How do you run Jack's pro 5-12-26 in RDWC

[Capulator]

Like most things in life nowadays, I think we all fell for the marketing hype for awhile. I owe a lot to Cap and some others for really opening my eyes to properly feeding your plants. Once I learned a little you can start to see what crap they are trying to sell you. I think I read in another thread that AN has something like 96 additives on the market. Are you kidding me? And the cost...... I can get 50lbs of jacks and CalNit for about the same as 1gal of Botanicare hydroplex (which is nothing more than a P/K booster at $78.00).

Jacks has a pretty good array of Micros but it is missing a few, silicon being one. That is why Cap supplements with protekt. I have not gone this route yet. It is also missing chlorine, cobalt and selenium. I am thinking about adding in calcium chloride to increase Ca and gain some chlorine. That is going to hold off though as I would rather run Bennies and I can't see adding chlorine into the mix as being a good thing. Once I know what the bennies are doing I wil start adding it in at low levels and see if it has any adverse affect. I have not done any research on plant needs and cobalt or selinum.

I'll see if I can find an analysis for the micro blast.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to contribute.

I know I said it earlier but I wan't to personally thank Capulator for taking the time to share his knowledge and experiences. On top of that his Tea packs appear to be the bees knees. Don't change a thing Cap the foil packs and the sharpie let's me know I am getting something with a personal touch and not some hydro store marketed up crap. Plus it has a mystique when you let your buddies try it and they just can't stand not knowing what it is.

I have researched cobalt and selenium. You do not need these. In some cases they seem to do more harm than good.

I also cut out the CaCl2 when I started using bennies because I was nto sure how the Cl would affect them. I should probably pose this question tot he higher ups.

Add silica before you add anything to the res, so it doesn't cause fallout. Custom hydro nutrients also sells potassium silicate.

Silica is SUPER good for the plants. It promotes strong stems and using it results in more mass. You can foliar with silica as well, which is also great for keeping away PM.

 

[ttystikk]

Its strain dependent I am sure. Most people running a UC peak at 2.0 at around week 5, and then taper off when plants slow down eating.I tried this with my tangerine and locked it up at week 4.

My plants have 4k of light each.

One thing:

When I move my plants in to the big girls room, the plants dont transpire enough to compete with the amount of water the AC pulls from the air coupled with 9k of hot light. For the first 2 weeks on both of my last runs they looked like shit and didnt do much in the beginning (first 2-3 weeks) . DD talked about lumen shock, but I think what they were/are experiencing was/is RH shock.

My RH was at 28 and the plants looked shitty. This time I didn't wait though, I grabbed a humidifier that puts out like 6 gallons/hour and comes with an autofill.

Following the advice of Janus, I am running my RH at 60 minimum. The plants are much better after a few days of this.

First, when I mix a batch of Jacks up, I use two 5 gallon buckets. In the first goes a gallon of hot water and all the Jacks and epsom salts I'm adding. I mix those until they're well dissolved, and the Jacks has some sandy stuff that takes awhile. I then fill this 5 gallon bucket all the way up with cold tapwater, to predilute. I do the same with the Cal Ni, and it dissolves much faster.

When I mix my prediluted Jacks into my RDWC, I use a 1/2" tube to slowly siphon it into my tailbucket, where it immediately gets mixed, diluted again into the RDWC water and sent on to the rest of the system. I do this with the Cal Ni too. I did get a lockout once so I started doing it this way. Since then, zero lockout issues.

I run 8kW in a 9x16' sealed room, with a dehumidifier and CO2. Since the room is sealed, I don't have issues with low humidity, even though I live in a place where the humidity falls to single digits, like it has this week... Air cooling is accomplished via 2 8" Max fans on a thermostat each blowing through its own Ice Box, and a big chiller to shed the heat. While I do get a little condensation off this, I try to run the RH and chiller temps such that it drips as little as possible. To cool the hoods, I pull air through them from outside the room and back outside.

I think your point about environmental factors affecting nutrient tolerance, need and uptake is very astute, and I think this may account for much of the differences between growers' results, even when using the same equipment.

In particular, humidity affects plants in such a basic way that low or high levels can cause all kinds of problems that growers might attribute to other causes, like lockout or bad ratios. Before I built my sealed room, my plants needed lower nutrient concentrations because they were drinking water flat out just to keep up with transiration! This showed up as tip burn, so I backed off. High humidity slows transpiration and with it the transportation of nutrients. That's why I ask what a grower's humidity values are if they're suspicious of nute lockout or calcium deficiency- if RH is too high, the plant may not be moving enough water to transport sufficient calcium to growing sites.

