Thinking about diy nutrients

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Flapadelphia

New Member
Right now I am running the Lucas formula (hard water micro, though) in pro mix. This seems to be working ok so far, although some of my plants are experiencing nute lockout.

My question is, what's a good recipe for nutes? How would I calculate in my hard water?

Any help would be appreciated, as starting this process is somewhat intimidating.
 
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harris hawk

Well-Known Member
Consider a foliage spray to pre-vent nutrient lock-out at . For hard water let set out for 24 hrs (denatured water). What stage of growth are you in? (early) You will get it - keep it simple. reduce nutrient use and adjust, Also could add a root stimulator to stimulate spider root growth and nutrient- up-take in soil. Right now "foliage spray" if you use your nutrients use at a very low rate - there are specific formulated foliage (X-trem Gardening, one of many)
 
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Flapadelphia

New Member
Yea, I'm not really worried about the lockout in this thread. I'm really looking for advice on a hard water nute recipe, or how to calculate it.
 
KC_Grow

KC_Grow

Member
Flapadelphia said:
Yea, I'm not really worried about the lockout in this thread. I'm really looking for advice on a hard water nute recipe, or how to calculate it.
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You are using well water I assume? (I have well water too) by hard do you mean there's a lot of iron in it or bicarbonates (high alkalinity)?

One thing you could try is a liquid humic supplement, I still use fox farm Big Bloom which has an extremely low npk (won't mess with you recipe) and has humic, fulvic and amminos in it which will help naturally chelate iron and other minerals that are in an unavailable form or difficult to assimilate form. Put a capful in your mixing res with your water before you add your nutes.

If your dealing with high alkalinity and can't get RO water you could try ph downing your water to 4.5 and let it sit for 24 hrs, add nutes and ph to your needs.
Btw if you need to up your ph, use a product with potassium hydroxide, the other ingredient used (I can't remember now) can cause nutrient lockout, the higher end nutrients will use the potassium hydroxide, GH uses the other ingredient

I guess this may not answer your question as to how to calculate your recipe but without knowing what the chemical makeup of your water source is you can't really solve/prevent the problem. If it's a well you need to get the water tested or get filtered/RO water which is where I'm headed soon.

Good luck
 
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Flapadelphia

New Member
Thanks. I'm using municipal water, but can't find any info for it on the government website. I will have to dig a little bit further.
 
KC_Grow

KC_Grow

Member
Flapadelphia said:
Thanks. I'm using municipal water, but can't find any info for it on the government website. I will have to dig a little bit further.
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Yeah you may have to keep looking, our city water says their required to do water testing by a new EPA mandate on an annual basis and includes heavy metals, minerals , and toxins (it's actually very detailed). It aslo included bicarbonates ppm which showed a moderate level of alkalinity that was very similar to my well water (so switching to city water wouldn't have helped my ph issues) you could try calling your city water dept and requesting the report, It may be required that they provide you with one upon request.
 
OG Gardenz

OG Gardenz

Active Member
I would also recommend humic and amino acid but don't wast your money on those liquids, get a soluble powder. The concentrations are higher and you don't have to worry about how long it has been on the shelf degrading.
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Flapadelphia said:
Right now I am running the Lucas formula (hard water micro, though) in pro mix. This seems to be working ok so far, although some of my plants are experiencing nute lockout.

My question is, what's a good recipe for nutes? How would I calculate in my hard water?

Any help would be appreciated, as starting this process is somewhat intimidating.
Click to expand...
DIY nutes isn't too hard. You should start off by getting hydrobuddy. If you have very hard water, it basically means you have to use less calcium nitrate, and replace it with a nitric acid based pH down.

Hydrobuddy has a number of good recipes already built in to the formulation database, including recipes from the university of florida, howard resh, etc, which are all very good starting points to look at.

Also make sure to look up the Hoagland Solution. Hoagland is sort of like the father of all hydroponic formulas.
 
RockinDaGanja

RockinDaGanja

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
DIY nutes isn't too hard. You should start off by getting hydrobuddy. If you have very hard water, it basically means you have to use less calcium nitrate, and replace it with a nitric acid based pH down.

