what's an N-P-K? nute advice from stonedar

Hiya fellow noobs, some helpful (I hope) wisdom. Almost every major nutrient manufacturer has on their website something called a feeding chart. Take for example a popular brand like Fox Farm they have a complete line of liquid nutrients for soil and hydro growers based on a 3 part solution. They also sell a line of additives for those very same nutes. If you were to follow this set of premade instructions on how to grow you would see results that will make any 1st time grower proud. Now I am not saying any of these charts are exactly perfect but they are an excellent place to start.

Far be it from me to say that these companies are producing products designed to grow marijuana but I bet if you were to look at several you would be suprised how many are for plants that flower under 12hours of light and take about 8 weeks to finish.

soo my point is if you are a noob looking for advice on how to use nutrients worry less about N-P-K numbers and try using the manufacturers instructions. it's a damn good place to start.


P.S. even the dry nute manufactures such as Jack's Classic have a great how to on growing tomatoes on their website. which if you follow, u will get great smoking tomatoes.

so thats my 2 cents, yeah "organic" tastes better. but at this point get a crop or 2 under your belt, then mess around with the bazillion options that are out there. get some seeds in the grow show lets get it on!

Hey and welcome to RIU

I would have to say do NOT follow the directions, it's not for MJ and it often results in nute burn just starting out.
Also liquid nutes are much easier to use because they mix much easier.
Also you DO have to pay attention to NPK as the plants requirements are diffrent during veg and flower so you have to make changes.
Organic is best, but often hard to completely do.

Phenom420 said:

Hey and welcome to RIU

I would have to say do NOT follow the directions, it's not for MJ and it often results in nute burn just starting out.
Also liquid nutes are much easier to use because they mix much easier.
Also you DO have to pay attention to NPK as the plants requirements are diffrent during veg and flower so you have to make changes.
Organic is best, but often hard to completely do.

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I second that - using the package directions is a damn good way to kill your plants.

DoeEyed said:

I second that - useing the package directions is a damn good way to kill your plants.

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Really you should read this Bud it will help clear the NPK stuff up. It's not something to ignore.

https://www.rollitup.org/4676-post8.html
https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/1171-nutrient-soup.html

I have had no trouble growing using fox farms grow schedule. I have had no trouble using 3 part GH Flora drain to waste schedule, I have had no trouble using GH Flora nova grow schedule on my mother plants 5 gallon DWC. my buds are juicy. I have used lucas 3 part on an ebb and flow table. I used BioBizz's grow schedule with excellent results. not sure what type of pot you been growing but I had good luck using published charts and I mean for years. back when people used postage stamps to send mail not twitter up until now. I have grown with bat shit bird shit pig shit and my shit. I have grown using charcoal and just dirt from my backyard. I know that this chart right here with foxfarm ocean forest soil grows well cause I can look in my closet and see it. thanks for stopping by though.

http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf

ohh I didn't mean to suggest that I ignore NPK just that by following the advice of the manufactures you can grow just fine

stonedar said:

I have had no trouble growing using fox farms grow schedule. I have had no trouble using 3 part GH Flora drain to waste schedule, I have had no trouble using GH Flora nova grow schedule on my mother plants 5 gallon DWC. my buds are juicy. I have used lucas 3 part on an ebb and flow table. I used BioBizz's grow schedule with excellent results. not sure what type of pot you been growing but I had good luck using published charts and I mean for years. back when people used postage stamps to send mail not twitter up until now. I have grown with bat shit bird shit pig shit and my shit. I have grown using charcoal and just dirt from my backyard. I know that this chart right here with foxfarm ocean forest soil grows well cause I can look in my closet and see it. thanks for stopping by though.

http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf

ohh I didn't mean to suggest that I ignore NPK just that by following the advice of the manufactures you can grow just fine

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If you're a long time, experienced grower and you can make it work for you, that's great. However - I don't think it's a good idea to tell new growers to do this. The overwhelming majority of us, at some point early on, wind up with nute burned plants using less than the recomended dosage, much less full strength.
Welcome to the forum, by the way.

thank you for the welcome I know you are trying to help the noobs, just think you're wrong is all. I used exactly what is on the chart with good results. from at least 4 seperate manufacturers in different types of systems. the charts work. could a different ratio of nutes or different combo of additives work better? sure

stonedar said:

thank you for the welcome I know you are trying to help the noobs, just think you're wrong is all. I used exactly what is on the chart with good results. from at least 4 seperate manufacturers in different types of systems. the charts work. could a different ratio of nutes or different combo of additives work better? sure

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You know I'm wrong huh?
yeah sure ummmhmmm
not gonna waste my time here then..... LOL

I've been hunting like a madman to try to find this 20-5-5 nute thats listed. I cannot find this substance anywhere. Do you have to mix it yourself?

GrizzlyAdams said:

I've been hunting like a madman to try to find this 20-5-5 nute thats listed. I cannot find this substance anywhere. Do you have to mix it yourself?

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Hey and welcome to RIU
do you kno who makes it?
Where did you read aobut it?

I dont know all the ratios for all the nutes off the top of my head LOL

Phenom420 I was careful to say I think you are wrong. I am always willing to learn. I doubt though that you have tried Fox Farm's nutrient schedule, if you had you would sing a different tune. I am not talking about whats on the side of the bottle I am talking about this http://www.foxfarmfertilizer.com/soilfeed.pdf chart. It works, does something work better? prolly but it works

Sure that does work, BUT you can't tell plp to ignore the NPK
when they decide they want to do better than some label noob then where will they be??

If your gonna grow you should atleast understand half way what is going on.
Also what about when you follow the instructions and wind up with a deficiency and dont know what NPK is?
let alone micro nutes.

My real problem was with you telling noobs is basically ignore what NPK is, that's silly.
Also other products (such as MG, another noob fav) you would fry a plant with theur directed, same with others.
Not so much FF, I started some recently at full strength after 3-4 weeks
Anyways nuff said, don't give advice for plp to ignore something like that.

what I guess I was trying to say on my original post is that if you follow a nutrient feeding schedule, someone else has done your NPK calculations for you. and that you can be assured that you are giving the plant a complete "food" with NPK and micronutients.

Phenom420 good luck on your grow

Happy grown 2 ya 2 bud.

Even tho we don't see eye to eye, welcome to RIU all the same.