 

[ttystikk]

Cap, I need to thank you- I was wondering why two plants in my last run did so poorly even though they were right next to several that did fine, and your discussion of humidity problems in your grow gave me the answer! My dehumidifier was blowing hot, dry air at them and clearly did them in.

 

[Capulator]

there you go.

28% RH was fucking with my plants bigtime. Now I have it at 50 with my new humidifier and all is well. Plants need to transpire and they cant do this is the VPD is off. Funny because my explosion of growth was coming when the plants finally got big enough to offset the AC. It seems that plants will still push roots at low RH, but they wont push new shoots so much.

 

[Legion]

At first when you guys were talking about Jacks I assume it was just the old standard. I didn't realize it was in fact a hydro food. One thing that strikes me is that it's all Nitrate Nitrogen. Be careful that stuff is slick and will be quickly absorbed by the plant.

This is something that I've said many many times. A good gardener can make anything work. Just a like a good chef can make a cake from scratch. Others.. they need cake mix in a box and it's not as cheap that way.. lol AN is cake mix in a box..

Honestly, I don't know of one company that doesn't make a specialty food of some sort that I don't think is needed.. I like super natural but.. they make some funk ass shit that I'll never buy and I don't know what they are thinking...

 

[ttystikk]

there you go.

28% RH was fucking with my plants bigtime. Now I have it at 50 with my new humidifier and all is well. Plants need to transpire and they cant do this is the VPD is off. Funny because my explosion of growth was coming when the plants finally got big enough to offset the AC. It seems that plants will still push roots at low RH, but they wont push new shoots so much.

Stands to reason, the plants are trying to keep up with their water loss in low RH conditions, so they're going to push roots and minimize leaf surface area. Stomata stay closed, slowing growth and inhibiting CO2 uptake.

I'll make a lil side bet with you that you'll see benefits from an increase in EC now that you've raised your humidity level...

 

[Capulator]

Stands to reason, the plants are trying to keep up with their water loss in low RH conditions, so they're going to push roots and minimize leaf surface area. Stomata stay closed, slowing growth and inhibiting CO2 uptake.

I'll make a lil side bet with you that you'll see benefits from an increase in EC now that you've raised your humidity level...

New growth is bursting. Gonna push up from 1. 0 EC to 1.4... see how that goes. They do look a little hungry.

 

[FTWx561]

Well I guess I'll jump in the game too. I measured my RH right at 28% with lights on. I threw a humidifier in there yesterday set at 60. I have been running around 1.3-1.4 EC at that RH with no burn. That being said I am hoping with both of your experiences to see even better growth after raising the RH.

Cap, what PPM are you running the silica at? I wasn't able to get protekt but was able to get silica blast. I have to run the numbers but from initial looks it is a lot lower in K than protekt. Which can be a good thing since jacks already has plenty.

 

[FTWx561]

Does anyone have an analysis of MOST. I've found a couple different numbers. I am hoping to find a PDF of the label like I have for jacks and calnit. Or if someone has it and can post the numbers off of the label I would be very appreciative.

Same goes for Dynagrow protekt. I need to know the volume and weight so I can compare it to Botanicare silica blast.

 

[Owlfarm]

Anybody else wanna chime in? I've been doing rdwc with jacks @ hydro 3, cal/nit 1.8, epsom 1.... And adding the blossom booster at .5 gram a gallon. I'm curious about guys running jacks in rdwc specifically..

 

[scubascrog]

I'm about to start back up
@Capulator do you suggest the new formula off your jacks back thread? or this one

 

[DGP]

Hello all,

I am curios to see how everyone is using Jack's pro 5-12-26 and CalNit in RDWC. From my research it seems most people are running 3gr Jacks, 2 gr CalNit, 1gr Epsom. I know Capulator has been adding additional salts, is anyone else deviating from the basic?

I use jacks with a ratio (note ratio not grams per gallon). I start with a 3.1.2 NPK ratio in veg and transition to ..a 1.1.2 ratio in bloom and i also use epsom. You have to do the math to get the ratios right. Once i get a concetrate mixed i adjust for correct ppm.

Dee