Ask Lucas

[DOZEE]

how you been man.. didnt know your still here LUCAS

yes i run 2- 6" air stone's.. water level is abou a 1" below the net pot but notice that some of the leafs eges are curling up ward and getting on the crispy side wile some leafs tips are curling under my tds after topping with plain tap water was 1450 and a ph of 5.8 and check 24 hours later had to add a 1/2 gallon tap water and then my tds was 1027 and a ph of 4.6 she keep taking every thing i give her...i up the tds to 1900 last nite not shure if that will help or make it worse got anouter tomatoe plant in a flood and drain and my tds is way about 2000 but i cant check any more cuz my meter only goes to 2000 but it dont have the blister leafs they just trun brown at the tips and rot off one queation is flornova and the gh flora series made just for MJ or is it good for all plants?

[Glass Man]

It's probably a lot less expensive to just buy tomatoes than to use HIDs and GH nutes, but "homegrown" tastes better.

Here's some info specificly for growing hydro tomatoes. Can't find the www address, but just google this: University of Florida IFAS Extension - Nutrient Solution Formulation for Hydroponic (Perlite, Rockwool, NFT) Tomatoes in Florida. Written by George J. Hochmuth and Robert C. Hochmuth

It's a bit "techy" but if you read through it a bit you'll figure out exactly what the pro's use for growing lots of hydro "maters"!!

Maters do have different nutrient requirements than Cannabis.

Btw, try sautee'ing some green maters or stir-fry some. Yum yum!



peace,
GM

[Lucas]

> how you been man

good, thanks Dozee, I hope all is well with you too

> some of the leafs eges are curling up ward

that could be from too much heat on the leaves, possibly from the light being too close, or from lack of ventilation.

> some leafs tips are curling under

that could be from too strong nutes, consider 1000 ppm instead of 2000+

well my temp range is from 72-87 and the light is 8" from the leafs that are curling now you could be right that it needs more venaltion wil try to work on that.. now i think your right about the nutes i just check it and getting a lot of limp leafs now so i will back of my nutes to 1000 ppm and see how she does. but one qustion lets say my ppm is 1500 the next day i top her off with the tap water and re check my ppmand they are say 800ppm do i keep the 1500 ppm or would i want to bump it up higer ?

[c-ray]

this is a great thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by Glass Man

Hey guest,

It's probably a lot less expensive to just buy tomatoes than to use HIDs and GH nutes, but "homegrown" tastes better.

Here's some info specificly for growing hydro tomatoes. Can't find the www address, but just google this: University of Florida IFAS Extension - Nutrient Solution Formulation for Hydroponic (Perlite, Rockwool, NFT) Tomatoes in Florida. Written by George J. Hochmuth and Robert C. Hochmuth

It's a bit "techy" but if you read through it a bit you'll figure out exactly what the pro's use for growing lots of hydro "maters"!!

Maters do have different nutrient requirements than Cannabis.

Btw, try sautee'ing some green maters or stir-fry some. Yum yum!



peace,
GM

thanks for the info

ok i just came up with this hows 9.5mill gh macro 8mill gh bloom sound its the closet i could find to the nute profile for a tomatoe plant i ened up with 880ppm
and 5.8 ph no ph up or down
nute profile for tomatoe in late bloom/ gh flora series mix
n-150----- n-153.97
p-50----- p-52.94
k-200----- k-106.18
ca-150---- ca-153.97
mg-50---- mg-36.43
s-60 ------ s-24.28
fe-2.8------ fe-3.08

does this sounds like it wili work and should i add some thing else to bring up the k,mg and s looks like there a lil low but this is close as i can get to mach the profile

[Irie1]

I need some advice on the use of Floramite. I need to use it indoors in a 12 x 16 room with good ventilation. I am a week from flower and have spider mites from my last crop still lingering. My plants are Lavender from Soma and are 18" tall. Do I need a gasmask? Any input helps thanks guys!

[Lucas]

> i just came up with this hows 9.5mill gh macro 8mill gh bloom

you did a very good job calculating the formula values

I think your primary limiting factor is the lack of fresh air flow, which means the CO2 is all used up, so is the oxygen.

8" from 150 watts is OK, but 87F of stagnant air is killing them from above and below.

do not underestimate the importance of CO2 for the leaves, and O2 for the roots.

