help needed with nutes

ive given up with soil growing and i give up asking for advice in the basic growing section as there seems little support so im going to try hydroponics this time around, just hope there is some support in this section.

i have setup a small drip system ready to grow 4 plants but what i dont understand if the feeding methods. how long does the nutes last in the water and how often should i change the water in the resovior? the ionics bottle says to feed them x amount per 1litre and then feed the plant once every 3 - 4 days but do i just feed them only water inbetween those days? ive had nothing but bad luck with my last 2 crops so some good support would be much appreciated. thanks

You can start by offering what you are going to use. Some nutes like BC-Boost/Grow and Bloom you can cut pretty much in half. If you use what they tell ya, you will find the you will start to have problems right from the get go. Get a good timer for your pump. You should set your drip up for 30 mins every couple of hours at first, anymore can create an over watering condition that you will not like. You also can cut off your pumps when it is dark since the plants will not be feeding as much when not in a veg growth such as in the evenings. Much of your first hydro grow will be a learning experience, play around with things and see what works best for your strain and conditions.

Offer a little more detail, and I am sure you will get the information you desire.

A good rule of thumb is to check once a week. Change water and nutes. Keep your ph correct daily if you can. I go a week with no issues, and water tmp between 70-73.

ok these are the nutes i have:

IONIC Hydro Bloom
IONIC Hydro Grow
IONIC Boost
Bud Blood
Big Bud
Superthrive

thats all of the nutes i have.

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Originally Posted by sirruler

ok these are the nutes i have:

IONIC Hydro Bloom
IONIC Hydro Grow
IONIC Boost
Bud Blood
Big Bud
Superthrive

thats all of the nutes i have.

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Starting out all you will need to add is the IONIC Hydro Grow and IONIC Boost. I would start out by cutting the mix in half to see how that goes first since it is a far quicker fix to add then take away. Remember your watering cycles. New seedlings really only need 15 to 30 mins on a drip every couple of hours till dark. Once it goes dark you can shut down the pump for the night. Pump volume matters as does line size. You should see a drip ever three to four seconds. More can lead to an over saturated root system and futher issues you do not need when starting out. :)

i thought the boost was used with the bloom :D thats something i didnt know but im glad you pointed that out :thumbsup:
so each week i will empty the resovior and make up a fresh load. i just hope i get better luck this time :) i do need to get a less powerful pump though because the one i have i think will wash them away but they are cheap enough (i think)
thanks for the handy tips they will definatly help me out,thanks

Did you buy the hydro unit or make it ? We have ten gallon tubs with six plants per tub. I have seen ones with four. We use GH nutes.

Your getting good advice. I would like to see the system or a drawing if you can. Just hang in there cause once you tune in hydro is the bomb.

its part home built and part bought. i have 2 trays which i have implimented but i think i still need a couple of parts but nothing major. i do need a new pump though because from what OutportGrower was saying it only needs to be about 1 drop every 3 - 4 seconds and the pump i have is more like a jet.
i havent constructed the parts as yet because my grow tent is still in use (only 12 days left woooohooo) once thats been cleared im going to sterilize it and then assemble everything.

i know my first attempt wont go so well like anything new its mainly a learning curve but ive been reading some great results in this section which to me is a light at the end of the tunnel. ive spent so much money on all my equipment and lost so much through poor crops. i just want to learn how to do this properly thats all. cloning has never been a problem for me, i can clone pretty much anything with almost 99% success but the actual growing and bloom is a totally different ball game. i just hope i have all the right nutes this time but now its just giving them the right amounts at the right times. once its all assembled i will post some images here. what do you think of the flood and drain system? would it be better than a drip system? there are just too many different ways to do it.

there was one other thing i was meant to ask in this section which slipped my mind and thats testing water ph. should the ph be tested before adding nutes or after? i realised that when adding nutes the ph changes quite a lot and thats why i ask. thanks :)

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Originally Posted by sirruler

there was one other thing i was meant to ask in this section which slipped my mind and thats testing water ph. should the ph be tested before adding nutes or after? i realised that when adding nutes the ph changes quite a lot and thats why i ask. thanks :)

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Good rule of thumb is to check after you have added everything to the mix and it has had a little time to move around. Rockwool will increase your ph, but depending on the size of your res it may not become much of an issue. A problem could be with trying to lower or raise it once your plants have been added. You would like to get a good feel for how much up or down you really need to use when adjustments are made.

If you are able, and location helps here try to collect rain water. You will find that it should show a ph of around 5.2, and full of oxy which is a great thing. Tap or well water can be used with slight adjustment. Play around with adjustments to the ph in a container. Once you learn how much up or down is needed you will have less issues down the road.

If you use Rockwool, you *must* soak it in ph adjusted water for at least 24 hours. After that you can also add an extra rinse or two just to pull it down a little more.

