Hydroponic Research User Thread

[whocares]

I must be the only person who hasn't been able to use VB correctly
I run coco and no matter what ec or with/without Calmg/cut with tap etc........my plants immediately start to look like hot garbage
odd

but looks good man

People always tell me you cant check coco runoff but when my plants look bad, i always go clean my ph pen and then check the runoff. its always super high ec and the ph will be 6.5+ when the purple stems show up. So i always lower the ec a little and do some heavy feeds @ 5.8ph. Ec always comes down according to the runoff along with the ph and the plants start looking lovely again.

 

[xeamonk]

ive heard that said quite a bit too, that checking runoff is useless. i feel like its only useless and inconclusive if you dont know what to look for. what you just described, whats wrong with that? checking your runoff gives you a good idea about how much junk is building up in your medium and what kind of accumulative changes might be happening. low pH can indicate a problem and as far as i know higher pH is normal.

i honestly did not check the pH of the runoff, i guess i was too concerned with how my flush is going :) now im interested but ive got them leached down to around 200ppm. i actually did not feed to runoff more than once or twice a week either, the pots were kept fairly wet on the regular though, but that explains a 2.0ec reading in the runoff. i thought it would be lower

 

[Wisher619]

I apologize for mis speaking
if you feed the way we do you dont ned to check runoff
when you feed atleast once a day there is no time to actually accumulate buildup
you are maintaining a constant ph/ec
it isnt changing because you are constantly maintaining those parameters....never deviating

 

[Za7oichi]

FYI: Fuck gavitas their sellouts, they sold to Scott's miracle grow co wich will Takeove=EVIL, unhealthy product ==== bad bad bad bad for consumers
Solistech is the way to go imo

Instead of Monsanto and there soulless tec ;p

 

[whocares]

I apologize for mis speaking
if you feed the way we do you dont ned to check runoff
when you feed atleast once a day there is no time to actually accumulate buildup
you are maintaining a constant ph/ec
it isnt changing because you are constantly maintaining those parameters....never deviating

I gotcha. Sometimes i feel like im chasing my tail and its usually after once a day isnt enough. So i start watering 2x a day ( once early and once late) but then it seems like the pots are just super wet all the time and im just wasting water and nutes. Say im watering 20gal once a day but i need to start watering 2x so ill do 2x 20gal watering and my runoff greatly increases. Then if i do 20 gal again the next day its the same thing a ton of runoff.

I spent a long long time watering coco like soil, and keeping it so moist just seems so wierd.

 

[Wisher619]

I gotcha. Sometimes i feel like im chasing my tail and its usually after once a day isnt enough. So i start watering 2x a day ( once early and once late) but then it seems like the pots are just super wet all the time and im just wasting water and nutes. Say im watering 20gal once a day but i need to start watering 2x so ill do 2x 20gal watering and my runoff greatly increases. Then if i do 20 gal again the next day its the same thing a ton of runoff.

I spent a long long time watering coco like soil, and keeping it so moist just seems so wierd.

the best practice is to ise smaller pots as well as not watering so much that mad runoff occurs
my pots only get a little dribble out of the bottom.....maybe 2-3oz or so ....maybe a little less
I have my room dialed with the size pots I use
5"x5" squares
I grow 3-4' bushes with anywhere between 80-120g per plant dependant on strain
I water 3x a day and at peak 4
then down to 2 then 1
then a single flush with boiling water3x the container
and then let the plant go for another week or so no water
then 48hours dark and straight to hang
14days 60rh/60f

all in a 5"x5" square

 

[xeamonk]

i started in coco, 3gal pots and i fed the shit out of them. since then ive naturally moved to smaller pots and much less feed, especially when i learned that plants dont die in coco pots without %20 runoff every day. right now 1 gal pots are perfect for my setup because i haul the water i use and the water i waste :) smaller pots would work the same except for feed frequency. i feed them as needed mostly but definitely dont mind letting it bleed out the bottom and im sure to runoff a decent amount at least once per week. like Wisher explained, its my understanding that if you keep your pots wet and your input constant theres nothing building up, your solution is always moving through and being refreshed. if you need to flush them out to correct a problem the smaller pots are definitely a huge advantage.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Hey guys, I'm really liking the results everyone is posting with Veg+Bloom line but I'm a little confused. How is it cheap? I usually use about 8ml/gal of any base, Botanicare sweet @ 5ml/gal, Big Bud @ 6ml/gal and HH/Moab combo. I always go on the lower end with nutes because I like to stay around 1000 ppms. When I do the math on what I pay per gal it's cheaper then Veg+Bloom complete line. . It comes out to about .20 per gal compared to .30 for Veg+Bloom with their 2 additives. (Thats doing the math on the lower end of what they recommend) So why should I pay 50% more? Lmk what you guys think the difference is. I also make caps tea and use cal mag, but since everyone else on this forum uses this with Veg+Bloom I am not applying it to the overall cost. I'm willing to pay more if it's worth it.

