Ask Lucas

[WilliJuana]

I run the same system as you and use GH nutes, Micro and Bloom in the suggested rates of 8/16. 4X4 tray, 40gal rez, 600W. I do however, cover my trays to give the roots a light proof area. Did it with Panda Poly.
To answer some of your questions:
-Can I run a higher EC without fear of burning them? Might not burn them, but you will begin to get salt buildup which will lead to lock out eventually.

-What should my water cycle be? 15-30min on every 4 hours, 24/7 works great for me!

-Should I put a little Cal Mag in? (Mag deficency?) Yes.

-Should I stop adjusting the PH? is 6.0 good to run on this sytem? (Nutrient Lock?) I keep mine between 5.8-6.0 and have no problems.

Hope this helps!

[McGyver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by WilliJuana

I run the same system as you and use GH nutes, Micro and Bloom in the suggested rates of 8/16. 4X4 tray, 40gal rez, 600W. I do however, cover my trays to give the roots a light proof area. Did it with Panda Poly.
To answer some of your questions:
-Can I run a higher EC without fear of burning them? Might not burn them, but you will begin to get salt buildup which will lead to lock out eventually.

-What should my water cycle be? 15-30min on every 4 hours, 24/7 works great for me!

-Should I put a little Cal Mag in? (Mag deficency?) Yes.

-Should I stop adjusting the PH? is 6.0 good to run on this sytem? (Nutrient Lock?) I keep mine between 5.8-6.0 and have no problems.

Hope this helps!

Thank you for your reply! I covered my tray with some black plastic to keep down on evap and algee growth already. I thought I was the only one lol. I will change my water cycle a little tomorrow, so as not to shock em so much just yet. Might look into some cal mag too. Thank you again for your reply!

[trombon84]

...so nobody has no idea about whats going on with my plants ....

[McGyver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trombon84

Hey Lucas,
I've been trying to find some answers for this problem for over two weeks already... nobody can answer and I cant find it anywhere...
So, I have this 2 plants (a sativa and an indica). They were good the whole time until about 2-3 weks ago when they started to get this little red spots on the leaves. they have been vegging for a month and now they are in the 4 week of flowering.
Until a week ago they were in a hyrdo drip system, but I changed it to ebb'n'flow.

I use GH nuts (0-5-10)
The ph was around 5.2 for the first week of flowering and after that the plant started to show this problems. I raised the ph to 5.6 - 6.0 thinking that this might help, but they just getting more and more burn and more red spots.

The EC was never above 1.8, and that happened only for a day. I flushed for two days with 0 EC water (ph 5.8). Today I start feding them again: 0-5-10 + cal-mag + fluoralicious. The EC is on 1.5 right now and they get fed 3 times a day.

Here are some pics with my setup and with the plant problems. I hape I gave all the information that you need.

Thank you for your time.

one thing I noticed, if you are still growing in rockwool cubes, they will only need to be fed once, maybe twice a day. they still need a lil dry out time. they dont look over watered, but they do look mal-nutritioned. you might see some improvements after the flush. definatly bump up your EC cause your system looks like its putting out a lot of light. that half strength soulution is only recommended by lucas for the CFL's.... Lucas recomends a full feeding program for HID's (0-8-16). Bump up your EC and you should see a difference. make sure that when the plants recover, cut off as much damage as you can without hurting the plant more. they try to "heal" what is damaged, so if you cut it off first they will grow instead of fix.

[nuggdigger]

you may have a potassium deficiency, with possible calcium and chloride complications, what is your water source?

peace

[trombon84]

I use filtered water from Meijer ( 0 ppm).
Do you guys think that all this might be because of the genetics? I cant find anything else .....

[DOZEE]

trombon84- looks like nute lock up and or rez temps causing nitrate cycle. check water temps also if u smell ammonia ?
u may want to flush and start fresh with half strength nutes good luck

[nuggdigger]

were trying to tell you something else, what part are you missing...
the symptoms for a potassium deficiency in mature foilage with localized injury are..

Quote:

Chlorosis starts at tips and margins of older leaves, progressing between veins, followed by brown necrotic spots
which usually fall out giving a ragged appearance; leaves crinkled and curled , most noticeable in green stages

your leaves show obvious signs of earlier overfeeding (burnt tips) and underfeeding (paleness) due to your corrective flush..
plants don't really fix old problems, they grow replacement growth instead..
so let your focus be on newer growth and current parameters..
or whatever,
but please stop insisting you can't get any answers when there are plenty for consideration!!


peace

Coming back to an earlier discussion, maxi grow and maxi bloom was there way before lucas formula. It is the original "one part" Nutrient from GH. If you are going to use mineral nutes, this is what you want... Super assimilable, strong and straight to the point nutrients. It gives picture perfect results.