> getting a lot of limp leafs now

might be caused by roots that are dying from lack of oxygen in water that is too warm

it is probably too late to save the plant, once the leaves go limp

> I need some advice on the use of Floramite.

follow the directions on the label

let us know if it works

Lucas

thanks lucas i will try to increase the intake but one other qustion once i get my nutes right do i just keep topping off with plain water and if so how low do i let the ppm drop before i change the nute for fresh nutes or do i add some more nutes after the add back and bring my tds back up to where i had itif thats the case do i just add macro alone or do i mix the bloom to and if so how much of each would i need to add?

[Glass Man]

Irie1,

I have used the "No Pest Strips" that lots of others reccomend on the boards. They are cheap and they do work. I looked into the expensive sprays, but decided to try the strips during veg. Only needed to use it for a couple of days, then zip-locked it to save for later (hope later never comes). I don't know about toxicity, but I'm not sure about the other sprays tozicity either. You might want to give it a try, they're only about $5. Btw, my room is 9.5 x 16, about the size of yours.

Good luck,
GM

[Irie1]

I just used it about twenty min. ago (the Floramite). I'll let you guys know about the results. I used a gas mask and sprayed everywhere. About the pest strips.....I tried them last run, and had limited luck. They worked at first, but later when I couldn't turn off the ventilation, the mites came back even stronger. The Floramite is supposed to stay on the plant for about 3-4 weeks. So we'll see how it goes. It was definately my last resort. Any other comments or suggestions? Time to kick back and wait...

[Lucas]

> do i add some more nutes after the add back and bring my tds back up to where i had it

yes, that is correct

> if thats the case do i just add macro alone or do i mix the bloom to and if so how much of each would i need to add?

you have to add both Micro and Bloom, in the same proportion you have designed your formula, for every 9.5ml of Micro, you add 8ml of bloom, per your recipe.

as to how much of each... well.. you will have to figure that out by trial and error, checking with your TDS meter. Or figure it out mathematically.. if your target TDS is say 1000, and after adding water its at 800, then you need to add 20% of your nutes formula, calculated based on the total gallons of your res.

for example, 6 gallons times 20% of 9.5 is 6*.2*9.5=11.4 mls of Micro.. then do the math for the 20% of 8ml of bloom, times the 6 gallon res capacity..

warning, adding unmixed nutes to your root zone can kill the plants. You should mix the nutes outside the root zone.

as an alternative, if you add back just water, you should dump the entire res and start with a fresh mix when you have added an equal amount of plain water as your original reservoir holds when full, what we call the 100% addback point

for example, if you have a 6 gallon reservoir, after 12 days of adding .5 gallons per day, you should dump and remix..

so, 2 options, add nutes as you go along, and never dump the res for the life of the crop, or, just add water, then dump and replace when cumulative addback water equals original res volume.

Lucas

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lucas

> do i add some more nutes after the add back and bring my tds back up to where i had it

yes, that is correct

> if thats the case do i just add macro alone or do i mix the bloom to and if so how much of each would i need to add?

you have to add both Micro and Bloom, in the same proportion you have designed your formula, for every 9.5ml of Micro, you add 8ml of bloom, per your recipe.

as to how much of each... well.. you will have to figure that out by trial and error, checking with your TDS meter. Or figure it out mathematically.. if your target TDS is say 1000, and after adding water its at 800, then you need to add 20% of your nutes formula, calculated based on the total gallons of your res.

for example, 6 gallons times 20% of 9.5 is 6*.2*9.5=11.4 mls of Micro.. then do the math for the 20% of 8ml of bloom, times the 6 gallon res capacity..

warning, adding unmixed nutes to your root zone can kill the plants. You should mix the nutes outside the root zone.

as an alternative, if you add back just water, you should dump the entire res and start with a fresh mix when you have added an equal amount of plain water as your original reservoir holds when full, what we call the 100% addback point

for example, if you have a 6 gallon reservoir, after 12 days of adding .5 gallons per day, you should dump and remix..

so, 2 options, add nutes as you go along, and never dump the res for the life of the crop, or, just add water, then dump and replace when cumulative addback water equals original res volume.

