doubling nutrients question

Hey RIU. I was wondering, i have seen some people talk about 20-20-20 nutes, and some other NPK ratios that are high. My solution is 6-1-3 which is alot lower. I am starting at 1/8th now and slowly moving up to full strength. My question is. If i make it 1 and a half strength or even 2x strength will it make the solution 9-1.5-4.5 and 12-2-6 respectively?

And is it possible to double the nutes? Is it advisable? Should i rather stay with just full strength?

And am i correct in thinking that a 20-20-20 solution will make a plant grow faster than 6-1-3?

endlesslyonline said:

Hey RIU. I was wondering, i have seen some people talk about 20-20-20 nutes, and some other NPK ratios that are high. My solution is 6-1-3 which is alot lower. I am starting at 1/8th now and slowly moving up to full strength. My question is. If i make it 1 and a half strength or even 2x strength will it make the solution 9-1.5-4.5 and 12-2-6 respectively?

And is it possible to double the nutes? Is it advisable? Should i rather stay with just full strength?

And am i correct in thinking that a 20-20-20 solution will make a plant grow faster than 6-1-3?

Click to expand...

Bigger numbers just mean you use less. 20-20-20 means 20% of the weight is each of those three main nutes, so only 40% fillers and other nutes. My 10-5-14 Maxigro is only 29% main nutes, so other 71% is other nutes and fillers. In the end you want a balanced fertilizer and the strength is easiest to measure as PPM after diluted in water. So most important is the ratio's with each other, 2-1-3 is nice for veg, 1-3-3 is nice for flower. So that could be 10-5-15 or 20-10-30 ... for veg, same thing once diluted.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

All these numbers are confusing me though. Lol

So in conclusion. Anything above full strength is a no no and does not necessarily mean you are giving double the nutes, right?

nomofatum said:

Bigger numbers just mean you use less.

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And if i understand that correctly. It basically means my nutes say use 1 scoop for 5l of water and 20.20.20 would say 1 scoop for maybe 15 or 20l?

endlesslyonline said:

Thanks for the detailed reply.

All these numbers are confusing me though. Lol

So in conclusion. Anything above full strength is a no no and does not necessarily mean you are giving double the nutes, right?



And if i understand that correctly. It basically means my nutes say use 1 scoop for 5l of water and 20.20.20 would say 1 scoop for maybe 15 or 20l?

Click to expand...

Well, it's never that simple. Max strength is really max dose before something gets into toxic levels, usually Nitrogen. So a fertilizer with higher N than P or K will likely have a lower max dose than a lower N fertilizer. Only way to tell for sure is to figure out the max dose by slowly increasing until you see minor burn.

Well if you doube the amount of nutes you mix into the water, you are doubling the nutes. The label is "irrelevant" in that in a 10-10-10 vs a 20-20-20, you would use half (or twice) as much nute per gal of water. The chart from the company would be factoring it iin.

It really all comes down to EC/PPM and those charts are just making it easier.

I usually ease my way up to about 75% of what the bottle says. Like the smurf says, slowly see what makes her happy.

endlesslyonline said:

Thanks for the detailed reply.

All these numbers are confusing me though. Lol

So in conclusion. Anything above full strength is a no no and does not necessarily mean you are giving double the nutes, right?



And if i understand that correctly. It basically means my nutes say use 1 scoop for 5l of water and 20.20.20 would say 1 scoop for maybe 15 or 20l?

Click to expand...

What I use is 16-16-16. So that is the balance, but not the STRENGTH of the feed.

You create strength by dilution and measuring parts per million, PPM with a meter.

So, double strength at the wrong time will kill the plant.

Also, I know a healthy root ball will take what it needs and leave the rest. So, the fancy balance numbers are mostly scam across the board.

Really this will grow quite well on lawn food, if you add cal/mag. And I use lawn food, for spraying Nitrogen and Iron at 150ppm on the leaves if I have an early deficiency.

So, one scoop per liter of 20-20-20 will be more PPM than 16-16-16 at 1 scoop per liter, but has the same balance.

My rule of thumb for indoor is 100 ppm per 6 inches of height.

Don't worry, I had the same number swim and one day, it just cleared up. What was the fuss?

Guys. Thanks alot.

This all is now making sense to me!