Would love to hear some feed from anyone who has used FoxFarm lineup in a hydroelectric system. I’ve been wrestling with deficiencies. Especially when raising PPMs. My ladies are in week 4, and I’m still just south of 1000 PPMs. That’s about half strength. I’ve added in CalMag, which seems like a must for every Rez change. I thought I had it balanced. Went to 1200 PPMs, and got yellowing in the main veins of leaves. I just added some magnesium, and diluted back down to 900 PPMs. Keeping PH between 5.5-6.0. Feeling a little on edge, and would really appreciate some good information on this subject. Thanks in advance
1000 ppm would fry my dwc plants. I never go above 450, and the plants thrive. Over feeding probably leads to the problems you're seeing.
I was also told to drop the BigBloom in it as well. I just flushed, and have to make the decision to either try that, or use the GH trio. I got a bunch of that stuff with bucket systems. It’s cheaper, and allot of people seem to like it. Decisions decisions....I’m in week 4 and can’t afford to mess with this much more. I’ll take your word on the lower PPMs, but that seems really low.
Fertilizer is a lot like sugar, where brand matters little. Use anything you want, and you'll be fine, but go easy. Greenleaf Megacrop is a 1-part fertilizer I use from start to finish with nothing else except a bit of calmag. JR Peters has some good cheap stuff. Go by total ppm, and ignore nute pusher feed charts. They want to maximize their bottom line, not the health of our plants. If reservoir ppm goes up, the plants are drinking more than eating, so back off on the fertilizer. If ppm goes down, the plants are eating more than they're drinking, so give them more food. It's easy to establish how much food to use doing this. Also, reservoir changes can be done far less frequently than is thought. Last grow I never changed mine, even once, and the plants were fine.
Very true about those feed charts! FoxFarm worked like a charm with coco. I actually have 4 in grow bags, to fill in some extra space I had. Those look great! I think that I finally figured the puzzle out, and I’ll know soon. The organic Big Bloom seems to be the culprit here. After examining closely, I don’t know why one would need it anyways. It also makes a mess in the Rez. So I cut that out. After I flushed, I mixed it up a little different. In bloom, the Grow Big Hydro and Tiger Bloom is the base. I went half strength. Added half strength Bembe, and Beastie Bloom....I’m in week 4....then full strength Hydroguard. PPMs came out at 1040, 1.4 EC, and I PH’d it at 5.6. First thing I noticed was I had to bring PH up, rather than down. After first feed this morning, PPMs came out at 1010, same EC and PH. Good sign right.....we shall see how it goes. I’ll update thread. I did a shit ton of research, and nowhere on the web does it mention the above. Absolutely ridiculous, if this is the fix. If it is, I hope that this thread helps someone else. I can’t take the credit though. Had a very knowledgeable brother fill me in, and yes his info was from hands on experience with this topic. Thank you for the info brother
It just occurred to me that you are probably on a 500 PPM scale, I’m on a 700. That would come out to 550ish, if it was converted. Plus co2 helps the plant to eat more, probably already know that. I was very busy yesterday, and those two details slipped my mind
Here's the master trick to a happy hydro grow mate... Keep the ppm dropping a little from day to day. Thats it. That's the big secret mate. Do that and you shouldn't really need to worry about anything. The pH will behave as best it can so you won't need to worry about that much iether. Post a full plant shot and I'll be able to tell you pretty accurately what the right strength is. Use the manufacturers schedule to get the ratios. They will always be pretty spot on, they just tell you to use way too much. First guy was right though, it's generally around 500ppm or 1ec for anything upto like a 5 ouncer. Bigger plants obviously need a bit more. To put it into perspective for you, the plant in my profile pic could only take over 1000ppm (2ec) for about 3 weeks in mid bloom. The rest of the time it was nowhere near it. Less is best mate. Hungry plants are easy to fix. Just feed em and they get better almost instantly. Over feed a plant though and just about anything can go wrong and look like something else.
For sure bro. I actually did have something going on. Once I fixed that, I had to get the PPMs right. Maxed out, 750PPMs. You threw a factor in that I never considered. I’m using bucket system. The brain has 15 minute incriminates. This is definitely a factor. 750 is 1/3 strength on the recommended dose. Definitely only a 1/4 in the transition. Max 1/4. This is the FoxFarm. I had to remove the Big Bloom. It’s sludge, and seems to not stay mixed well in the water, creating magnesium and iron deficiency. Only need the Grow Big Hydro base for veg. It has the macros. If anything, maybe some CalMag at same ratio. That did the trick, and also had seemed to control PH fluctuation. I don’t see myself going any higher. I got the FoxFarm flowering weekly powder, some Bembe that has the buds smelling ...it really came out now that they are more balanced. They went threw hell today. I hit em at 1050, no bueno. 750 twice ....because of what they went threw, note the ridges. Leaves are restoring color, shiny, leaves standing straight up. If the ridges stay like that another day or two, I’ll tone it down a little more. They are in the backside of week 4. Anytime before would definitely be 1/4 strength. Next round I’m going to transition with a mild 1/5. Then 1/4, 1/3....hold. I also have the Hydroguard in. Almost forgot. The organic root drench, and Bembe will be used at certain times. That’s the recipe for the Hydro using FoxFarm. Hydro version of Grow Big, drop that Big Bloom. It’s working fine with my moms in coco. Had to add CalMag