In our 20 gal systems the ph really stays pretty stable and might only move a point up over seven days. This is a simple adjustment by sticking my baby finger into the ph down bottle and then mixing the res water by hand. Not rocket science, but the keep it simple route has never failed so far. :)

Trial and error is how we learn. Start out playing with different water levels and nutes. The nutes should not raise or lower the values. If they do, move onto a nutural solution or organics. With organics you can mess up a bit more and not cause as much harm to your palnts or system. Another plus with organics is taste if you worry about that.

We run 130 gallon a hour pump for drip. Started running 24/7 like some do and cut back now to 30 minutes every 2 hours. No drip emmiters just 1/4 inch lines to netpots just not pouring right on 1 inch rockwool in hydrotron.

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Originally Posted by LOC NAR on probation

We run 130 gallon a hour pump for drip. Started running 24/7 like some do and cut back now to 30 minutes every 2 hours. No drip emmiters just 1/4 inch lines to netpots just not pouring right on 1 inch rockwool in hydrotron.

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You can really shut down your pumps when you are not under a lighting condition. Plants really only feed during daylight. Once you cut your lights, or natural light fades off you can really have the pumps on a timer and save a little power. Our hydro system run off of two wind turbines, so power conservation is an issue.

thanks for those really great tips guys i really appreciate the help.my resovior is measured in litres but its a 50 litre bucket, its not massive or anything as i only plan to grow 4 from now on. im just having troubles finding the right pump as the one i have is way to powerful, its like a jet.

i got loads of timer swtches laying about so im good on that one :)
i tried using the ionic hydro nutes with canna coco soil (what a disaster) it was a real nightmare turning the plant totally yellow :D and it holds way too much water for way too long, canna coco is a load of crap and i'd never use it again. hmm i wonder if it would be any good for a cat litter tray :D anyway ive made my mind up now its gonna be hydroponics all the way for me now especially after seeing some results on some vids :thumbsup: thanks again for the help im taking notes so i dont mess up this time :)

Your lucky a few of the nice guys around here answered you, most people would have told you to use the search function. If you cant even bother to find out what ph is on your own, your bound to fail!:mad:

i know what ph is and i didnt ask what it is

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sirruler

there was one other thing i was meant to ask in this section which slipped my mind and thats testing water ph. should the ph be tested before adding nutes or after? i realised that when adding nutes the ph changes quite a lot and thats why i ask. thanks :)

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This leads me to believe that you don't know much about anything and are to lazy to read. Why put in the research like the rest of us have when you can just ask!

sorry m8 i thought this was a forum? i have searched this place endlessly looking for answers and the question i asked was valid. again i wasnt asking what ph is i was asking when is best to test it. your post here is pointless and unwanted im sure and to me it looks like you are only posting here to ruin ruin this topic maybe as revenge on another post of mine?

seems every post i make on this forum there is someone fast to criticize so you win, i would like to say thank you to those who were genuinely offering help and support but this will be my last appearance on this site. no wonder very few reply to posts on here with people posting comments like that.
i was a genuine member on here asking for genuine help and im sure i must have worn the search function out by now. thanks again and take care all

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sirruler

thanks for those really great tips guys i really appreciate the help.my resovior is measured in litres but its a 50 litre bucket, its not massive or anything as i only plan to grow 4 from now on. im just having troubles finding the right pump as the one i have is way to powerful, its like a jet.

i got loads of timer swtches laying about so im good on that one :)
i tried using the ionic hydro nutes with canna coco soil (what a disaster) it was a real nightmare turning the plant totally yellow :D and it holds way too much water for way too long, canna coco is a load of crap and i'd never use it again. hmm i wonder if it would be any good for a cat litter tray :D anyway ive made my mind up now its gonna be hydroponics all the way for me now especially after seeing some results on some vids :thumbsup: thanks again for the help im taking notes so i dont mess up this time :)

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I use 120l tubs 6 plants per tub each plant in a 2l pot. Right now we have 24 of these units up and running in the greenhouse, total cost to build these, under $75.00 Cdn. I use mainly EcoPlus pumps 396gph in each unit and 302 airpumps, with a total of 12 drip emiters, two per pot. You can pick up a simple valve to limit the flow if your seems to pass more then you require. Just be sure to place it inline on the top of your system for easy access. :) It is a simple fix to open or close the valve to obtain the correct flow this way. You also can pickup regulated emitters that will provide between x and y drips per min. These can be helpful when running a garden that you do not have daily access to. Other then that, keep the ph under control. Do not try to knock it right back up or right back down all at once. You really need to do that over a few days to a week to not cause shock.

Underwatering can be corrected pretty quick, but overwatering *can* make for a bad day since the drying time is longer then to replenish the plants with the proper nutes and air mix. I use pretty much natural light, so my temps in the spring/summer and fall are pretty steady. In the winter I need to add the lights, but then I can just keep the heat down at the location to control the water temp. Air temp really seems to not be an issue. Might be due to the breeding that we have done as well.

