Help me to prepare for the grow. What else do I need besides nutes and bennies?

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
I will be growing in coco coir, so it's hydro.

What else do I need besides nutrition and PH buffers and bennies?

I ordered myself 1L of Aquashield and 4 ounces of ZHO powder, as recommended by Heisenberg in his famous sticky thread: https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/361430-dwc-root-slime-cure-aka.html

Earth worm casting is something that I will easily get locally which will be the third componend of this blend of beneficial microbes.

I figured I would feed this "tea" to my plants from start to finish in order to prevent bad bacteria from damaging the roots and at the same time to support the root growth.

What else is good?
 

Jbone77

Well-Known Member
I dont use organics in soilless or hydro, if I want to do organics I grow in soil. Its hard to beat soilless or hydro with full synthetics and correct feeding, it takes the guess work out of it.
 

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
Are you referring to the fact that me using this tea is not a good idea or are you saying that there is nothing else that I need?

I am going to be using synthetic nutes too, by the way.
 

urban1026835

Well-Known Member
your nutrient plans seem to be that of someone who grows soil is what he is saying. Most of us and myself included go the synthetic nutrient route running hydro or soiless as the medium is inert and doesnt hold onto those organic nutrients in the same way soil does...

here is a few cheap options for coco just read this
[h=1]Lucas Formula - A Hydroponic, soil, and coco Feeding Regimen[/h]
Please direct all Cannabis related questions to http://askcannabis.com
Summary: Lucas Formula, sometimes known as the Lucas Ratio, is less complicated than it initially seems. It is nothing more than a basic recipe of nutrients to give your plants during both the vegetative, and the flowering state.
The original recipe uses 2 parts of the General Hydroponics 3-part FLORA series (Gro, Micro, Bloom) nutrient system, but Lucas Formula may also be used with Advanced Nutrients, GH's dry nutes (Maxibloom), etc.

[h=2]Lucas Formula using General Hydroponics 3-Part System[/h] General Hydroponics makes a 3-part system named the FLORA series. It consists of FLORA GRO, FLORA MICRO, and FLORA BLOOM. These are 3 bottles you buy, that you would normally use together throughout the entire grow. You may use it as per the instructions on the bottle, with excellent results, but...
Lucas figured out that FLORA MICRO contains enough nitrogen, and everything else that MICRO GRO contains, that you use it with FLORA BLOOM alone, saving you from having to buy FLORA GRO.
How do you use it? Simple. Add 8ml of Flora Micro (dark red stuff) to 1 gallon of water*, mix, and then add 16ml of Flora Bloom (pink stuff) into the water, and mix. Done - unless you're growing in coco. If so, see below.'
[h=2]Lucas Formula using General Hydroponics Dry Nutrients (Maxibloom)[/h] MaxiBloom and MaxiGro are dry nutrient also from General Hydroponics. It turns out, Maxibloom, used in a ratio of 7 grams per gallon of water*, is very close to the original Lucas Formula (above.) You do not need MaxiGro, and so this is the cheapest and easiest recipe to use.
Add 7 grams of Maxibloom into 1 gallon of water*, and then adjust the pH, and stir vigorously to dissolve the Maxibloom in the water. I advise putting the 7g of Maxibloom into a cup of warm water, dissolving it, and then adding it to the remaining gallon of water, before pH adjusting and mixing again.

