advice with vega matrixs nutrient line

Hi everyone,

I ran GO for a long time with some organic adds I brew up and did well. Today I got a very fair deal the Kyle Kushman's Vega Matrixs line. I can't seem to find any solid data on the nutrient line so I thought I would post my questions here in hopes someone can help.

I will be using pro mix as my medium instead of soil ( it say's pro mix or soil works best ) because I got 4 bails for 40 bucks. The nutrient line states a ph range from 5.5-6.5 is optimal when running the line. Does this mean I don't need to ph @ 5.8-6.0 as I normally would with pro mix?

The line also say's feed every time, but every 2-4 weeks water with the OG tea. My question is with feeding non stop, will I get build ups?

The nutrient line say's nothing about ppm's or burning. Is it safe to say I don't need to worry about the PPM's and just keep feeding?

The last question is for the end of harvest. It say's nothing about the final flush. I always run water threw until everything is out, then feed water for a week. Do I not have to flush with this nutrient line?

Thanks for any help to the questions and sorry for the poor grammar in advance.

My advise is read the Recycled Organic Living Soil Thread. At least the first several pages.

P-

You are thinking like a hydro grower... Bottles, pH measuring, "feeding schedules", ppm, burning; these are all concerns best left for hydroponic growers.

The single most important thing you must provide your plants in an organic grow is high quality compost or worm castings. I saw no mention of this in your post.

SpicySativa said:

You are thinking like a hydro grower... Bottles, pH measuring, "feeding schedules", ppm, burning; these are all concerns best left for hydroponic growers.

The single most important thing you must provide your plants in an organic grow is high quality compost or worm castings. I saw no mention of this in your post.

Click to expand...

F' yeah! Tell em Spicy! Going from hydro to organic is NOT a matter of switching bottles. This is whole different game.

P-

Vegamatrix is not organic and neither is GO. Both have 5% chemicals

SpicySativa said:

You are thinking like a hydro grower... Bottles, pH measuring, "feeding schedules", ppm, burning; these are all concerns best left for hydroponic growers.

The single most important thing you must provide your plants in an organic grow is high quality compost or worm castings. I saw no mention of this in your post.

Click to expand...

After doing a lot of reading, I have a much better understanding.

As to your advice, I was going about the line as I was told by the store and tech support. I have followed the chart for feeding and it has left my plants to yellow out and cal spots on some. I'm in week 4 of veg, feeding @ 800 ppm and my ph is going in @ 5.8 when I feed and do tea. I'm use to 5.8 when in pro mix and the nutrient company said it would work great because the line work in a range of 5.5-6.5 ph. Since the yellowing and cal spots started, I have been taking my time, collecting run off to check both ppm and ph.

It's clear to me the feeding chart is garbage. When feeding @ 800 ppm @ 5.8 ph the plants are starving and eating itself. I decided to add a high mix with GROW, Bloom and AMP IT to see how the plants react. By adding the higher levels, my ppm went to 1400. Now I noticed my ph run off was 6.1-6.4 and I'm not really sure why that is. The plants are eating almost ALL the food given and new growth is still going on but I can't figure out why I have such a high run off other then the fact that pro mix is mixed with lime and tends to buffer the ph around 6.o and higher.

Yes, I'm looking at this as a passive hydro grow as if I was feeding it house and garden aqua flakes so that is why I ph @ 5.8 . I do worry about my ppm levels because this is also something I'm use to. I really want to learn this line and " dial it in " so I can get away from heavy metal etc. I have never been a big fan of soil because in my first grows, the plants grew very slow and it felt like a guessing game most of the time. I like pro mix simply because I have a better idea of what is in the medium and what has been used when I follow my ppm. It's also good for heavy feeding.

So, is there something I'm missing as to why I'm feeding at 5.8 ph and the run off is higher?
Should I not worry about feeding high ppm's?

Thanks for all the input on this. This is very new to me and I would love to learn how to dial in this nutrient line for healthy green goodness.

Do this, and your plants will be happier:

- Pour the contents of those bottles into the toilet, and place the empty bottles into your recycle bin.

- Put the ppm meter away in a safe place where you'll never be tempted to use it again.

- Quit measuring or adjusting the pH, especially if you're using chemicals to adjust it.

- Sprinkle an inch or so of quality compost or worm castings on the surface of your soil.

- Brew an alfalfa/kelp tea and pour it over the castings.

Do this and I PROMISE you your plants will be happier than they are now...

I read over and over again how people choose bottled products because they think it'll be easier (or they believe the sales hype printed on bottles, in magazines, etc). Then they end up with a kinds of weird nutrient imbalances as they try to chase the perfect pH, ppm, runoff, bla, bla, bla...

Just give your soil some compost and quit chasing magic numbers...

I'll say it one more time...

*PPM is a 100% useless measurement when it comes to organic growing.*


Why is your pH increasing? Probably because adding organic materials to your soil has brought about some bacterial growth in your medium. This is a good thing. As bacteria grow, they tend to increase the pH. This is just fine and dandy. Our job as organic farmers is to keep these bacteria happy, not fight against the neutral environment they are trying to create for themselves.