Lucas Formula

[screwdababylon!]

yes i think not feeding untill a 4 leaf set is a good idea
my new citral grow is showing that all thay need is some
good lights, temps, humidity and water
my tap water is 170 ppm and that works fine
but i still think that early veg (0-10 day) is faster in soil

i also learned that full strength lucas formula is awesome even with tap water
and there is no need to worry about over ferting like i did before
u just put a little less nutes to a tap water and thats it and ph is pretty stable

i love the lucas so far

[IMgreen]

it's kinda nice screwdababylon! isnt it?

Somebody here recommended I look into it and I am a fan!

This has been by far the easiest grow I have ever done

you should feed plants the concentrations of nutes to suit age

sure when they are young but not after that

lucas formula says it depends on the light they are under, not age at all (not even stage)

I vegged under cfl and flowering under hps with ppm numbers based on the light and it's working for me so far

makes sense to me cuz all it really says is light drives the plant, the more energy it gets the more food it can use

that doesn't mean you can take a seedling and throw it under hps at 1400 ppm and it'll be fine, but it does mean that if you can keep three numbers in check (ppm, ph and temp) you can grow nice weed without dumping the res and with one bottle of food

I kinda like that

[screwdababylon!]

hell yeah!!!!!

i found 1 strange thing about lucas
not shure if its me who coused it but anyway:

THE PPM IS RISING FEW DAYS AFTER MIXING A NEW SOLUTION
i just made a 870ppm water and three days after its 1050!!!!!!!!!!
and im toping with the tap water!!!
any ideas why could it be?

[IMgreen]

it aint you, my system does that too

try this to make it seem even more fucked up:

check your ppm right when the lights come on and then again after they have been on for the 12 hours, are they different?

Mine lowers under the lights, rises when lights are off and I dunno why

weird

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by screwdababylon!

hell yeah!!!!!

i found 1 strange thing about lucas
not shure if its me who coused it but anyway:

THE PPM IS RISING FEW DAYS AFTER MIXING A NEW SOLUTION
i just made a 870ppm water and three days after its 1050!!!!!!!!!!
and im toping with the tap water!!!
any ideas why could it be?

Whats your taps PPM,180?? Adding tap with some dissolved solids will increase the PPM but a PH change in the add back water can affect it too.

Originally Posted by IMgreen

it aint you, my system does that too

try this to make it seem even more fucked up:

check your ppm right when the lights come on and then again after they have been on for the 12 hours, are they different?

Mine lowers under the lights, rises when lights are off and I dunno why

weird

I'm thinking the solutions temps rise after the lights warm the plants and subsequently the solution changing the DO and thus the temporary PPM change,all just my theory though....lets ask Lucas!!

[IMgreen]

I'm thinking the solutions temps rise after the lights warm the plants and subsequently the solution changing the DO and thus the temporary PPM change

hey oci, you see ppm swings due to light schedule too? so this is normal for hydro?

somebody should ask, it kinda has me wondering but I gave up on trying to figure out the WHY and can live with "that's how it is for me"

I think you have a good point about res temps being related, makes sense to me though I doubt if DO level changes would read in ppm

(and here I thought I was DONE wondering WHY)

lol

[screwdababylon!]

good to hear its normal
ill just make it 100 ppm lower than i should do
in case it rises too much

i heard u about the tap add water
and its ph correction
YES A LOT OF PH DOWN INCREASES PPM TOO (IMO)

P

[IMgreen]

screwdababylon! did you find out where the upper limit of nutes is for your plants?

I am doing that right now. will push the food as high as I can until I burn the leaf tips, then will back it down a bit and keep it there for the rest of flowering

GL

[Dewave]

Lights or increased temps should have no effect on PPM levels. Now normal evaporation or increased evaporation with an airstone or plant uptake of water will and I suspect that is what is happening.

Dewave

[IMgreen]

tested the ppm from one of those mr clean auto dry guns and it brought it way way down!

25 is damn near nothin

I got about 8 gallons circulating in a 15 gallon drum for my next top offs

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by screwdababylon!

good to hear its normal
ill just make it 100 ppm lower than i should do
in case it rises too much

i heard u about the tap add water
and its ph correction
YES A LOT OF PH DOWN INCREASES PPM TOO (IMO)

P

Thats another reason why i went with R/O,VERY little PH down goes a LONG way thus keeping your PPM lower and keeping the amt. of unnecessary chemicals away from your plants.

Originally Posted by IMgreen

tested the ppm from one of those mr clean auto dry guns and it brought it way way down!

25 is damn near nothin

I got about 8 gallons circulating in a 15 gallon drum for my next top offs

Now let us know how many gal. of water one of those gadgets will keep it at 25 PPM.

[IMgreen]

Its amazing how much less ph adjusting stuff 0 ppm water uses. I found THAT out by adding too much and then scrambling to bring it back to normal

Now let us know how many gal. of water one of those gadgets will keep it at 25 PPM.

that is the kicker huh? as long as it gets me to the end of this flower cycle it's a win win

my water usage so far:

Filled the res with a garden hose, about 30 gallons at 250 ppm

added back about 22 gallons back to the system of which 15 was distilled, 7 was 250 ppm brita filtered tap water - none of the auto dry water yet

I had not figured that out yet, but here I am at 10 weeks on a res and I still have not replaced the water once!

That's kinda cool

I LOVE this hydro stuff!!

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by IMgreen

Its amazing how much less ph adjusting stuff 0 ppm water uses. I found THAT out by adding too much and then scrambling to bring it back to normal




that is the kicker huh? as long as it gets me to the end of this flower cycle it's a win win

my water usage so far:

Filled the res with a garden hose, about 30 gallons at 250 ppm

added back about 22 gallons back to the system of which 15 was distilled, 7 was 250 ppm brita filtered tap water - none of the auto dry water yet

I had not figured that out yet, but here I am at 10 weeks on a res and I still have not replaced the water once!

That's kinda cool

Did the same thing a few times getting used to the new R/O,depending on how much you add it can sometimes be better to just dump and start from scratch than adding even more chem. to bring it back up.

I use ANs Barricade for my PH up when needed,needed it more with the tap and now i find i use just a lil PH down to fix things.

[IMgreen]

what else does barricade do?

I am down to my last few ml of ph up

[ocitown]

Originally Posted by IMgreen

what else does barricade do?

I am down to my last few ml of ph up

ANs Barricade is a Potassium Silicate,I have read that it is used by ppl throughout their grow but as an adjunct to rase their PH,which is exactly what their bottle says and love the stuff.

A few drops to a few ml. can do the trick(depending on how the buffers are and the starting PH vs the required one.