Once I transplant I will grab a few photo's of the tub and pump set-up so that you have an idea.

Another option for a drip system is to make a ring. Take a small section of your drip line, connect to a T, then make a ring the size of your pot. Well a little smaller so to permit the spary/drip to be in close contact to your root system. This offers even feeding, and then you can run your feeding off a timer to perfection.

Just use a dremel with either a small bit or grinding stone to drill out even spaced openings on the ring. Do not make them too large or you will be back to square one with too much water. Something to play with when bored, but once you get it right, you will like what you get from it. :)

Sorry just reread my posts stoned, sounded a little dickish.;)

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Originally Posted by sirruler

sorry m8 i thought this was a forum? i have searched this place endlessly looking for answers and the question i asked was valid. again i wasnt asking what ph is i was asking when is best to test it. your post here is pointless and unwanted im sure and to me it looks like you are only posting here to ruin ruin this topic maybe as revenge on another post of mine?

seems every post i make on this forum there is someone fast to criticize so you win, i would like to say thank you to those who were genuinely offering help and support but this will be my last appearance on this site. no wonder very few reply to posts on here with people posting comments like that.
i was a genuine member on here asking for genuine help and im sure i must have worn the search function out by now. thanks again and take care all

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Alls well m8. Sometimes I don't have my meds and get a little loopy too.We all her just want to help or you would get no answers at all. Just take it with a grain of salt. No bodies hurt.

sorry guys, i just had to go let off a lot of steam lol
ive had nothing but really bad luck lately, ive spent hundreds of pounds on nutes and soil and later found i was sent the wrong sutes and soil, couldnt send them back because i had already started using them. spend hundreds on electricity along with many other hardware which was the wrong size etc. the trees didnt grow very well at all so i figured i'd look on here for some support. it just seemed everytime i tried to ask for help i was being swamped with negative replies or intimidated. i always search before asking because i often find other interesting things that way.

you'd think a forum such as this would be more hospitable after all we are all doing the same thing, we all have the same interest and we are allwanting to learn new things. i know absolutely nothing about hydroponic growing and thought i'd give it a go as i wasnt having any luck with growing in soil. ive asked a lot of questions on here simply because i don't know the answers and i want to learn. this is a 'really' expensive hobby so you want to be armed with the best knowledge as you can before you start spending all your hard earnt money and believe me ive spend way more than i can afford and still im not having any luck.

OutportGrower has given me some excellent info and has probably saved me a lot of time n' money which i am very grateful. in a few weeks time i will put it into practice and pray i dont goof up. thanks

Hang in there man. It will happen for you. I can kill anything in soil. I try too hard to take care of them. About 4 years back I came here. A couple of good guy's latewood and Zandor, OH and stinkyattic helped me tune in. As I was harvesting my biggest grow of over a pound and had a sea of green going that would last 6 months till I could take a brake. I had papaya, hawiianxskunk, Cali redbud, Afgani and to top it off strwberrycough all lined up. MY nephew busted me to get out of coke charges and trying to rape 16 year old girls at the beach. I was not even enough to get him out of it, so he had to bust his coke dealer and now has a death warrant on his head. He loined the army and went to iraq and just came back. He beat his wife with his military gun and got some more drug charges and is sitting in jail for months and being dishonorably discharged from the army now.

Funny how things turn around after awhile. I'm a felon and he was a war hero but not any more.

I and a friend have been off probation and put it all back together but tuning in a new room takes time. We are close to bringing back to harvest after a couple failures. We tried some new things instead of doing what we know. LOL
We have the papaya, Hawiianxskunkxbigbud, rebud skunk and Northernlights all proofed female mothers and some sage in proofing.

Hang in there it's going to be a great green and redhair Xmas or boxing day for us this year. And all the holidays till then too.

Oh yea, keep asking them questions. The only stupid one is the one not asked.

ok im back again :)
i finally chopped my 16 little ladies that i had in soil but only got 7 ounces (what a total disaster) anyway ive also decided to to buy a proper universal flood and drain / drip system but im gonna be using those clay pellets. no more soil growing for me from now on its hydro all the way :)

it will be about 5 - 6 weeks time when i start growing as i will be away for a while with my gf :) but once i get back i will use the excellent tips from above to get me started. with some luck i might actually get a crop worth harvesting this time around :thumbsup: i have everything i need accept the hydro system but thats easily enough to get. im not gonna post pics of the crop i just harvested because the buds were far too small.

i did have a serious spider mite issue in my grow tent so im gonna sterilize the bottom mat and hope they dont come back on my next grow. dunno where the hell they come from but they sure do some serious damage. anyway thanks once again for the help guys i appreciate it