Hi guys.. I'm in my first hydro grow and this plant is looking killer compared to my previous three soil grows. Currently I am two weeks into flowering but I have noticed if I go 8 mL and 16 mL for the Lucas formula while adding 5 mL of Cal mag my ppm is approximately 1100-1150. According to this site and others flowering ppm calls for 1000 to 1600. I'm using Lucas formula because I'm new to growing and with this being my first hydro I wanted something extremely basic and simple. Should I be worried if my plant is kept around 950-900 ppm to avoid burning? Or should I keep it at full strength. Chemdawg vegged from seeding for 3 months Room temp 80-73 Rh 40-50 Ppm range 1000-800 currently around 850( changing nutes today) Ph 5.8-5.9 Using RO water base ppm 40-20 I hope I added all the right info if anything else is needed please let me know. Here is a pic of my pretty lady.. Ps she has doubled in size since switching to flowering. This was a practice plant for me as I was expecting a male so I have been trying different techniques to her.
Your right... I missed typed.. What about the ppms?? Should I be higher than the 900-1000?? I kept this plant to practice on.. Cropping LST anything I can try..
Ahh. Excellent then. I won't comment on the nutes. I'm a dirt guy. Hopefully you'll get some good tips from a resident hydro pro! Be kind. Perfect your craft. Give more than you take. We are family.
I wanted to practice on a plant because my soil grows produced flowers but I had all sorts of issues.. I'm shocked they produced flowers at all.. This time I wanted to "practice" this was the only seed that produced anything so I went for it. The only issue I have had so far was the burning at full strength. One other question.. Prior to flowering I kept it in the dark for 36 hrs. Was that a smart thing to do? Room was kept at 75-80 degrees RH was around 40-50% 10-15% of the fan leaves turned white or partly white(mainly the smaller leaves) while some turned a very dark green almost black.. Is that normal?? Or should I not keep it in total darkness?
That plant is covered in seeds so I'd say it's still pretty safe to say it's a male. Did you not see those on there? That's what a male looks like. Once you see it once, you'll always remember what it looks like. The female shoots out a pistol at about 8+ weeks of age. It will shoot out exactly in the center of where the stalk meets a stem/leaf. If it's a male, it will shot it's part NOT exactly in the center of the two but a little bit up the stem...away from the "v". You don't have to flower them typically to tell either. TWW
Can you provide a picture of the leaves that you are wondering about without your led lights on so people can see what is actually going on.
That ppm is ridiculously high, no wonder you are seeing overdose issues. I can't though, all I see is purple. Drop it down to 600-700 ppm. So you know that's a male? Why practice on a male when you could chuck it out, plant a new seed and practice on that instead? The good thing about practicing on females is that you get bud at the end. Check out this link How To Determine Your Plants Preferred Nutrient Strength for an easy way of maintaining your ppm at the perfect level
Listen to gold grower Your PPMs are way too high for week two of flower. I have found my best crops occurred when I kept PPMs way lower than nute manufacturers suggest. I barely passed 1000 PPMs and only in the last two weeks of bud. Remember different strains will react differently to nute strengths but it is way easier to increase PPMs than to fix issues caused by over strength nutes.
Thanks for the feedback.. Let me get to a few things first. When I put "my pretty ladies" that was a lapse on my part as I have only grown fem seeds.. During seedling, I planted 3-4 and this was the only one that took root. (This was the last of my free seeds. I have white widow left) I have ADHD so I stress if things aren't perfect. During my first 3 soil grows I never put nutes in and when I did I was not understanding what I was doing. I was trying to figure out and understanding what in the world I was doing.. At the end of flowering I may have had a few fan leaves left on the plant.. I had buds growing and touching my 1k HPS.. I ran my exhaust fan at full blast, I made more mistakes than I can list. But I learned a lot of what not to do.. To be completely honest I noticed it was a male 1-2 mins before I read my first response. Not because I wasn't looking it's because I was more interested in learning and experimenting with the plant.. Back to this plant.. Out of the 3-4 I started this one took root.. I was also starting a hydro grow (which I was about as clueless as I was doing soil) but I decided no matter what it comes out as I was going to go a few weeks into flowering to learn how to fill, drain, mix nutes and most of all learn from experience. During the beginning I was able to dial in my room temps, RH, air circulation and venting for vegging and flowering. I also practiced super cropping, repairing the damage when cropping, and I also was able to learn how to use a double trellis... Yes it sucks that it was a male but the lessons I learned where invaluable. This all seem basic.. And a clear sign on why I'm still posting in AB. I read your link gold and have a few questions.. First Lucas formula calls for a topping off with RO water only and your link tops it off with nutes. Does that have an effect? Also on your chart I notice 1.0 is around 650 ppm.. For me to get 650 ppm I would do 5ml calmag and half of what Lucas calls for 4-8 instead of 8-16.. I use Lucas+calmag because it is 3 things to worry about. And to learn with seems like it is a good place to start.. Are ppm levels universal in the since of as long as I have all the nutes the plant needs and keep the ppm at 650 the plant with thrive?
I'm not sure what you mean when you ask if it has an effect. My method shows you how to keep the ppm exactly where the plants prefer it. So when you top up with water, you need to adjust the ppm (because the ppm will drop from the added water). I only use 1 bottle so it makes things a lot simpler. If you have to mix in 3 different bottles, I recommend following the manufacturer's instructions as far as ratio is concerned. They know their product better than anyone, and my method to adjust the concentration won't be affected. I don't know what you mean about ppm being universal. Simply keeping it at 650 is not what I recommend because the plants needs change. . My method is a way of measuring what the plants are currently taking up, so you can match it. Whether this is 300ppm or 700ppm, it doesn't matter, you just adjust the reservoir to match what the plants are taking up. Doing it my way keeps the ppm correct at all times unlike the Lucas formula that teaches you to first overdose, and then add water to keep the ppm from getting out of control. It's all guesswork that is in my opinion completely unnecessary as measuring it is so easy. My way also allows you to do a lot fewer reservoir changes leading to a lot less wastage of nutrients
