Thats a good idea but I have to many hoses coming out of my buckets to fit in another bucket.. I tried that to bring my plants a little closer to my light but was like ohh duh. Ill adapt your idea into something though thanks! Maybe cut strips out of the bucket to accommodate my hoses. I gave it more thought last night and figured alot of the heat is bleeding through the hydroton. (I've got the ten inch net pot lids) Looks nicer and I split them in half and my bucket in half with some thick plastic so i can sex my plants without dealing with roots getting all tangled.
What do you think of this theory? AN says PH perfect will only work with there products, Most of the people I read posting about it thinks it makes sense but hear me out. How many times do you find out problems because of your ph? Everything in a grow effects ph. If they have enough buffers to fight things ph levels of root rot and nasty ass tap water. How would another Nuet line effect it? I'm going with GH bloom additives and sticking with AN 3 part ph perfect.
Then why stick with AN's 3 part?? I have been growing in hydroton for has to be 15-16yrs now, and IMO, from what I have seen, no matter what nutrients company you use, if you keep your plants happy, you're going to have perfect and stable pH... Of course there are other things which can cause pH swings, but if you've eliminated all outside contaminates, the plants is what effect pH, not the nutrients.... You could use a nutrients with VERY little pH buffers, keep the plants happy and your pH is going to be stable, no matter what medium you're using... Outside from the normal weekly .02 climb.. If you look at the two nutrient company's base lineup, they pretty much supply the plant with all the base elements.. Well outside of putting the different elements in differently within the G/M/B... GH puts the Calcium in the Micro and most of the Magnesium in the Grow.. Where AN is now putting both the Calcium and Magnesium in the Grow... Before in their older base, it all was in the Micro... AN did this "cup game" with the elements so you cannot do the Lucas Formula with their base... Because you must all three (G/M/B) to get the complete line of needed base elements... Point being, I have all three base nutrients here, AN's old, AN's new. and GH.. ALL the bottles have the same base elements, at almost the exact percentages.... The elements are just in different locations, like the example above with the Calcium and Magnesium... Now when we get into the secondary, that's where the ballgame completely changes... But IMO, AN is playing the cup game with the elements, just shuffled them around a little and called it a new product.... "YOU MUST USE THIS SET AMOUNT OF OUR PRODUCTS OR IT WILL NOT WORK".... Come on, AN is going to tell me if I'm using their "Hobbyist Level" say I do Supercropping, and I want to give my plants some silica, I have to buy their "Grand Master" level to get Rhino Skin or they will not guarantee what they claim in Perfect pH.... REALLY???? Ya OK.... IMHO, they are praying off the hydroponic growers which don't know better. All they are doing is adding a shit load of buffers to their base to cover up the real pH swing cause... Mix a fresh batch of nutrient and set the pH to 5.8, come back 6 months later and the pH is going to be a 5.8... So if the nutrient did not change the pH to be off, what did and why... Fix that and you will NEVER have pH issues no matter what nutrient you use... IMO, it's just that simple....
lol I'm sure it is that simple for someone that's been growing for 15yrs. I'm not new to this only been in hydro for a lil over a year. But ph is a bitch over here in my world. I rarely have plant problems but adding tiny amounts of ph up and down every other day (which is how it is for me..plant looks awesome but ph^ and down all the time) RO water...GH nuets...lovely plant great temps blah blah blah. Not now. I'm using Ph perfect and well...my ph is perfect. Your dead on with the whole Ya ok comment. How many things in a grow effect ph? Everything...pretty much. If it has the power to guarantee your ph will be perfect I'm sure adding different additives will not impact ph nearly as much as crazy plant issues.
Well if the res temps and environment is within spec., then you have a contamination some how... A while back I did a little experiment with bacteria (because good bacteria give off an acid when feeding), so I added a shit load into my res. and sure enough, pH dropped the next day dramatically... Now there is good and bad bacterial enzymes... The bad bacteria robs roots of the ability to in-taking some elements, even though the plants look happy, they are not and simply reacting.. So IMO by using pH Perfect, you're really hiding the real issue of the pH swing.. You do know RO does not kill bacteria, right??? Also I'm sure you know there is bacteria in both well and city water... I also had a problem once with them dam cheap ass air stones (the blue ones)... Put the stone in, pH climb over night, take it out, slight pH climb in a week... So again, IMHO, if you have a pH problem, you have an issue within your plants environment they are reacting too and by hiding it with pH buffers does not solve the issue, only covers it up...
Veg: Ionic grow, cal/mag32, bio root, s.o.s., mykos wettable powder Bloom: Ionic bloom, liquid/dry koolbloom, s.o.s.
