Judaz
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Nutrients are essential for your cannabis growth but the reality is that you don't really need to add all the additives nutrient companies recommend in order to get great yields and quality. Especially when growing in soiless hydro methods. Now don't get me wrong at minimum you need your Base nutrient and bloom booster to achieve your results but the additives are not that important if your nutrient formula and technique is dialed in.
Aside from your base nutrients and bloom booster most nutrient companies recommend adding enzymes, vitamins, chelates, silica and carbohydrates to produce the best results but experience has taught me otherwise. My philosophy for nutrient feeding is "Less is more" Early in my growing career I would buy the works and still not achieve the results I get today with minimal additives. I don'y use dirt and I bet you I'll get a better product than you soil growers too. For me growing is soil is for newbies not experts.
I don't use enzymes, I don't use vitamins, I don't use flushing agents why? Because I know how to dial in my nutes for the given environment that I'm growing in. I rarely flush, throughout my cycle and I don't flush the last week either. And I save a grip of cash by recirculating my nutrients. With cannabis prices going down, running a run to waste cycle and or growing in dirt for me is costly and time consuming. When people see my garden the first question they ask me is what nutrients are you using to achieve these results. I usually smile and answer back with a better question. I notice that whoever asked me that question is most likely an amateur grower and does not really know the secretes on how to maximize yield and quality results when growing cannabis.
The better question is, what environment did you run in your room that gets the specific nutrient formula to work most efficiently. I can tell you from past experiences that I've taken the same winning formula that has worked real well in a specific room to a new room with the same amount of lights and footprint and not have achieved the same results given that I'm using the same exact number of plants per light and strain/clone. If all the factors are the same, then why am I not achieving similar results? I later learned the importance of vapor pressure deficit and came to the conclusion that the reason that the formula did not work in some other rooms was because I had put my plants in a different environment than the environment of the winning room that turned my formula into a winning formula for that round. I can even go as far as saying that I've used the same formula on the winning room but did not achieve my results because it was summer or it was winter. This was before I grew in sealed grow room environments.
I have now become more technical and have started to record my temps/humidity every day / every ten minutes and have looked at what all the winning rounds had in common. I'm not going to get into the details of that but I can tell you that the winning rounds had 1 basic thing in common. The average environment (VPD) was very similar. So what is the most important elements for your plants.
#1 is Light
#2 is Temp/humidity (VPD)
#3 Co2
#4 Nutrients (yes dead last) Why? Because if you don't have the 1st 3 dialed in properly then your nutes are simply going to waste.
So what nutrients and or additives are essential for the best yields and quality?
#1 Base nutrients (important)
#2 bloom booster (important)
#3 silica (important)
#4 Chelates (Humic/Fulvic Acids) (important)
#5 Carbohydrates (Sometimes optional)
#6 Amino Acids / Enzymes (optional)
#7 Vitamins (optional)
#8 Friendly bacteria (optional)
#9 Flushing agents (optional)
If you really want to dial things in, you must run hydro and recirculate your nutrients so you can listen to the daily ph, ppm in and ppm out numbers properly. The goal for best yields and quality when referring to nutrients is knowing how to keep your EC balanced for the given environment that you are growing in. The more closely you can keep the EC on check, the less stress your plants have and can use most of their stored energy to produce beautiful large flowers. The more stress you put your plant through, the more energy it takes away from flower production to deal with the stressors.
If you start with healthy clones or seedlings and flourish through the veg process, the easier the flowering cycle will be and flourish. If you mess up then you gotta add the additives that will help deal with your mistakes. Silica is at the top of my list because its essential in creating plants that thrive and grow vigorously. Chelates are important in getting your plants to take higher EC numbers in a given environment. They help balance your nutrient uptake and help your plants take in the nutes you give them with ease. Hence higher yields
Studies have show that plants produce their own sugars but they can definitely benefit from added quality carbs with amino acids and enzymes if your plants are not 100% healthy and thriving then they may have not created enough sugar reserves to get the through until the end. Carbs help push your buds by providing energy, especially towards the end of the round and can also help feed the friendly bacteria. Enzymes are great in keeping your plants running clean. Especially if you run to waste. Enzymes help get rid off excess salts derived from a run to waste cycle that spikes your ec up after the week when you would flush. If your plants are flourishing and growing vigorously then you don't need much carbs and enzymes since the plant is producing enough on its own. When you recirculate and keep the ec at balance to the vpd of the environment, the nutes run clean, you dont have ec spikes and therefore you don't need an enzyme product and can get away with minimal carbs. The reason why I personally always use Carboload is because I do defoliate a bit and this takes away energy from the plant but I benefit by getting more light to the bottoms at a cost of adding extra carbs. When you recirculate and aerate your res, you are creating friendly bacteria this way which create enzymes for your plants. When you run to waste you don't get that perk. You gotta add friendly bacteria. Now one may argue and say that recirculating the nutes can also bring in deadly bacteria but with proper nutrient topping techniques and proper aeration you can avoid these issues. As far as vitamins you only need them when your plants get stressed. If they are healthy and vigorously growing, they are strong and don't need vitamins. As far as friendly bacteria, I naturally produce it by properly running a recirculation technique that does not need a flush. And as far as flushing agents, you only need them when you really get the ppm in and ppm out, out of balance. The only other thing I sometimes add is calcium and magnesium if using RO water. But the better thing to do is use your tap water and just remove the chlorine and chloramine out of the water. Your tap water then becomes your cal mag.
