH can tell you all sorts of things about your plant and system... Ph flux can indicate mold, fungus, that your ambient temperature is too high or low, and what your plants are lacking or are receiving an abundance of... Coupled with the ec number, it's the most important thing to track in your hydro garden... I can get a plant to thrive at 90 degrees given the right Ph and soup additives... (not recommended, but doable)... check your numbers, ESPECIALLY when you think you know them...

Finally... The 2 liter dwc thing? Ph fluctuates much faster in a smaller bucket... I started using 20+ gallon reservoirs for root capacity but also to stabilize the Ph level....

A little late... But added my few bits... Happy growing!

lucas.