What most people do not mention though, is that you need to use to use both in conjunction, slowly permuting ratios of one another.
Use these powders in conjunction with floralicious, flora blend, liquid kool bloom, a micro nutrient complex or cal mag and you have a winner recipe.
Trust me
one

[trombon84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nuggdigger

were trying to tell you something else, what part are you missing...
the symptoms for a potassium deficiency in mature foilage with localized injury are..


your leaves show obvious signs of earlier overfeeding (burnt tips) and underfeeding (paleness) due to your corrective flush..
plants don't really fix old problems, they grow replacement growth instead..
so let your focus be on newer growth and current parameters..
or whatever,
but please stop insisting you can't get any answers when there are plenty for consideration!!


peace

What part are you missing? THERE IS NO NEW GROWTH !
If I use plain water everything gets worse. If I keep them at a ppm of 1.8 they dont get worse but they dont grow ... they didn't develop any bud growth for more than 2 weeks

[nuggdigger]

i didn't miss that anywhere..lol..cuz you never said it before..
new growth is a relavent term on the plant..newest /vs older..
hope you can find an acceptable answer, seems like you know what it isn't already...
peace

[Loki]

I'd guess you're either under-feeding them or they have other problems that result in deficienc(ies). Do the roots look healthy and white? Is the system clean and free of algae? If so, bump up your mix to 0-8-16, and eliminate the additives.

If not, check your reservoir temp. If it's too warm, it encourages fungal and/or algal growth, both of which will cause root damage and inhibit nutrient uptake.

[bushwacker420]

brown tips are on my leafs whats going on??????????

[squarepusher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by dongle69

....and yes, MaxiBloom = Lucas.
N 92
P 121
K 215
Mg 65
S 74
Ca 92

if Lucas is 100-100-200, then your formula is still off by about 10%. I noticed you used a mixing weight of 7g to get your numbers, lets focus on getting the K down to 200, so I adjust the weight to 6.5g grams, and get
N 86
P 112
K 200

Although this does look very similar to Lucus, it seems to be weak in Nitrogen. Solution? Add in roughly 13% Nitrogen, and you get
N 100
P 112
K 200

that looks a like closed to Lucas, I could use MaxiBloom and toss in about 10% of this stuff
http://www.agrisupply.com/product.asp?pn=26591 <--- Calcium Nitrate
to bump up the nitrogen.

Thoughts? Basically have a perfect dry fertilizer to Lucas spec's, and it costs 5-10x cheaper than liquid noots.

[dongle69]

No need to mess with MaxiBloom.
It is perfect all on it's own.

[disciple]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trombon84

Hey Lucas,
I've been trying to find some answers for this problem for over two weeks already... nobody can answer and I cant find it anywhere...
So, I have this 2 plants (a sativa and an indica). They were good the whole time until about 2-3 weks ago when they started to get this little red spots on the leaves. they have been vegging for a month and now they are in the 4 week of flowering.
Until a week ago they were in a hyrdo drip system, but I changed it to ebb'n'flow.

I use GH nuts (0-5-10)
The ph was around 5.2 for the first week of flowering and after that the plant started to show this problems. I raised the ph to 5.6 - 6.0 thinking that this might help, but they just getting more and more burn and more red spots.

The EC was never above 1.8, and that happened only for a day. I flushed for two days with 0 EC water (ph 5.8). Today I start feding them again: 0-5-10 + cal-mag + fluoralicious. The EC is on 1.5 right now and they get fed 3 times a day.

Here are some pics with my setup and with the plant problems. I hape I gave all the information that you need.

Thank you for your time.

Lose the cal-mag and flouralicious. At this stage those additives are doing you nothing but harm. Come back to them if/when you have a very specific reason for doing so.

You don't have enough light to drive the 0-5-10 mix at the rate you feed them. That array of CFL lights, while bright, isn't really lighting your plants. The look like they could be 42W.... even if they are 24ish watts, they are lighting each other very well but not your plants. Plus you'll have tons of heat with all of them. Do yourself a huge favor and get a 250W ballast (Lumatek) then MH bulb. The lack of light can lead to nute deficiencies... as the lights don't drive growth and uptake so too much remains in the media... then more is added etc. I can replicate your plant issue if I put an otherwise healthy plant in 3 or 5 gallon pots of media under floros.

You have what appears to be an HPS bulb in for flower. 0-5-10 was for fluorescent lighting so switch to the 0-8-16 when using HID lighting. Looks like you watered/flooded them too much (especially when they were small) and caused some root issues. Dial your pH at 5.8 and lose the additives.