Aside from your base nutrients and bloom booster most nutrient companies recommend adding enzymes, vitamins, chelates, silica and carbohydrates to produce the best results but experience has taught me otherwise. My philosophy for nutrient feeding is "Less is more" Early in my growing career I would buy the works and still not achieve the results I get today with minimal additives. I don'y use dirt and I bet you I'll get a better product than you soil growers too. For me growing is soil is for newbies not experts.
I don't use enzymes, I don't use vitamins, I don't use flushing agents why? Because I know how to dial in my nutes for the given environment that I'm growing in. I rarely flush, throughout my cycle and I don't flush the last week either. And I save a grip of cash by recirculating my nutrients. With cannabis prices going down, running a run to waste cycle and or growing in dirt for me is costly and time consuming. When people see my garden the first question they ask me is what nutrients are you using to achieve these results. I usually smile and answer back with a better question. I notice that whoever asked me that question is most likely an amateur grower and does not really know the secretes on how to maximize yield and quality results when growing cannabis.
The better question is, what environment did you run in your room that gets the specific nutrient formula to work most efficiently. I can tell you from past experiences that I've taken the same winning formula that has worked real well in a specific room to a new room with the same amount of lights and footprint and not have achieved the same results given that I'm using the same exact number of plants per light and strain/clone. If all the factors are the same, then why am I not achieving similar results? I later learned the importance of vapor pressure deficit and came to the conclusion that the reason that the formula did not work in some other rooms was because I had put my plants in a different environment than the environment of the winning room that turned my formula into a winning formula for that round. I can even go as far as saying that I've used the same formula on the winning room but did not achieve my results because it was summer or it was winter. This was before I grew in sealed grow room environments.
I have now become more technical and have started to record my temps/humidity every day / every ten minutes and have looked at what all the winning rounds had in common. I'm not going to get into the details of that but I can tell you that the winning rounds had 1 basic thing in common. The average environment (VPD) was very similar. So what is the most important elements for your plants.
#1 is Light
#2 is Temp/humidity (VPD)
#3 Co2
#4 Nutrients (yes dead last) Why? Because if you don't have the 1st 3 dialed in properly then your nutes are simply going to waste.
So what nutrients and or additives are essential for the best yields and quality?
#1 Base nutrients (important)
#2 bloom booster (important)
#3 silica (important)
#4 Chelates (Humic/Fulvic Acids) (important)
#5 Carbohydrates (Sometimes optional)
#6 Amino Acids / Enzymes (optional)
#7 Vitamins (optional)
#8 Friendly bacteria (optional)
#9 Flushing agents (optional)
If you really want to dial things in, you must run hydro and recirculate your nutrients so you can listen to the daily ph, ppm in and ppm out numbers properly. The goal for best yields and quality when referring to nutrients is knowing how to keep your EC balanced for the given environment that you are growing in. The more closely you can keep the EC on check, the less stress your plants have and can use most of their stored energy to produce beautiful large flowers. The more stress you put your plant through, the more energy it takes away from flower production to deal with the stressors.
If you start with healthy clones or seedlings and flourish through the veg process, the easier the flowering cycle will be and flourish. If you mess up then you gotta add the additives that will help deal with your mistakes. Silica is at the top of my list because its essential in creating plants that thrive and grow vigorously. Chelates are important in getting your plants to take higher EC numbers in a given environment. They help balance your nutrient uptake and help your plants take in the nutes you give them with ease. Hence higher yields
Studies have show that plants produce their own sugars but they can definitely benefit from added quality carbs with amino acids and enzymes if your plants are not 100% healthy and thriving then they may have not created enough sugar reserves to get the through until the end. Carbs help push your buds by providing energy, especially towards the end of the round and can also help feed the friendly bacteria. Enzymes are great in keeping your plants running clean. Especially if you run to waste. Enzymes help get rid off excess salts derived from a run to waste cycle that spikes your ec up after the week when you would flush. If your plants are flourishing and growing vigorously then you don't need much carbs and enzymes since the plant is producing enough on its own. When you recirculate and keep the ec at balance to the vpd of the environment, the nutes run clean, you dont have ec spikes and therefore you don't need an enzyme product and can get away with minimal carbs. The reason why I personally always use Carboload is because I do defoliate a bit and this takes away energy from the plant but I benefit by getting more light to the bottoms at a cost of adding extra carbs. When you recirculate and aerate your res, you are creating friendly bacteria this way which create enzymes for your plants. When you run to waste you don't get that perk. You gotta add friendly bacteria. Now one may argue and say that recirculating the nutes can also bring in deadly bacteria but with proper nutrient topping techniques and proper aeration you can avoid these issues. As far as vitamins you only need them when your plants get stressed. If they are healthy and vigorously growing, they are strong and don't need vitamins. As far as friendly bacteria, I naturally produce it by properly running a recirculation technique that does not need a flush. And as far as flushing agents, you only need them when you really get the ppm in and ppm out, out of balance. The only other thing I sometimes add is calcium and magnesium if using RO water. But the better thing to do is use your tap water and just remove the chlorine and chloramine out of the water. Your tap water then becomes your cal mag.
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