this is a question going out to anyone who uses the three part general hydroponics solutions. my last grow was comprimised due to a loss of power on one side and an over ferting of another. i have a side in my garden going on week 2 1/2 flower. up untill a few grows ago when i got my ec and ph meters, had been using the suggested dosage of fert. come to find out there a little on the stong side for mj. so for this grow i have been keeping the ph at a constant 5.7 to a maximum of 6.0. the ladies are looking great. they are by far the best i have grown so far for this time stage. for the new ratio mix i have been using i found a chart for gh by some dude named luca. he states that basicaly you dont even need the flora grow mix. just the micro and bloom. as i checked this out at the shop i buy supplies from, it seems to be correct. the micro supplys all the nitrogen the plant needs, but the grow has the most mag. in it of the three. so i though maybe i was burning them from the use of the flora grow. anyway lucas formula is as folows. from rooted clone veg with 1 tsp micro and 2 tsp bloom. flushing once a week for one day. fill nutrient the next day, filling res as needed to keep full, also keeping the ec level the same adding nutes as needed with fillups. at two week of 12 go to a 1 1/2 tsp micro and 3 1/4 blooom. using no grow. and a little little fulvic acid. well here it is two weeks and a few days in. and im starting to see those damned tips starting to turn brown again i just dont get it. dont get me wrong they dont look horrible, just like the very tips(1mm) but i know just as usual this will spread down the leaf and through the whole plant. ill harvest and itl be ok but not as good as it should. all along doing everything i can to stop it, with no luck. so for anyone sucessfully using gh to grow marijuana please share your three part ratio mix, please. im tired of burning plants before i get to smoke them.
hey Doc! Try this... Use the recommended ratio of 3-2-1 (grow/micro/bloom) for veg. Use it at 50-75% Then for the first 2 weeks of flower, Use the 1-2-3 ratio (g/m/b) at 50-75%. Then switch to the lucas formula of 0-8-16 (ratio of g/m/b). Again about 75% or so. Slowly increase the nutrients over the weeks until maximum TDS is reached. (You may never need to get there.) Also, a nice little tip for some fantastic tasting buds, cut the micro out 2 weeks before you flush. Also, GH has a feeding schedule on their website. The recommended ratios they provide really do equal the ppm readings they state. However, the ratios they give puts the solution at the high end of their stated ppm. (i.e. if they say use 5 ml Grow, 2.5 micro, and 2.5 bloom for veg, to reach a PPM of 400-800, the actual ppm reading will be 800, or the high end when they give you leeway like that.) I use a combination of the recommended ratios and lucas formula. But only get to the actual dilution ratio in the last week or two before flushing. Hope that helps ya!
thanks useless. i actualy have to say that using this lucas formula so far has given me the best results yet. im about to start my other half of the room so ill give the formula you said a try. i cant really see not using the grow. i mean why would it be a set if it wasnt needed. my buds always taste good. even with this last screw up they tasted great. i usualy flush for 10-14 days. as for not using the micro the last week before flushing ,sounds like a plan. i would guess because micro contains all the other nutrients other than npk and they arent needed that late in the growing time?
I use to use GH 3 parts when I did hydro but scrapped it for something else better chelated when I converted to aero DrC. I did this also at a time when GH changed their formula and imitated another company's fert program. GH's micro and macro elements and recommended recipes are exactly the same as this other's but is offered at a lower price. The reason for this is because the other company used very expensive chelating agents to keep their nutes in an ion form where as GH doesn't. This is why there's a price difference. To see this truth for yourself, perform the following test. Take 5-10 ml of each part and mix thoroughly in a cup of 500 ml pure water. Stir and stir and stir again until it is thoroughly mixed. Leave this cup of fert mix for 24 hours and see what happens to ions. THEY WILL PRECIPITATE out making the nutrient unavailable to your girls. The reason you see the tips burn, is directly related to this precip. When the ions precip out, you've changed the ratio of what ions are available to the plant. Imagine a large swimming pool with some rules as to who the participants may be. There can only be 5 blue guys, 4 red guys, 3 orange guys, 3 silver guys allowed in pool in that ratio. However, in the event that one of the coloured groups are short, another can take its place. If 4 blue guys and 2 red guys come out of the pool and is replaced by silver guys and orange guys, then the ratio has changed. The analogy represents that some ions will be more abundant than neccessary whilst others are defficient. The burning is caused by the elements that are in abundance and become toxic to the plant despite using a lower ppm. I know this very well as I have experienced, explored and tested it quite extensively before. The problem that GH has incurred whilst imitating, is in the part Grow. (green). This part is required as it contains a balanced N to P ratio (2:1 in veg) and also contains the K required for proper cell division and development. Failure to use this part results in poor root development and stem development. (this info is not posted anywhere just results of my testing). During flowering, I had noticed my stems were weak and my budz falling over quite readily because of cutting back on Grow in the vegging stage. I also noticed my roots were more susceptible to drowning, though once thriving, and lost it's crispy white fuzzy appearance. Here's the problem that I inevitabely faced; if I use the grow I have obvious plant problems that appear in under a weak. If I don't use it, I have plant problems haunting me in the latter stages of the plant that I can't remedy. My solution; stop buying the imitation and get the real thing. That solved my fert problems as well as other issues I was facing with the aero process. Hope that helps
good stuff smurfy, i have been using gh for about three years now and i guess im ready to make a change. you didnt quite say what the real fert you use is. also i am running this all in a nft system. the hydro shop i go to has a few ferts but for the most part they are bosters and suplements. the gh is really the only large gallon sized product he sells, that and dyna grow, and he recomends the gh.
I followed this story quite closely when it began but drifted away when it went to the courts for decision. The shop keeper recommended GH for a reason...about six and a half years ago, the Canadian government decided it was going to open a facility to grow mj. Located some 50 feet underground in an undisclosed location in Saskatchewan they built a perfect lab. I've seen their pics and have been trying to set my growroom to the same standards. Their scientists hired Grotek, a company who supplies Nasa with plant nutrients, to come up with concrete recipes for mj cultivation. Their cultivation request was different from Other's; Not the biggest flowers just the most canabinoids per gram. Grotek had the lab for 3 years where they tested their ferts and boosters. The end result was that a 600 Watt HPS produced 2 lbs of crystally budz or more aeroponically. They handed over their research and left the lab. The following year Grotek's Advance Nutrients was born. The AN campaign was simple; research documented by the government for growing medical marijuana and they called it the 2+ program. One year later GH changed their fert program, recipes and product labels. Their 3 part system is identical down to the ppm of every element of AN. Their labels, if not noticing details, were identical. Their names for the most part were identical. Their prices were not. So they are in international court hammering it out. Besides Micro, Grow and Bloom (GH adds word "Flora" to their labels) Grotek also offers Vitamax whereas GH has a version called Vitamix. Grotek's Grandma Enggy's Fulvic and Humic Acid is recpricated by GH's Grandpa Eggy's Fulvic and Humic Acid. The list goes on and on but Grotek's formulas contain unlisted patented or patent pending agents in their mixtures that GH doesn't have. If you can't find AN or Grotek products go with another company. (Grotek products aren't cheap, their microbe supplements are $170 Can. per 1 litre) I don't recommend GH products because they lack ingredients to make their nutrients work. I switched when GH switched because I just couldn't get their products to work for me any longer. Hope that helps