[h=2]Lucas Formula using General Hydroponics FloraNova series[/h] This is probably the easiest (but not cheapest - see MaxiBloom above) feeding plan available. If you're using General Hydroponics' FloraNova Bloom 1-part system, simply add 8ml of FloraNova per gallon of water* and feed.
[h=2]Lucas Formula when growing in Coco Coir - Head's Formula[/h] If you're growing in coco, you may need to adjust the Lucas formula slightly to compensate for a property of coco which may result in a calcium or magnesium deficiency. How? You may be able to get by simply by adding 1-2ml of calmag (or MagiCal+), or 1 gram of Epsom salt (any pharmacy carries this), per gallon of water, before feeding the plants.
There is a modified formula specifically for Coco that consists of using a different ratio: 6ml of Flora Micro, and 9ml of Flora Bloom, per gallon of water, along with 1 gram of Epsom salt per water.
Either works, but be sure to try Head's Formula if you're having deficiencies or other nute/pH problems.
If you are confused or unsure, ask your Weed related questions here!
[h=3]Low light ratio, and flowering vs veg[/h] Lucas Formula should be used in the same ratio throughout the grow. There is a misconception that one should use 5ml of Micro and 10ml of Bloom, when in veg, and switch to 8ml of Micro, and 16ml of Bloom, when flowering.
This was never stated by Lucas himself. He originally stated that the 0-5-10 ratio was for LOW LIGHT situations (fluorescent lighting like PL/L and CFLs, or HID lamps less than 400W), whereas 0-8-16 is for medium to high light (400W+)
[h=3]* What type of water should I use? What about pH/ppm?[/h] The original formula uses reverse osmosis, or RO, water, and is intended to be used without having to measure pH and ppm. Reverse Osmosis water makes this possible because it should, in theory, be the same for everyone. It is filtered water, which you can get either by buying a reverse osmosis filter system, or just buying bottled water (among other brands, Dasani, the bottled tap water is reverse osmosis, for example). One may also use dH2O (distilled water) with good results. You can get distilled water from most convenience stores (Walgreens, CSV, Rite-Aide, etc..)
[h=2]Lucas Formula for seedlings/cuttings[/h] For young plants (< 4 weeks old) or cuttings, which may not be able to handle a full strength feeding formula, may require that you dilute the nutrient solution before feeding. This is OK, just make sure you keep the correct ratio when mixing. For example, 50% strength would be 4ml Micro and 8ml Bloom, or 3.5g of dry Maxibloom per gallon.
[h=2]Lucas Formula with tap water[/h] You may use Lucas Formula with tap water successfully, but this may require pH adjusting on your part. Keep the pH close to 5.8.
[h=2]Can I use additives with Lucas Formula?[/h] You may. It is recommended that you do not introduce additives until your setup is dialed in. After you've ironed out any deficiencies and fully understand how your plant and strain likes to be fed, feel free to begin using additives (such as Floralicious) - not that the additives will help. For increased quality and yield, focus on good genetics, and ample light and temperature control, rather than trying to compensate for those with additives.
Cannabis Questions & Answers (QA)
[h=2]Interested in the details? See the following[/h]
The Lucas Formula is easy, cheap and reliable. Credit for it goes to LUCAS himse
 

Jbone77

Well-Known Member
I dont understand why people want to brew a tea to get the organisms goin and then flood it with synthetics 2 days later, just seems counterproductive to me, but I know, people do it. Soilless is great with a good synthetic nute, no need to get fancy with teas, but thats just my opinion, if I wanna brew teas il do a soil grow. My advice is pick one, go organic or go synthetic, not both together
 

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
Okay, thank you for the information on the feeding schedule. Are you saying that I should order myself Floranova nutes?

Seems like it should be best to choose a brand that has been confirmed to work well, but confirmed by who?

I am at the moment having nutes that go by the brand name of "Canna", because it was something that I was able to get locally, but now I'm actually little bit worried, because I don't see many people talking about this in this forum.

Should I order myself something that is known to work well, for the peace of my own mind?

How do I know which brand to choose? Who should I listen?
 

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
I dont understand why people want to brew a tea to get the organisms goin and then flood it with synthetics 2 days later, just seems counterproductive to me, but I know, people do it. Soilless is great with a good synthetic nute, no need to get fancy with teas, but thats just my opinion, if I wanna brew teas il do a soil grow. My advice is pick one, go organic or go synthetic, not both together
Thank you for your advice. Makes sense.

