my last grow was a hydro grow that i aborted early due to insufficient odor control indoors. i've started a new grow (and ordered an ozone generator) in soil this time, and wonder what you guys think about continuing to use my hydro ferts (general hydroponics flora ferts) for my soil grow instead of buying more stuff. i'm so tired of buying stuff i just want to use what i have, haha. anyway, are there any know problems with using hydro ferts for soil grows? any special instructions? i started fertilizing with 1/4 strength complete nutes + superthrive and have built up to normal strength (1 tsp from each of the 3 gen hydro bottles per gallon of water). now the plants are vegging, have cotyledons their first single bladed true leaves and are working on their first set of fan leaves. they are growing in 2 parts premiere pro mix bx, 1 part vermiculilte and 1 part perlite. they look plush and healthy right now, but they are just babies. i'm growing under CFLs and tentatively planned a quick sog grow due to restricted grow space. should i just keep on with the gen hydro nutes, increasing nutrient levels gradually unless i see signs of burn? or will i get far better results from some other simple nute change?
Hydro nutes are the way to go i have that stuff too never used it. Gotit given to me from a friend i use blue juice and then super bloom a and b and it works killer
Uh, ProMix BX is not soil- its growing medium. Just because it looks like soil doesn't mean anything. It is simply something for the roots to grow in. Promix is a nutrient-less hydroponics growing medium. That being said- I use ProMix HP which is basically the same stuff, just allows for better water drainage along with GH Flora nutrients and it works great. Sounds like by adding the perlite & vermiculite to the BX you are growing in something comparable to what I have. Go ahead and use the GH nutrients as you would in a hydro setup. The main difference between promix and other hydroponics mediums is it retains water pretty well so the plants will usually only need to be watered twice a week until mid-flowering, then they need water almost every day. I wait until I can stick my finger 1" into the medium without it being damp before watering. Plants are all in 3 gallon pots and take about 3/4 gallon of nutrient mix every 3 days.
I kind of knew some of what you say about soil/growing medium already but didn't use the right term. Sorry for the confusion on terms and thank you for sharing your experience. I've not grown this way before though, so your advice is invaluable. I plan for the final planters to be 3 gal grow bags so it really does sound like we're doing about the same grow method haha. right now they are still seedlings working on their first full fan leaves in 16 oz cups so they don't require quite as much water. we'll see where i get to in about 3 months i guess can you tell me more about your nutrient schedule? or do you use the same strength/mixture all the way through?
Start off small amounts i use a nute pen so i can get it pretty exact what i used to do was find out how much you can feed them just before they will get burnt theres the optimum. in my opinion who really knows though. When they are little small doses and when they get bigger/stronger start giving them more. then switch to super bloom a and b during flowering first flower feed heavy dose all the way through until 2 weeks from harvest then straight ph adjusted water. and i forgot always give them secondary nutes like calcium and shit like that a micronute from General hydroponics hope that helps. Thats what i do but i dont use gh except for the micro one
Starting off in small cups is fine, but get your plants into a larger size pot (max. 1 gal) ASAP. Once my clones root they are only in small pots (6" square Magnum pots) for 7-10 days and by the time I transplant them into 3 gallon pots the roots have already formed a nice cluster. Trust me- the sooner you can get your plants into a bigger pot, the better. Nothing hurts your yield more than transplanting after the roots have already formed a tight cluster. If you are growing from seed obviously you have an extra few weeks of veg, but once your plants are 6" tall and start to get a little bushy, they need bigger pots. I find Promix to be a great medium for beginners because it doesn't need to be constantly watered like other hydro mediums and it is fairly inexpensive. My biggest problem when I started was resisting the urge to over-water. The promix will drain pretty quickly, but it stays saturated with water for a while, especially the BX which is specially formulated for water retention. Again, make sure you wait until the pot dries up about 60-70% before watering. You will get used to it after a couple cycles. The first two weeks my plants are in 3 gallon pots they hardly use any water because the roots have not filled out the pot yet, so at that point they only get water once a week, or as necessary. Here is the condensed version of my grow cycle (32 plants.) Using this cycle I have yielded as high as 2.5oz per plant: VEG- Week 1- T5 lights, 2' x 4' area, 6" magnum pots (6" square), 24/0 light cycle, PPM: ~650 Week 2- 1- 1000W MH, 4' x 4' area, 3 gallon pots, 24/0, PPM: ~900 BLOOM- (4' x 8' area, 3 gallon pots, 12/12 light cycle) Week 3- 1- 1000W MH & 2- 600W HPS, PM: ~1100 Week 4- 1- 1000W MH & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~1200 Week 5- 1- 1000W HPS & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~1400 Week 6- 1- 1000W HPS & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~1600 Week 7- 1- 1000W HPS & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~1700 Week 8- 1- 1000W HPS & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~1600 FLUSH- (4' x 8' area, 3 gallon pots, 12/12 light cycle) Week 9- 1- 1000W HPS & 2- 600W HPS, PPM: ~500 During flush I use strait water and Fox Farm Big Bloom. The Big Bloom is 100% organic and using it during flush tends to give the buds a nice aroma and flavor. It also gives the plants a little something to live off while you flush away all their chemical nutrients. Check out http://www.generalhydroponics.com/genhydro_US/feeding_schedule.html for general hydros feeding schedule. It is a good starting point. If you are interested I can break down my feeding schedule on a weekly basis and post it here. I use mostly Advanced Nutrients, but I used to use GH. The GH works fine, but you can squeeze a bit more from the same harvest with the AN.
wow, thanks for that info. looks like you never flush till the last two weeks unless there's a case of nutrient burn. that was something else i wondered, whether to flush periodically anyway or not... i'm gonna get going with what i have and i'll transplant before the plant gets as tall as the cup (probably in the next week or so). from there we'll see how my nutrient schedule goes, i might try increasing the dose a little when they're a little bigger and stronger. i'll ask more about the other nutrients mentioned when i get a little further along with this though i think.