I try to stay on the lower side too. When using liquid ferts concentration plays a huge role. I used V + B for several years but switched to Emerald Harvest 3 part to optimize nutrients between grow and flower + other EH amendments= $$$

NPK RAW Grow: 8oz @ $22= >2xs V + B, or is it?) It is an extremely complete formula. They recommend 1 tsp/g for first week. How do others compare? It would take time and a spread sheet. At the end of the day, price should not dictate, quality should

 

[Ganja420love]

What watering and feeding consistency would y'all reccomend for 3gal fiber pots with tupur coco soil less? I'm using the V+B RO formula with RO water. Thanks for the help.

 

[Wisher619]

I try to stay on the lower side too. When using liquid ferts concentration plays a huge role. I used V + B for several years but switched to Emerald Harvest 3 part to optimize nutrients between grow and flower + other EH amendments= $$$

NPK RAW Grow: 8oz @ $22= >2xs V + B, or is it?) It is an extremely complete formula. They recommend 1 tsp/g for first week. How do others compare? It would take time and a spread sheet. At the end of the day, price should not dictate, quality should

Maxibloom is $14.00 for 2.2lbs and has all 16 elements including Ca Mg
Raw has.....12 elements.....a few hormones and is $64.00 for 2.2lbs
yeah
V+B is $40.00 for 2lbs
so kinda in the middle

but I dont really think Raw is worth that much money .....when tou have to add more just to make it complete

 

[Pimples]

The sad part of getting locked out to the point of purple stems and off-green leaves, means a long time for recovery if at all.
Some plants are vigorous enough to grow out of it eventually once corrected..some will not. If you gain recovery it could take weeks and your plants will be over-vegged. If you're in flower already, you basically got what you got..a crop that looks so-so.
Sometimes stressed out plants can produce a potent frosty product..but the formation and harvest weight will be affected.

So of my most potent (lab tested) and frostiest most smelly flowers came from this same lockout.... but yield took a big hit. I know of what you speak. Years ago I had a spider mite problem that I never eradicated..just kept in check until semi early harvest. The mites never got up top but they never got gone either. The flowers were ridiculously potent. Go figure.

 

[Pimples]

Ive used Veg+ Bloom ro/soft in 0.2 tap water bumped to 0.3 ec with a calmag supplement. 0.8 to 1.3 ec in veg. 1.3 to 1.7 ec in flower. Nothing else. 20% runoff every feed in 3 gallon pots of canna brand coco. And i must say....it doesn't need anything else to bring out all the bling.

 

[xeamonk]

Ive used Veg+ Bloom ro/soft in 0.2 tap water bumped to 0.3 ec with a calmag supplement. 0.8 to 1.3 ec in veg. 1.3 to 1.7 ec in flower. Nothing else. 20% runoff every feed in 3 gallon pots of canna brand coco. And i must say....it doesn't need anything else to bring out all the bling.

Nice!
If I described my last grow it would be pretty close to yours. DTW straight coco 1 gal pots no higher than 1.4ec and that was too much, I fed lower than I ever have before, closer to 1.0ec all the way through might have been fine :) A few plants were cuts I had run before and I was surprised how frosty they all got. My previous run was with GH cocotek and that stuff did alright but I have a feeling V+B is better. Its hard to tell for me for comparison because ive only done this a handful of times yet, but im sold on V+B so far. I use RO/Soft with 300ppm well water cut to 100ppm (0.2ec) w/ RO water and pH comes out near perfect for me. 5.7-6.0 depending on how strong I make it.

 

[xeamonk]

Still using the cocotek for veg though :)

 

[THCdurk]

Anyone heard from or anyrhing about @Smokey503ski

 

[Traxx]

do i add life after mixing vb?

 

[Pblunt]

Dial it, ball valves and pipe size. The pump is a generic sprinkler pump from harbor freight. Dos is split into part A and part B they mix into 100x concentrates A 340g: B 240g per gallon but I run 5 gal stock buckets so it's 1800g A : 1200g B per 5 gallon bucket the simple clean routine. Done

What model of dosatron u use ? And you put nothing else just a b and shine ? Still put shine in b or in another dosatron ?

 

[CelticEBE]

do i add life after mixing vb?

I usually check and adjust ph before adding life. Luckily I RARELY need to adjust it.

 

[Wisher619]

do i add life after mixing vb?

always add your acid or base before live organisms
make sure everything is stable before +life

 

[Funkadelic]

I usually check and adjust ph before adding life. Luckily I RARELY need to adjust it.

This is almost always my experience too ... LOVE the pH stability ..