I read that in veg (0-5-10) your ppm should be around 830 & flower (0-8-16) ppm 1300. i think that's is correct. can any one agree or correct me. my problem is when i mix my nutes (in flowering) my ppm is only 1000 i use spring water with a ppm of 350. it is remaining pretty steady. i have nutradrip tri-meter to monitor my rex. i'm wondering if i should up my dose. maybe to (0-9-18) any with experience with lucas please help. or is 1000 ppm good enough? thanks Oh yeah. ph-6.0
hows your tap over there, im just a little north and tap here is 10ppm 350ppm sounds high, have you ever tried something lower Edit: what is the conversion on your ec meter?
[FONT="]Is your meter a 0.5 or 0.7 conversion? How much of what kind of nutes did you add to how much water? It's better to underfeed than overfeed. Different strains like different amounts of nutes. Start off light and work your way up. [/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT][FONT="] [/FONT]
my tap water is good. it's all natural spring water. conversion is .7. nutes for lucas are GH flora micro and flora bloom. 0-5-10 means 0 ml. grow, 5 ml. micro, 10 ml. bloom per gallon of water. after a couple days my ppm is up around 1200 now. still not the target but better. thanks guys.
My tap is decent. ppm of 350. still kinda high for lucas. i haven't tried anything lower, like RO, 0 ppm. i want an RO system eventually. my conversion is .7 my ppm is 1200 with 0-8-16, ph 6.0 rez temp 78 would 0-9-18 still be lucas? I think so. i'm thinking that will get my ppm to 1300. maybe i'll mix a gallon at that ratio and check it.
There is a great portable RO system that I got for 65 bucks from Purewaterclub do a google search get the 100gal day one.
So i found out my meter is the 202 model which is in .5 conversion. The 203 model is in .7 conversion. Now that that is clear, my ppm should be 947 at 0-8-16. It is at 1140 ppm. I'm sure it's because of the tap water having a high ppm. So, i need to lower my nutes to get closer to 950-1000. i think i'll try a mix of 0-7-14 and see what it reads. no need to over fert!
ppm for your tap is extremely high. I can't imagine having tap water that high. Lucas formula is based and built around using 0ppm water...your water is 350ppm it's not kinda high, it's very high for lucas formula. If you use anything other than what's instructed in the lucas formula than it's not the lucas formula anymore. It doesn't really matter though.
that's kinda what I was thinking, I'm looking at RO systems right now! Thanks. Do you think lowering my nutes (0-7-14) will help for now?
1000-1200 is a decent range, you want it as close to precise as possible, but not everyones lucas solution will come out the same. Whats important is that you have the nutrients in the proper ratios, and the numbers are within a range that are suitable for plants uptake. Getting a hold of RO will only help your situation, but what you have now does not sound bad at all. The only problem i see you having is maybe whatever is in your tap might prevent some of the nutes from being available to the plant. If you have that problem it will become self evident. I see you are Using DWC, its my personal experience with this technique that letting the PPM go a little bit outside of the intended ranges does not have much negative effect on the plant so long as its not ridiculously skewed to to low or too high. Considering that alot of these people that are running ADVANCED NUTRIENTS schedules, and end up with a solution somewhere between 2000 and 2300 with all the additives put in, and they still get decent results, then your pretty far from way too high. Just follow lucas formula as its given. I don't even have a PPM tester and i have not once had a problem Lucas makes it easy.