I was using GH 3 part plus the extras they suggest in their nute calculator and had huge problems with the system. Burns at low ppm's and wild PH fluctuations A commercial grower buddy got me onto a system of 5 diff chemicals and a chelated mineral mix in a very specific ratio and in a specific order and I can now pound 1800 to 2000 ppm to my babies and can almost hear them growing (I was getting an inch growth per day during veg). Another friend on the same system has been experimenting with up to 3000 PPM with no bad effects so far. I have stopped checking the PH as it is ALWAYS between 5.8 and 6.0
Well is the a top secret or what??? Care to share, or is it one of them, "you could tell me, but then ya'd have to kill me after" type of secrets?? Cause I don't want to die yet...
It is definitely secret in my area but here is the list. Calcium Nitrate potassium sulfate potassium nitrate potassium phosphate Magnesium sulfate Chelated Micronutrients The (critical) ratios of each is something I don't even know as my buddy comes over to mix them to keep it top secret. They are dissolved one at a time in hot water in a 5 gal bucket and added in a specific order to the reservoir and then topped up with water until ~1900 PPM. We hit new clones with about 1000 PPM a week after they transplanted to their final grow pots and up it to 1800 to 2000 PPM a week later Veg and bud ratios are different and one of the main 5 chemicals is not used in the bud mix. After battling with commercial nutes and their associated problems this has been a miraculous thing for me to witness and use
GH Micro and Bloom H3ad formula for coco plus cal/mag. I run this formula because it seriously could not get any easier to grow massive plants. I run GH cause all the hype... I might branch out to try others though... I know this one works great! I make the same four gallons all the time and I don't even have to use my ph meter anymore due to the mix always being the same every time I make it. If you are having problems growing in coco, switch to this formula with ZERO additives and you will never look back!
[quote name='"deman81k"']I was using GH 3 part plus the extras they suggest in their nute calculator and had huge problems with the system. Burns at low ppm's and wild PH fluctuations A commercial grower buddy got me onto a system of 5 diff chemicals and a chelated mineral mix in a very specific ratio and in a specific order and I can now pound 1800 to 2000 ppm to my babies and can almost hear them growing (I was getting an inch growth per day during veg). Another friend on the same system has been experimenting with up to 3000 PPM with no bad effects so far. I have stopped checking the PH as it is ALWAYS between 5.8 and 6.0[/quote] Pics would be nice !
Ill take some new pics when the lights come back on. Link shows 2 week old pics http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-growing/964685-2nd-crop.html
84 Ya its hard to change..i am changing my whole system this year after 25 years doing it the same way...But you cant fight what is going on and the yields. I wish DEMAN could tell us the secret..sort of crappy coming on hear and teasing us like this ( he is a big cola tease...lol..) ...you're plants look great!
I'm running the GH maxi series, close to the lucas fomula. I've been told that low Ca and Mg can be a problem with this mix. I have hard water (580-600 ppm), but I don't use it to make late stage veg or bloom nute solutions. Sometimes when I can't go buy diH2O, we use the tap, I use it in between mixes to bring the reservoir volume up (with pH adjustment of course). I've felt guilty about it, but now I see that it can be a good thing, as it adds needed Ca and Mg. It would be dumb to buy cal/mag supplement, when I could just use some of my free hard water eh? I also believe in K.I.S.S. When I buy nutrients, I don't want to buy water.... it baffles me that people are paying for solutions. Give me the solid, I can make the solutions and pH adjust, and sing while I do it. Chemistry is fun. And I save $, and it is less hassle than managing all those liquid reagents.... how many bottles do you run on some of the solution lines? ~>8? ow! You need another closet just to store all your chemicals. F that. Reminds me of pre-mixed buffer packs that are sold to biologists to make buffer solutions, so they don't have to think and measure chemicals.
First crop is in using the feed I noted earlier. The first strain to dry (4 diff strains in this crop) has netted 16.5 oz from 3 plants (5.5 oz per plant) that grew to 3' to 4' tall and were finished exactly 6 weeks from changing to 12/12 lighting. The other strains look like they will yield similar results. Room 2 is 1.5 weeks from finishing and the yield looks like it will be better than the first room. Also I have basically retired my PH meter with this feed system as the PH NEVER changes from beginning to end of each reservoir fill. (weekly) This is the greatest system I have ever seen and is so simple to use and yields great results. Added a pic of the upcoming crop
im surprised that so many growers use AN and so few use FF i used to hear fox farms a lot and advanced nutes has only been availabe in the us for a short time interesting