LUCAS FORMULA - Hydroponic Grow Journal

Wow, Hella impressive growth myfriend! They look super healthy too! Keep up the good work, and keep those pics commin.

MonsterRobot said:

Do you do any kind of topping or fimming to your plants or do you just let them grow naturally?

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Was wondering that myself, Looks like natural in the pics tho

MonsterRobot said:

Things are looking awesome! I just flipped mine into flowering and I hope to see some big growth like that too...

Do you do any kind of topping or fimming to your plants or do you just let them grow naturally?

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These are growing naturally. Two of the taller ones I bent the main top downward until the side branches grew past them, then untied them. This gave the same effect as topping them. I did this to keep the height even.

What do you start these girls in? Rockwool or something like an EZ-Cloner so there isn't another medium other than the clay balls? And do you start them in the Ebb and Gro right away or start them in a propagation tray or something?

wowtestdrive said:

What do you start these girls in? Rockwool or something like an EZ-Cloner so there isn't another medium other than the clay balls? And do you start them in the Ebb and Gro right away or start them in a propagation tray or something?

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These came from a dispensary. Some were in rockwool and some came in rapid rooters. I am a medical grower. I can legally grow 15 plants for personal use. I can grow up to a certain weight and anything over that I donate to my dispensary. Hydroponics has turned into a sort of hobby for me.

When I get the rooted cuttings I put them in the ebb and grow and set it to flood once or twice a day. I idle them at about 250 - 300 PPM for about a week until I see roots coming out of the bottom of a few pots. Once they have spread their roots, you can start to turn the PPM up. When you see roots, you can crank the nutes. I set the ebb and grow to flood three times per day and I turn the PPM up to about 500 PPM then go up by 50 PPM per day until I reach about 800 PPM, then I stay there.

When you see roots and start to turn up the PPM, it takes about three days for them to take off. Be patient.

I always look at the tips of the leaves to make sure there is no burn from the fertilizer. If there is I would back off by about 100 PPM.

wowtestdrive said:

Wow very detailed post about the Ebb and Grow, think you sold me on it. Thanks man

Instead of keeping the lights higher up have you considered rearranging the buckets around to help keep growth even? Or is it too much of a pain when they are substantial size? Maybe you can get the wifie to help haha .


You just add the tbsp (hydrogen peroxide) to the 25 gallons or so left in the rez?

Happy growing, Subscribed!

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Rearranging the buckets is a pain when they get any size to them. The best way Ive found to get even growth is to let them idle for a week before turning the PPM up.

When clones go into the system, you put the PPM at about 250 - 300 PPM and let it sit there for 7 or 8 days. This allows the roots to spread in the pots before the plants start to grow above ground. When you see roots coming out of the bottom of a few pots, it is time to turn the PPM up to 500-600 PPM. Plants with roots take off immediately. Plants without roots sit and do nothing. Letting them spread their roots before turning up the nutrients has them all take off at once, thus they are all roughly the same size when they are bigger.

If you immediately turn the PPM up when you put your clones in, some will take off right away, some will take off in a few days and some will take off a week or more later. This results in plants that are wildly different sized when they get big.

When I have the lights lowered over the plants, the ones directly under the lamps grow fast, while the ones along the edges only get light on one side. When the lights are a bit higher, 18 - 24 inches above the plants, the plants in the center get good direct light and the ones along the edges get direct light on the side facing the light and reflected light from the Mylar on the side facing the wall. They get more even growth this way. The yield from the plants on the sides is a bit bigger as a result.

When they get very big they cannot be moved lest they fall apart from buds that are too heavy, a 'problem' that I can live with.

As for Hydrogen Peroxide, I add one tablespoon to the reservoir once per day. Just enough to boost the dissolved oxygen level a bit.

UPDATE:

Well, it has been about ten days since I have posted pictures. The plants are huge. They should be at about the end of their major stretch. Of course they will stretch another six or eight inches before they finish but the brunt of the stretch is done. Every square inch of the room is full. All 50 square feet.

My Solution is getting very cold now. Last night when I checked them the solution temperature was 58 degrees.

I went through all of the plants and pulled the little branches that are not getting light. Dont need parasitic growth sucking away energy from the plant.

The plants are so huge that it took about three hours to clean them up. Tonight I will change the solution.

Statistics:
Fertilization: Lucas Formula
Days flowering: 19
PPM: 1300
PH: 5.6
Solution Temp: 58
Room Temp: 77
Lighting: 3x1000 watt HPS
Plants: 15
Strains:
6 Skunk # 11
4 Dynamite
5 AK 47

Here are some updated pictures:

The Girls are looking real sexy , just about ready for some bud porn ...

Did you do any pruning or topping , I cant find it in your thread ?

Just a tremendous grow , You make a difference , with what you do ...

Old Fat Dude said:

The Girls are looking real sexy , just about ready for some bud porn ...

Did you do any pruning or topping , I cant find it in your thread ?