Words of wisdom man! Thanks. i used lucas on my last grow with no ppm meter and pulled 2 lbs off 4 plants. i'm probly worrying for no reason. Like you said, lucas makes it easy. + rep
I would say make an investment in Flora Micro (hard water) that's prettty much what the label says...I think. An RO system is nice but not everybody can afford one. Try switching to Flora micro for hard water and that should be fine. your current range of ppms is fine...most flowering plants can take a good 1000ish ppms. shit, I'm tryin to get mine a little bit higher since my plants look starved. I'm learning that the lucas formula is really only a base...I'm acutally gonna be switchin nutes up, as easy as lucas is, I think my plants need....more I guess. I dunno
Soap you are correct about lucas formula being a base, but calling it ONLY a base is slightly inaccurate IMHO. The main idea behind lucas formula is that its simple and complete. If used with RO there are no nutrients lacking. If you believe in "force feeding" if you will, then there are plenty of ways you can offer your plants more. Using flora micro is actually a good idea. It will probably get the PPM back down to a solid 1000(ish). In an old lucas thread( that i have yet to read all 100+pages of) He mentions that the micro for hard water will buffer your ph slower than the regular. This causes his ph to drop over time every time he ph corrected the solution before giving the solution time to stabilize on its own. Soap, may i ask what you think you need to give your plants more of ? Or maybe what is indicating this need for more to you?
Thanks guys. I think i will stick with what i got going on for now. my plants don't look like they are lacking anything and they don't look over fertilized either. I will eventually invest in an RO system so like southern said " their are no nutes lacking." As much other shit i've invested into i may as well get a good RO system. More toys! lol.
I knew somebody was gonna have somethin to say about that I was slightly on the drunk side when I was writing that. And I knew saying only a base was inaccurate as well, at the time I couldn't get my brain to think of anything else though, forgive my ignorance. You're right that it's not a base, the lucas formula can be used from start to finish if you want, without any variations, that's what makes it so great. As for what I think my plants need more of I have no idea....I'm using a variation of the lucas formula only for FloraNova bloom, I also add Floralicious plus with that. So technically it's not even the lucas formula anymore. As for what I think they need? I have no idea, they don't show signs of needing anything at all. My numbers are great. Everything is kosh. I just get this 'feeling' that they are asking for more not cause they need it but because they want it. It's like they are telepathically communicating to me "com'on, dude give us more, we can use more waaaaayyyy more, we'll get bigger" it's been driving me crazy. I'm probably gonna go to the store today and get some kool bloom or floranectar I can't decide which. Maybe both. For my next grow, I'm going with Canna nutes.
Floralicious plus is a great product I only added it to half my plants to see any difference and they looked 60% better then my other plants with only a 2 mil dose to 4 gallons.Too bad it's kind of pricey but it does work.
Hey bro, a good way to use the lucas formula in DWC systems is to dial it in to match what the plants are actually using. For example, when you first fill the reservoir, say with 950ppm solution, then a few days later when the water level has dropped, see if the tds has gone up or down BEFORE topping off the reservoir. If it has gone up, say now it is at 1200ppm, then the strength was too high to begin with. If it has dropped, say to 800ppm, then it could have been stronger to start. I know it sounds nuts, because one would assume that it should always rise since a lot of water has been absorbed and evaporated; however, that is not the case. If it is dialed in to what they are using, the reservoir could go down to just a couple inches deep (of course don't let this happen) and still be at the starting tds. This method eliminates any chance of lockouts when the tds gets to high and tends to diminish the need for flushing as often. Of course this method takes a bit more attention than just adding water each time you top off because nutrients will be added each time as well, but you have all of the right gear to perfect this (the tri-meter will be your best friend) and your plants will enjoy the fresh nutrients on a constant basis good luck bro! peace
What? If you ppms is going up than I would think you'd have some issues....most likely starting a lock-out maybe. My ppms has always gone down as the water level drops. The plants are intaking those nutrients as well as the water, so if you started with 1000ppms in 0ppm water is pretty much straight nutrient solution. As the plants intake that it will go down to maybe 500ppm, obviously not over night but a healthy ass marijuana plant could intake that in just 3 or 4 days. So um I'm sorry I have to disagree with what you're saying. One would assume that the number is going down...it's intaking the nutrients too not just water. There by making your ppms drop. And if it's rising than that's a bad sign. That would mean there's something in your solution that shouldn't be in there. Mind you, that even at 950ppm I would expect that to rise a little bit, but not 1200ppm, A little bit meaning the root ball and all it's nutes in the root system that didn't get drained will mix cause a little variation but shouldn't go to 1200ppm.