Can you suggest a good noob nutrient I could use? Everyone suggested foxfarm OF soil and foxfarm line fert. Then everyone after I got it tells me its no good. I am pretty new at growing if its not obvious and im really really trying to learn this stuff and appreciate all your guys help. If there was just a noob friendly regiment out there. I do not know anything about how to mix my own soils and stuff so if any pro's can point me to a good soil also It would be great.
Another Q. I just bought a EC meter and not sure if I need it or not.. I use soil and thought EC meter was for hydro. I do have a water meter and PH meter and temp meter though.
I use stored tap water with a bubbler and don't know if I need Cal/mag either but have some. Plant doesn't appear to need it though.
Well, I had to harvest my last plant at 6 weeks because it was 10x worse than this one.. 3/4 of my last plant literally dried crispy with little to no crystals and was a shit smoke.
Ok i got a minute to give ya some tips. An ec meter is the same as a ppm meter. It is a very useful tool for soil, and hydro. It measures how much electrical conductivity is present in your water. The more conductive the water is, the more stuff is in it, or the higher ppms you have. These meters work great for measuring chemical fertilizer. I dont know if they measure organic plant food because i never use organic. I think they may not work well for terd based foods. Anyway, if i were you i would stick to chemical fertilizers and reading that ec meter. For simplicity.
So next theres the feed charts. Fuck em. Never listen to those bottles and how they tell you to feed plants. Use the ec meter. When a plants small you dont need much food, and when a plant is large you need lots of food. This is how you should determine what to feed it, take into account the size of the plant, the age, the pot size, the temps, the light used, and the color of the plant. Factor all of these together and youll be much more accurate than what a bottle tells you to do.
Size-seedlings in organic soil need nothing but water. One plant per light monsters in organic soil and 27 gallon totes can use up to 1000 ppms per feeding.
Age-a five day old plant wont need food, older plants can handle more.
Pot size-If you have organic soil in a huge container the plant will live off of that for a long time. If you have small containers and huge plants in them, youll need to feed more frequently, but also keep in mind that a root bound plant burns easily so lower ec feedings for rootbound plants.
Temps-cooler weather means slower growth, which also means lower feed rates. Higher temps mean faster water absorbtion, faster transpiration rates,cand faster growth, meaning more food necessary.
Lights-a few cfls in a closet will need much less feed than a room full of 1000 w hps setups.
Color of plant- a dark green plant needs less food. Also a plant with burnt tips or the claw needs less food. A plant thats yellowing needs more food, or more of one specific element. Color of the plant is the most important factor as to if you should bump up, or back off of the feeding.
So ya, always think you want to start slow, and feed more as the plant grows. I max out way below what the bottle tells me to put in. But ive been doing this for a while and i dont even give my plants runoff anymore. I just feed low and let the fertilizer build up in the root zone. I dont suggest you do that quite yet though. Id be giving yourself 10-15% runoff at waterings. Also with a good organic soil you dojt have to feed at every watering, you can feed every third time at the beginning, and then bump it up to evey second one in bloom. I usually add a bit of calmag to every watering when i run soil, just not food every time. Those three numbers on the food bottles represent the npk values. They are the macro nutrients, meaning the most important ones. Calmag doesnt have macros, just micros. Cal, and mag, are micros, and very important ones. Ive heard chatter that in flower, the plant uses more mag than P. But im not quite sure so dont quote me. All i do know is that the plant loves calmag. I use it from two weeks in, too two weeks before chop. And obviously i start with super low amounts, and then work up to about 110 ppm in full flower under 1 k lights, with temps at 78, seven gallon pots, and nice big old plants. Ffof soil is good stuff if your using soil, just dont over feed it because its hot already.
And if you want a good fertilizer thats simple, go with dyna-grow. Its a frickin one part. How simple is that? Guys that use it swear by it. You can also probably order it on amazon for cheaper than the hydro stores sell it.
The biggest thing to remember when fertilizing is, the fertilizer doesnt grow nice plants, grower talent grows nice plants.