Lucas

thank you so much lucas thats was a big help your still the man.

hey lucas got anouter question to ask how would one know if the nutes there using are bad i got floranova wich is over a year old and my gh flora 3 part is at lest 2 years old and so far my tomaotes are still not doing good and i swear my nutes are bad but have no way to tell. and right now dont have money to go buy fresh nutes to see if that would help. and would powder nutes last longer than the liquide ? and do you think buying my own chemicals and mixing my own nutes would work just as good as the premixed?

[gisisi]

High Lucas.
Is a pH of 6.6-6.7 high enough to cause defiencies in ebb and flow?
My initial fill was with tap water.
I thought topping with RO and adding nutes would keep pH low, but it is not working.

thanks,
gisisi

[Lucas]

>and so far my tomaotes are still not doing good and i swear my nutes are bad

I doubt it

more likely your climate is not dialed

> I thought topping with RO and adding nutes would keep pH low

you should use pH down to get to about 5.8. Tap Water and pH down go together.

[Indica Sativa]

Lucas, are there any problems associated with using a recirculating drip system with clay pellets? Or should I just treat it as if it were an ebb/flo setup?

[Lucas]

> problems associated with using a recirculating drip system with clay pellets?

watch out you dont get algae growing where the irrigation wets the top of the medium.. algae feeds fungus gnats, whose larvae eat roots.. consider burying the irrigation hose so the top of the rox stay dry, or making sure there is no light hitting the wet rox

recirculating is not quite ebb flow, more like dwc since the rox are always wet.. with no drying out cycle for the roots to breathe. Hence full flow is more prone to problems if the water is not sufficiently oxygenated, especially if it gets above 74F in the reservoir

consider putting the irrigation on a timer, to get the advantage of the natural swamp cooler effect of rox, and the natural mist that forms between the rox spaces, which roots love (assuming you have big pots of rox.. 1 gallon or larger, not tiny 3" ones)

[Indica Sativa]

Sorry for the confusion... by recirculating, I meant not simply running drain to waste =] Recirculate the nutes from the tray back to the res... I will have the dripper tube sticking into the gro rocks a little bit so the top doesn't get watered. As for the timer, I will most likely start off with 10 mins on 50 off, or 15 mins on 45 off like SoQuick had his drip system setup. Most likely be using 6" pots. Thanks.

[PonicallyChillin]

I got one for you lucas.

What are your thoughts on a mediumless ebb and flow setup provided you can support the plant?

The simplicity of the MultiFlow system appeals to me over DWC now as one can avoid the complexity of a high powered (noisey) airpump to aerate the buckets. It also has the advantage of the water temperature not being as HUGE of issue.

The downside is all of those damn rocks. I hate medium and try to avoid it as much as possible. In my current SWC garden I use 3.75" neoprene, but still use a netcup. The plants have anchored themselves into the netcup and it seems to be working pretty well.

Do you think it is feasible to design a mediumless ebb and flow (bucket style) setup?

The buckets ideally would be placed right next to each other to simulate a bucket style sea of green as to not grow "bushes", but rather large colas similar to the ones SoQuick used to grow. I think plant support would be less of an issue if done this way.

So what do you think? Am I missing an important piece to the puzzle or something here?

The only ebb and flow mediumless setup I have ever seen was the growell insert which holds 36 plants above a 3x3 tray.
http://www.hydroasis.com/Merchant2/g.../964310054.jpg


Much Respect,
PC

[Lucas]

> 15 mins on 45 off

sounds good

> Do you think it is feasible to design a mediumless ebb and flow (bucket style) setup?

I dont know if mediumless ebb flow would work.. although Aeroponics is basically that.

when looking to eliminate the multiflow grorox, my thoughts ran to bubblers, but that eliminates the advantages of growing in rox, not needing an airpump, and the temperature advantage of rox cooling by the swamp cooler effect..

the main concern with mediumless, is keeping the roots from drying out, which goes towards deep water culture, and its sensitivity to heat..

[Hydrophonics]

Mediumless E&F? I think mediumless NFT would be better.

[tjhidro]

HEY LUCAS...
i went to my hydro store, to pick up some GH flouroious bloom to use the lucas formula, and was told it is NO longer being made!!! GH is phaseing it out in favor of GH FLOURIUOS PLUS. my question is... do i us the same formula for it?? or should i try to stock up on GH FLOURIOUS??? peace

[Strawberrycough]

^^Wierd I asked my hydro store and he said that he hasnt heard of GH Floralicious bloom getting phazed out...