5 plants 3 weeks into flower. 4 in soil and 1 hempy. ive been running gh flora trio at the full recommended dosage and calimagic. so far so good. i’m tempted to order the liquid and dry kool bloom. i know there are a lot of varying opinions on bloom boosters. so, does anybody want to talk me into or out of it? i will add that, although i respect organic methods, i want to continue using chemical fertilizers for this grow. i just don’t see the logic in completely switching up methods mid grow. Thanks!
I have about every GH product. I don't use flora grow anymore. I use flora micro/bloom for veg. I always add twice as much bloom as micro. If I add 2ml/micro I add 4ml/bloom. Look up the lucas formula. The other nutrient I use for veg is floranova bloom by itself. I prefer that for promix and I use more of the micro/bloom mix when I go DWC because floranova causes more deposits in DWC but works great in mediums like coco or promix. At flower I substitute liquid koolbloom for flora bloom. Liquid koolbloom is 0-10-10. It's roughly twice as strong as standard flora bloom (0-5-4) so you need half as much to reach the same NPK ratio with micro. With liquid koolbloom I feed equal amounts of micro and koolbloom. Liquid koolbloom is specially formulated for beginning flower stage. It has B vitamins among other additives that are different from standard bloom to help beginning flower stages. At about 5-6 weeks of flower depending on strain I will switch to dry koolbloom and slightly reduce my amount of micro. Dry koolboom is great for end flower bulking. Dry koolbloom is specially formulated for late flower stages. It helps switch the NPK ratio away from nitrogen in late flower to help start the curing process while letting the buds bulk as much as possible. I love it. I'm not a gh salesman by any means it's just the nutrient line I know best and use. It happens to also be probably the cheapest of the highly available brands out there if bought in bulk. Keep dry koolbloom below 3/8tsp/gallon. It's super strong and can easily burn a plant. Feed it light and often instead of strong. It's 2-45-28. 45% phosphorus. There's hardly another nutrient you can find that high. You barely need any.
If you go GH add florablend to your routine. I love that stuff. It's great by itself as a light nutrient for seedlings. The plants love it. It's all organic plant sourced ingredients including kelp for plant growth hormones. It's about $8 a quart.
So, considering i will be 4 weeks into flower by the time i would be getting anything delivered, would the liquid kool bloom be a waste since you advise switching to the dry at 5 or 6 weeks into flower? i can always grab a bottle before the next grow. and if i were to switch to lucas formula and all hempy buckets next grow, you feel the flora micro and bloom would work better than the floranova? How else do you use the flora blend? the gh feed chart doesn’t recommend past early bloom. the idea of it as a stand-alone light nutrient is intriguing. would it be useful as a 1 step fert for keeping my clones healthy until they end up either in the tent or outside?
I feel that micro/bloom is cleaner for a hempy bucket. Floranova is like mud. When I do use it in my DWC buckets I have to make sure I water change in 7 days or I'll start to accumulate dark deposits. I can get a 1 gallon of micro or bloom locally for $28. A 1 gallon lasts a long ass time for a personal grow. Running lucas formula micro/bloom by the gallon costs like $30 a year for anything 4x4 bloom area and under. I use florablend start to finish. I use it in my clone machine once I get roots for a starter nutrient. The NPK ratio is roughly exactly the lucas formula ratio as well. 1-2-2. It doesn't have much additional NPK in later stages when you're using micro/bloom but it adds many micronutrients and various organic plant compounds that are missing in the standard pure chemical approach to hydro. I think it's a great addition to any routine and it's cheap. IMO it's one of the best things GH makes. Another thing I would recommend highly is GH florakleen for flush. It's highly effective and can give you a nice flush in 5 days that would take much longer with water alone. It's also quite cheap. I paid $7 for a quart and it's lasted me years since you only use it if you have a problem plant getting lockout or during flush. It hardly ever comes out of the cabinet but when you do need you're glad you have it.