It is confusing for a beginner to read about different opinions and statements about this matter, but I guess I ordered Aquashield and ZHO, just to have different options available for myself when a certain situation calls for one. It takes 2-3 weeks anyway for the shipping to deliver, but I am already about to start my seedlings. Rockwool cubes are soaking.

I have 2-3 weeks to think about the use of beneficial microbes.
 

Jbone77

Well-Known Member
Plenty of people use canna, but lucas is great to get ur feet wet, thats what I used on my first hydro venture. If you have canna then use it. Go read the canna thread in the nute section, its one of the few I have no experience with
 

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
Sorry, but where is the nute section?

Edit: I found the section of Nutrition (on top of the page of General Marijuana Growing), but I can not find a thread about Canna, if you would like to help me out, please.

.. but if you're saying that Lucas is great, then it would be best to make the order and use Canna until Flora series arrive.
 

urban1026835

Well-Known Member
Okay, thank you for the information on the feeding schedule. Are you saying that I should order myself Floranova nutes?

Seems like it should be best to choose a brand that has been confirmed to work well, but confirmed by who?

I am at the moment having nutes that go by the brand name of "Canna", because it was something that I was able to get locally, but now I'm actually little bit worried, because I don't see many people talking about this in this forum.

Should I order myself something that is known to work well, for the peace of my own mind?

How do I know which brand to choose? Who should I listen?
all i can tell you is what i have used which is house and garden, general organics line, general hydroponics flora series,general hydroponics floranova bloom,soul synthetics, and botanicare cns17..

personally my plants are doing better now that i have started using the head method.. I currently use the flora series for veg and the single bottle of floranova bloom at 7ml gal
 

Jbone77

Well-Known Member
Its the one that says nutrients,lol, or you can just use the search function, type in canna and you wil get all sorts of info, or google, theyve been around for a while, plenty of good info on them out there just gotta do a search
 

Helmut79

Well-Known Member
Its the one that says nutrients,lol, or you can just use the search function, type in canna and you wil get all sorts of info, or google, theyve been around for a while, plenty of good info on them out there just gotta do a search
Okay, thank you.

canna is great nutrients. I believe a couple breeders over on the club 600 thread use it. There is a link in my sig...
Thank you, I will look into it.
 

SableZen

Well-Known Member
I dont understand why people want to brew a tea to get the organisms goin and then flood it with synthetics 2 days later, just seems counterproductive to me, but I know, people do it. Soilless is great with a good synthetic nute, no need to get fancy with teas, but thats just my opinion, if I wanna brew teas il do a soil grow. My advice is pick one, go organic or go synthetic, not both together
Contrary to what a lot of people repeat on the forums here - ionic nutrients don't actually kill microbes and the using of both synthetic nutrients and beneficials is not incompatible with hydroponic mediums like coco. In the case of beneficial fungi, they live directly on or in the roots and the plant supports them directly by producing sugars for them, regardless of the existence of organics in the reservoir. Beneficial bacteria... they can pretty much thrive anywhere a plant can thrive but their numbers will have to be supplemented occasionally if using synthetic nutrients and not using any sort of kelp-based additive. Not a big deal though, and the plant still forms symbiotic relationships with the beneficials all the same.

I grow both ways and don't have a bone to pick but there's really no reason to draw some huge line between "organic" or "not-organic" or how that's defined by any one person. In reality, most growers actually mix the two things all the time without knowing it just by using most of the popular nutrient lines and additives regardless of if they call themselves organic or not.
 

Herbmayn225

Member
I, personally, use 5:1 perlite:vermiculite in 5 gallon buckets, and they're hand-watered...I didn't know using a tea with synthetics was taboo and I've been doing it for a few cycles now, it's a fish-based tea but at the same time I treat it like an additive with my advanced nutrients cycle and feed it to them once every other feeding or so, I get noticeable results, so agreed, synthetic is the way to go for your primary, canna is good stuff, but once you start getting the hang of what they are efficiently taking in, then experiment a bit, there is at least 1 unique method to grow to each grower lol that's a lot of methods
 
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