Hydrobuddy has a number of good recipes already built in to the formulation database, including recipes from the university of florida, howard resh, etc, which are all very good starting points to look at.

Also make sure to look up the Hoagland Solution. Hoagland is sort of like the father of all hydroponic formulas.
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So when you guys say DIY... I assume your talking about making and mixing all off your synthetics for a nutrient solution. By using hydrobuddy. Were would you get these chemicals and why. Im talking about beneficial micronutes.. How do you know how each of theses react when mixed and how do you even know what order to mix or does it matter? Do you just keep a constant base formula and tweak it as need be or do you make your own Grow, Boost, Bloom in three different parts. With additives and all.... Seems
complicated. Im really curious as to how easy it is to get the chemicals separately?
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
RockinDaGanja said:
So when you guys say DIY... I assume your talking about making and mixing all off your synthetics for a nutrient solution. By using hydrobuddy. Were would you get these chemicals and why. Im talking about beneficial micronutes.. How do you know how each of theses react when mixed and how do you even know what order to mix or does it matter? Do you just keep a constant base formula and tweak it as need be or do you make your own Grow, Boost, Bloom in three different parts. With additives and all.... Seems
complicated. Im really curious as to how easy it is to get the chemicals separately?
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You can add the salts directly to the reservoir if you have very large reservoirs, but it's better to make a+b stock solutions first. Hydrobuddy will help you figure out which salt should go in a, and which should be in b so that nothing precipitates out of the stock solution. I make 400x concentrated a+b stock solutions, so about 10mL of each a and b stock per gallon of water goes into the reservoir.

As for knowing what salts to use.. Look up Hoagland formula. Almost all hydroponic formulas use those same salts. Just use the salts in hoagland formula to make other formulas.

I get most of my chemicals from cropking, but the cheaper you can find them, the better. A lot of places will cut open 50lb bags of calcium nitrate and resell them in 1lb sandwich bags for about 2 dollars a pound. The micro salts is the expensive starting up, because you need so little of each and the smallest amounts you can find are still way too much and expensive, even that's not a big deal. (about 4-5 ingredients to get the micros.)
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Flapadelphia said:
OK, another consideration is that I'm using pro mix instead of hydro. Will this factor in to my nutrient calculations?
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It depends if the pro-mix is fortified with insoluble calcium like lime, bone meal, or gypsum.

If so, treat it more like soil. If not, treat it like hydro.
 
RockinDaGanja

RockinDaGanja

Well-Known Member
churchhaze said:
You can add the salts directly to the reservoir if you have very large reservoirs, but it's better to make a+b stock solutions first. Hydrobuddy will help you figure out which salt should go in a, and which should be in b so that nothing precipitates out of the stock solution. I make 400x concentrated a+b stock solutions, so about 10mL of each a and b stock per gallon of water goes into the reservoir.

As for knowing what salts to use.. Look up Hoagland formula. Almost all hydroponic formulas use those same salts. Just use the salts in hoagland formula to make other formulas.

I get most of my chemicals from cropking, but the cheaper you can find them, the better. A lot of places will cut up 50lb bags of calcium nitrate and resell them in 1lb sandwich bags for about 2 dollars a pound. The micro salts is the expensive starting up, because you need so little of each and the smallest amounts you can find are still way too much and expensive, even that's not a big deal. (about 4-5 ingredients to get the micros.)
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So cropking is kinda like Buil A Soil for hydroponics. And hoagland is kind of like the subcool supersoil recipe for hydro formulas?
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
RockinDaGanja said:
So cropking is kinda like Buil A Soil for hydroponics. And hoagland is kind of like the subcool supersoil recipe for hydro formulas?
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Hoagland formula is used in a lot of scientific studies as a control group. It might not necessarily be the best, but it's meant to be a standard for experiments.
 
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Buzz Buzzilla

Buzz Buzzilla

Well-Known Member
Hummm well this thread got a little over complicated quickly :s I do mostly Organics and apple cider vinegar works wonders to bring down ph....as for measuring...get a ph kit and or meter you never know what your dealing with even the unreliable results from the source can change by the time it gets to you through your pipes that may have calcium build up or extra metals from a water heater
 
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