Just a tremendous grow , You make a difference , with what you do ...

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I dont prune or top. It slows the plant down. Instead of topping I will bend the main tip downward and tie it. After a few days some of the side branches will grow up past it then I untie the main top. This makes the top of the plant grow in a V just like topping it.

Yes, I agree I will get some bud porn out of this grow. Every one of the plants is putting on incredible weight for this early in the flowering stage. I am quite pleased.

Tonight I will change out the solution and clean everything out.

Time for another update:

I got some more pictures today. This is from last night. These pictures are 22 days into flowering. Hard to imagine what they will look like in a month but we shall find out!!

The buds have stopped their major stretching. They stretch about 40% of the budding cycle. They are fattening up now. Of course they will continue stretching a few inches a week til they are done.

This weekend I have to get in and tie them up as best I can. As you can tell, Im not going to be able to get into the room for much longer without them falling apart from dead weight. I will put a stake in the middle to hold up the terminal but on each one and tie up the side buds as well as I can.

Most of my strains are 7-8 weeks. Lot of time to go.

I am giving them one tablespoon of H2O2 per day for added oxygen. The room is pretty cool for three lights, about 75 degrees with both exhaust fans running. As the weather gets colder I will just run the 465 cfm fan and when it gets winter cold Ill just run the 265 cfm.

The room where my reservoir is located is always about 55 degrees. My reservoir is at about 58 degrees now. Very cold water, the plants just love it. Colder the water, the more oxygen it holds, the more the root growth, the more massive the flowering. Had similar results last winter.

The room is about 55 degrees in dark period. The coolness doesnt seem to bother them at all.

About the Lucas Formula:
For the first 2 1/2 weeks, I would let the reservoir drop down to about 25 gallons before refilling it. The PPM was only drifting a little bit. From about 1250 ppm to about 1300 PPM over three days, very stable. Now I am topping off every day and just readjusting the PPM to 1300. They are using about 10 gallons a day. Really sucking down the water. They really love it when the solution is changed out. With every reservoir change, they do a growth spurt for a couple days, then settle back to normal growth. If I had all the time and money in the world I would change the reservoir twice a week.

Here are pictures I took last night.

Good stuff man, everything continues to look great!

Have your ran into any major problems this grow or just smooth sailing?

I think your dispensary will be very happy in a few months here, GL on the 6lbs target!

blueybong said:

Beautiful grow!!

Are you using 2 gallon buckets?

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Yes, the buckets that come with the ebb and grow system are two gallon buckets. It would be easy to convert the system to larger buckets.

The two gallon buckets kick ass so far.

Update with Pictures:

Well, it has been eight days since I last posted some pictures. The plants have now been flowering for 4 weeks.

This last week I was letting the solution level get down to about 20 gallons before filling it back up. I did this because the PPM was barely changing as the nutrient level dropped. I noticed that I had some very slight micronutrient deficiencies as a result (3-4 days between adding nutes). The oldest shade leaves on the plants, the ones on main stem off the bottom couple of branches turned yellowish with greenish veins. I noticed some scale looking crap on a couple of the upper leaves. Looks like I had a slight phosphorus and magnesium deficiency. This tells me that even though the PPM is staying the same, the phosphorus and magnesium are being used up disproportionately.

Lucas says that you should top off every day or so with fresh nutrient. The deficiencies I had were very slight and not too noticeable but enough to tell me to stay on top of topping off the reservoir. I wont let it go longer than two days now. Lesson learned.

Besides that slight oddity, everything is going beyond my expectations, as you will see in the picturese

Statistics:
Days Flowering: 29
PPM: 1300
PH: 5.6
Room temp: 75 daytime, 59 nighttime
Solution temp: 57
Humidity: 67
Odor control: Ona blocks/Gel

The plants are using between 7 and 10 gallons of solution per day. No elbow room left but each plant has a nice space and all are putting very thick buds. Well, IM half way through budding. Looking to be a bumper crop! Gotta love Lucas (and the ebb and grow!)

Here are some pictures, you can see the room is very crowded but very solid with buds. The third image shows a plant where an old shade leaf is yellowed as I described before:

blueybong said:

Good info and beautiful plants!

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Yeah, 3-4 weeks to go and harvest. Cant wait!

That sure is a pretty picture.

How do you keep your plants from falling over? I don't know if you have this problem at all but I went to move one of my ladies the other day and she fell over and I had to tie her up... Anything you do to prevent this?

tomatoe cages will fit over the 2 gallon buckets

doniawon said:

tomatoe cages will fit over the 2 gallon buckets

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Some people turn tomato cages upside down.

I get a metal plant stake and stick it into the hydroton right next to the main stalk and use long twist ties to attach it to the main cola.

If they start falling over I may just have to let them grow however they end up, too much bud in the way to get to the back of the room. Might do a little tying this coming weekend but after that nature will take its course.

Hey, Ive endured worse problems.