I have been using GH maxibloom on a RDWC system, the tips of the leaves get burned if the ppm goes above 550, not sure why this is happening, hopefully someone can help. indoor temps are between 65-84, water temp is 68. Thank you
I should also mention that i am using Lucas Formula as a guide which calls for 7G of the powder per gallon, I have to use less than 5 per gallon. I have tried different strains, sativas and indicas, they all do the same.
It's because when the nutrient strength is too high the solution tries to pull water from the plant via osmosis. This makes it hard for the plant to move water and nutrients around itself. This in turn causes extremities to die back due to lack of water and nutrients
Read the first post in this link, http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-growing/1198022-how-determine-what-your-plants-preferred-nutrient-strength.html it will explain how to maintain your nutrient strength. You will however have to forget about the lucas idea, this works on a completely different principle
Hi GoldGrower Thanks for the reply, I read your post, I can maintain the nutrient strenght, I have a 30G resevoir connected to my system, I just need to add food every 3 days, the problem is that if I try to go over 550 my plant burns, and I feel like I am not giving them enough food, I understand from what I have read that when the tips of the leaves burn its an accumulation of salts caused by overfeeding, which I shouldnt be doing since everybody else I read about is able to use a ppm of 800 up to 1200 with the nutrients I use..
Did you read the link I put up? Why would you try to go over 550? My method is all about matching the nutrient solution in the reservoir to what the plant is taking up. So if the plant is taking up 500ppm then that's what the reservoir should be, you don't want to go above otherwise it will slow things down. 1200ppm is a ridiculous figure and no plant would benefit from this. Around 600ppm is the maximum strength for most plants Lots of variables effect the strength of the solution the plants take up
Im shooting for a higher ppm because the formula that i am using calls for 7 grams per gallon which gives a ppm above 800, and i want to make sure I am giving them everything they need, i also have to mantaint he same nutrient streght during the entire grow, they never eat more than that.. My ppm meter is not on your table, i have HM digital meter, dont know if that makes any difference.
The ppm meter doesn't make any difference unless you want to compare the figure to other people's. My advice is forget about your grams per gallon, forget trying to keep the ppm the same throughout the grow, and just follow the guide I linked earlier. It's a very easy system to follow and you can be sure you are giving the plants exactly what they want
Simple. Let me word this differently. It doesn't matter what you "want" to feed your plants. It matters what they "want/need" for healthy growth. You may think 800 ppm will help them grow faster or larger when it will do just the opposite if what they "want/need" is 500 ppm. I agree with Gold 100% on this. Those guys running 1200 ppm rez is just ridiculous. Either they are hurting growth or just wasting nutes or both. I have found like GoldGrower says 500-650 is optimal range for just about every strain I have ever grown. I have gone up to like 780 to "push" things as much as I could, but only with really heavy feeding strains. Follow GoldGrowers guidelines and you can't fail.
Thanks guys, Im gonna follow your advice and not mess with them, Im on week 5 of 12/12. Gold grower, I saw on one of your posts recommend Ionic as a good one part nutrient, could you please tell me how many ml you use per gallon to get 500-600 ppm? Also are there any good powder nutrients you would recommend, I am not 100% happy with flavor with what i am using now. Thanks again
Yeah I love ionic grow and bloom. I have no idea what ml I use. I just glug in a bit, stir and test. In week 5 or 6 you will find the nutrient strength will need to drop progressively over the following weeks. I have never used a powdered hydro nutrient, I'd be concerned about it not fully dissolving
maybe Ill try it out, i was trying to figure out how much I would need for my current setup. The reason why I use powder is shipping costs. I actually notcied that today, ppm shot up to 570 and ph went down to 4.7 overnight. Another one of those things I read over and over again, that the plant will require more nutrients as you get closer to being done, I guess its not true either. Thanks again.
The plants using more nutrients is not the same as the plants taking up a stronger solution. It could just as likely be less water and the same amount of nutes. I find with my set up that plants from seedlings take up a progressively stronger solution as they mature. Until they get to around a foot tall and are in good health and growing fast. Around this time the nutrient strength they take up plateaus at about 1.2 EC. Then when it goes in to flower they get a growth spurt and they take up a slightly stronger solution of about 1.3 EC. this carries on for about 3 weeks and then goes back to about 1.2 EC For a couple of weeks. At around 5 weeks in they drop a little to 1.1 - 1.0 EC and then there's about a 0.1 - 0.2 EC drop each week roughly all the way to harvest.