Hey what up everyone, i've been wondering about this question is i change my res every other weak; i always add water to the res every day when i see the water level has fallen, is this a terrible mistake on my part? Am i diluting the nut solution? Should i not worry about it and just change res every other weak like i have been just don't add water during the weak. Any help would be appreciated

Posted by laserbrn:

When I start from seeds I feed them PLAIN water for ~ 2 weeks. By then they are on about their 3rd or 4th set of leaves.

Veg feeding Schedule looks like this....

Week 1: 0 ppm
Week 2: 0 ppm
Week 3: 200ppm - Start the 3rd week with 50ppm. Increase by 50ppm each day until 200ppm is reached.
Week 4: 200ppm
Week 5: 300ppm
Week 6: Increase by 100ppm each day until you reach ~600ppm.

Week 7: Flowerin' time. Whole different schedule.

Some people like to pump the nutrients faster, but if you look through all of my past grow journals you will see WHY I do it this way.

Now, this is a basic guideline for what I would call "safe growing" and a good start for a first timer. This is a minimal feeding schedule and will should give you healthy plants, but not all strains are created equal. And that's where things get interesting.

Using this basic guideline I can work on determining my plants needs without risking burning them and slowing my progress.

I am looking for these indicators in veg:

1) PPM is rising as the water level drops - Too strong. Need to add water and lower the PPM. The plants are taking up more water than nutrients.

2) PPM is falling as the water level drops - Too Weak. Plants are taking up more nutrients than water. Need to add more nutrients to keep the plants happy.

3) PPM stays steady as the water level drops - We are in the right zone.

That again is another basic guideline, I then have to look at the plants....

1) Lower leaves are starting to yellow and overall the plant looks a bit "pale"
-Pleant is underfed and she would really like some more nutrients. Don't need to be drastic, she's just a hungrier breed.

2) Plant is REALLY dark green and starting to get "The Claw". The leaf tips are beginning to curl under. - She's overfed and has too much Nitrogen. Back off the nutes for a little bit. Overfed plants aren't happy.

You'll get the hang of it over time, but it's best to start out with less.


Recap: Change your water every 7-14 days (depending on the size of your reservior). Small reserviors need to be changed more often. Get a TDS tester. This measures the ppm (parts per million) in your recipe. Watch the levels and adjust according to your needs.

I would add that to answer your question you should add water as often as you reasonably can. I wouldn't top up with water every day, but not for any reason other than that's really annoying. Get a larger reservoir!

Okay, there is ONE reason, I want to see how much my PH changes over the course of say 3 days as well as PPM. So I don't make daily adjustments or top up the reservoir daily. About every 3 - 5 days is a good start. If you can get a nice big reservoir you can keep it really stable and get away with more than a week. I don't really have a definitive answer to this question, but topping up daily and then figuring out how to measure the nutes seems like it would be a bitch.

Example:

Day 1: PPM is @ 1300 - Just topped up and added the nutrients to get it to his level.
Day 2: PPM is @ 1330
Day 3: PPM is @ 1360
-My PPM is rising gradually. -- To strong
Day 4: PPM is @ 1200 - Just added water again and didn't add nutrients.
Day 5: PPM is @ 1200
Day 6: PPM is @ 1200
Day 7: PPM is @ 1200
My PPM is now staying stable. -- In the zone
Day 8: PPM is @ 1200 - Add water and nutrients to maintain 1200ppm
Day 9: PPM is @ 1180
Day 10: PPM is @ 1140
Day 11: PPM is @ 1090
My PPM is falling. The plants are developing and getting larger and hungrier. Time to make the move up to 1300 that I tried to make 10 days ago but it was clearly too early.
Day 12: PPM is @ 1190 - Add water and nutrients to get PPM back up to 1200. I never raise more than 100ppm/day though.
Day 13: PPM is @ 1300 - Add water and nutrients again to get PPM up to 1300. Plants were looking for more than 1200ppm.

It's this kind of game that I play and I would think that adding water and nutes daily would make it to hard to see what changes were occuring in the reservoir. And I use Sensi Bloom, Big Bud, Hygrozyme, and Carbo Load. I don't want to measure all that shit out every day.

__________________
"It picked up some dandy-lion pollen or something from your yard and popped out a bastard seed. " --Smokingrubber
Current Grow(s):DP White WidowFucking Incredible

These make it very easy to monitor your reservior.
http://www.horticulturesource.com/ph...ecf0904839f229

The handheld testers are not much less if you have to buy both ph & tds.

hey guys, check out my new idea for a NFT system, and give me any tips you can think of before i start construction.

It takes up a 4ft x 8ft space, and can grow upwards of 150 plants

NEW NFT (nutrient film technique) SOG SETUP

Man, thats really something! How big are you going to let those 150 plants grow in your 4x8 space!

__________________

I GO HYDRO!

so flush every week to 2 weeks and change the res every 2 weeks?.... even for an aero setup

obviously i cant let them get too big, unless i lollipop them... but basically, i plan on building a second and possibly a third for the bloom phase.

I decided to go smaller on my first one, it is 5x4 instead of 8x4.

I also figured out to use "lattice" as the top plane, and the basket pots fit perfectly in the latice holes.

I will cover the lattice with collars around the plants, and then panda wrap, white side up.

Im actually trying to get away from the basket pots COMPLETELY.

Im toying with the idea of just using a collar around the plant, like a clone in a ez cloner...

and then having like a 1/8 thick metal wire (like the size used to make your grill that you lay steaks on)

and having 2 of those metal wires cross at each hole, and cup down, an inch or so below the lattice and the collar...

Im wondering if the plants roots stradle 2 wires, and it has a collar, if it would be enough to support itself? Advice please!

This would allow for NO wasted materials... just grow the plant, and when i feel like transfering it, pull out the 2 wires that its sitting on (they will be in kind of a cup shape) and put it over to the bloom station(s) where the plants will have more adequate room, and put it back into an identical sized hole over there, just with less plants around.


Im really looking for someone to tell me yay or nay on the wire idea to replace the full pot.

Im afraid that the pot will limit root groth because the holes in the basket pots ive found are pretty small, as well as block out nutrients frrom sprayers.

- i guess ill mention that im planning on adding a sprayer system to the BOX eventually, and the sprayers will be on a timer probably.

So it will be both an NFT and a sprayer setup in one box! I cant think of how one can give plants anymore nutes or oxygen?!

im just trying to figure out the simplest and cheapest construction, so that i can mass produce these with ease, and show others how im doing it.

Construction has already started on the 4x5. Ill keep you posted, keep an eye on my build thread.

also i should add, the lattice im using, has 233 total holes in it if its 4ft x 8ft.

Will a person use all those holes? Probably not, but there wont be a shortage

Cheers!

hey everybody, Im wondering how often to feed im in the last week of veg and have a mixed batch. Right now im at 5 times a day (at even intervals when lights are on) Running about 950ppm (just veg nutrient and carbo load). I have heard anything from 2x daily all the way up to every 2 hours. Things seem to be going alright but growth has definitely slowed. Wondering if my schedule should be adjusted?

Can i take clones from a hydroponic plant

If so what is the best way