Situation420
Well-Known Member
Hey guys I thought this might be helpful to those that are using a DWC or hydroponic reservoir system and the Grand Master Feeding Schedule or any other AN feeding schedule.
If you want to verify that I am not underfeeding my plants or creating nutrient imbalances check out the couple of posts I made in the grow journal section. https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/676886-day-42-flowering.html#post9253992How
The main point is that you only make 4 res changes instead of 6 saving you around 33% of your costs associated with your plants during flowering. This is significant if you are spending about $1,200 or more when purchasing nutrients. If you are using the full grandmaster schedule at full strength this will reduce your total use of nutrients by 58.1% if you follow my recommended feeding strengths and save you about $700.00 if you spend around $1,200 on nutes. The formula to figure out how much you save is at the end of this post.
Here's how it's done: First off I don't add 2ml per liter of each product or 4ml per liter of the Connoisseur , I only use 1.25 ml per liter of the 2 ml suggested and 2.5 ml per liter of the recommended 4ml suggested for the Connoisseur A+B. My leaves are dark green and my ppm is around 1400 when I add my solution to my plants. Already cutting costs by 37.5 % but thats not what I'm talking about because you should have figured that out from the beginning when your ppm was 2000 (way to high) or more by following the recommended feeding schedule.If you look at the feeding chart for flowering using the AN Grandmaster Level the formula changes during weeks 2, 3, and 5 but not during weeks 4 and 6. - What I do is mix up my solution for Week 1 then change my res week 2 because you now have to add Big Bud.
- Then when Week 3 comes around its now time to add B-52. So you change it again. Thats 3 res changes in 3 weeks because you want to keep the correct ratios needed during the different stages of growth.
- Week 4 is exactly the same as Week 3. So what I do is add pH adjusted RO water all week until the beginning of week 4. I usually have leftover solution from week 3 and add 3 parts RO water for every 1 part of leftover week 3 solution I have. Doing this brings the ppm to about 500. I just add that to my buckets and finish the week off with pH adjusted RO water and this brings my ppm back up to 1400 ppm and hasn't had any negative impact on my plants.
- When week 5 starts and its now time to add Overdrive and lose the Big bud. Do the same thing you did for week 4 for week 6 and you save yourself 2 out of 6 Res changes.
- Week 7 is just Final Phase and is cheap anyway. Followed by RO water only for week 8.
To calculate savings doing this: Say you use 2ml per liter of water you use. If you reduce it to 1.25 ml per liter you are only using 62.5% of what AN recommends. To get this, divide the amount of ml you use per liter by whatever the recommended amount is. Example: 1.25ml/2ml = 0.625 x 100% = 62.5%. Now take whatever you spend on nutrients and multiply it by 0.625 (or what your get). In my example $1,200 x 0.625 = $750.00 (Amount you are now using ) $1,200 - $750 = $450 in savings right off the bat. If you only have to change your nutrients 4 times now instead of 6 times reducing your amount by 33%. Take that $750 or whatever you got and multiply it by .33 ( $750 x 0.33 = $247.50 in savings ) Now take the $750 and subtract the $247.50 giving you you new cost of $502.50.To figure out your actual total percentage you save take your total initial cost ($1,200) and subtract your new cost ( $502.50). $1,200 - $502.50 = $697.50. Divide this by your initial cost ($1,200) To get your total savings in money and product usage. $697.50/$1,200.00 = 0.581 x 100% = 58.1% in reduced costs. FANTASTIC!
P.S. Don't skimp on the beneficial bacteria or voodoo juice. You also don' t have to change your res the whole time in veg and you can use half strength of the A+B Grow and B-52, just add 25% of what you added at first when week 3 starts and top off with RO water and adjust the pH.Hope this helps out someone!