[disciple]

Quote:

Originally Posted by McGyver

Hello Lucas,

This is an honor, being able to speak with you about my paticular questions!

My Equipment:

I have a 3 x 3 ebb & flow table under a 600w hps. I am using hydroton in 6" x 6" pots, 25 gal res, and 400 gal/hr pump. I have a 50lb co2, regulator, and bubble counter. I can maintain good temps without moving the air much, so they pretty much get saturated with c02 all day long. I use your method with GH bloom, micro, and RO water (0ppm; 0 EC). Growing G13 Labs White Widow.

This is my first Ebb table, and i am still getting used to it. I used a drip system before this one, with flora nova grow and bloom. These plants are not growing as fast and green as my last ones did. I have been following this thread for a while, in hopes to figure it out myself.... I made some adjustments and they are doing better, but still need some advice from the master.

I have been making adjustments to your method to get to this point. I'll tell you where i'm at, then tell you how I got there:

18/6 Light (600w hps)
Water is on for 15mins and the off for 45 mins, no night feedings.
2.12 EC
1500 PPM (running about 0-12-16)
5.2-6.0 PH (I add about 5ml ph down to my 25 gal res daily)
75-80 degs
20-30 % RH (its dry here, hard to keep it any higher)

I noticed i was getting some defficencies running my PPMs at 1300. I narrowed it down to an N deficency and that is when i added more of the micro and only a little bit of bloom when i re-filled my res. I also added some liquid karma to try and boost the K a little (0.1-0.1-0.5; ~2ml/gal). I noticed a boost of growth and a lot greener color.... but after that burst of growth, they kinda went yellow again. From what I can tell, the pale yellow color, is maily in the 'middle aged' leaves. The new growth is greener in the centers and yellow towards the edes. The older fan leaves are canoeing downward a little bit also.

I was wondering what advice you might have to get them greener, and growing like the weeds im used to.

-Can I run a higher EC without fear of burning them?

-What should my water cycle be?

-Should I put a little Cal Mag in? (Mag deficency?)

-Should I stop adjusting the PH? is 6.0 good to run on this sytem? (Nutrient Lock?)

You are flooding your plants too long and too much.

with hydroton in this setup, a clone can get flooded once or twice for a few mins per day when small. As it grows (under say, 24-0) move to once every 6 to 8 hours. During max uptake (in week 4 of flower) once every 2-3 hours will suffice.

keep your pH at 5.8, your ppm at 1400 (0.7 conversion scale) and lose the additives until you have a very specific reason for using them and your system is totally dialed. At this point the lack of what is in the additives is not a limiting factor in your garden.

[disciple]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2broke2smoke

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2broke2smoke

resist the temptation to reinvent the nutrient program for cannabis. Instead, know people who control their plants environment well, get 2 pounds a light, even from a single nutrient with no additives.

hth
Lucas

I must be stupid as im running 2k and not deviating from the formula at all and still not getting a pound, i have a 12 plant limit imposed on me by the state, which counts all rooted plants. I just harvested 5 tw's and only got 8oz dry. i finished at 3 feet tall i have a 7 foot ceiling. is it that im not vegging long enough? or do i just need more plants? I am running hempy buckets perlite/vermic 3:1 in 3 gallon buckets.

2b2s

What an excellent question. This grower appears to use 2 1000W bulbs over 12 plants. Or 1000W per 6 plants. Consideration has been duly given to strain in other posts. Even with a light yielder, surely he can find a way to coax more than 1.6 ounces out of each plant. That's about .22 grams per watt... no idea on the time parameter.

What can be recommended? Lucas has advocated a larger number of plants per light in a "sea of green". With 12 plant limit, there's not the number for a SOG. If some tip pruning was employed to develop a full canopy, more bud sites would be in optimum light and more weight should result. If heavy thinning of lower wispy branches was employed, max energy is directed towards bud sites in optimum light. Again, more weight.

Tying branches over can produce similar effects. I would feel good in this setup if I had a cola every 3-4 inches.

Maybe a limiting factor is that the p/v mix in the buckets stay too wet when the plants are small. When I learned how to keep small plants less wet, my growth rates nearly doubled. The vermiculite retains a lot of water....

[feelingfactory]

Quote:

Originally Posted by trombon84

What part are you missing? THERE IS NO NEW GROWTH !
If I use plain water everything gets worse. If I keep them at a ppm of 1.8 they dont get worse but they dont grow ... they didn't develop any bud growth for more than 2 weeks

Bit of an attitude problem here, don't you think? I'm surprised the nice folks who frequent this thread even bothered helping you at all with your demanding and insisting tone in previous posts.