Nutrient Strength when switching veg to bloom

Hi just wondering, being a new grower and having read everything i can - I am still unsure about this. I know it is a good idea to start with 1/2 or 1/4 strength nutes, but, does this apply to both vegging and flower stage? so i would gradually up the strength of veg nutes from say 1/4 to full, then when switching to 12/12 i start back at 1/2 bloom nutes for first 2 weeks than up to 3/4 for 2 weeks then then full. Does this sound about right? Or can they handle full bloom nutes straight after vegging? Also, it makes sense to me that you would maybe 'blend' veg + bloom nutes for a 'transition' phase, is this not a good idea?

Yeah, that's all good, except the low-dosage bloom nutes. The low dose is for new plants, that are small and don't eat much. You can use a blend transition if you want, or just flush the medium and switch to bloom.

As long as the good stuff is in the soup, your plant will get what she wants.

HTH

It kinda depends on how you are growing.

If you are using lots of grow medium.
like coco, or grow rocks,
that can accumulate salts,
it might be a good idea to flush with clearex,
between switching over to flower.

There are studies that have been conducted
on corn and other seed producing plants,
that show there is more than enough Nitrogen stored by the plant,
by the time it starts to flower,
that it does not need any additional N.

This has led to the lucas formula,
which eliminates "Grow" altogether,
thus greatly reducing the amount of N
the plant has available in the nute solution.

Here is what I do in my DWC and aero,
which are basically medium free.

I switch the lights,
and in a couple of days,
I flush the veg nutes
and replace them with bloom.

On the first day of 12/12,
I use a soaking foliar application of Penetrator/Reverse.
These phospho lipids send signals to the plant to start flower.

At 7 days, and 14 days, I repeat the Reverse foliar spray.
So I give them 3 total applications.

By now I am on 50% load of flower nutes.

With AN nutes, this is my max load.

With DM nutes I will go from 50% up to 80%
over over a three week period
and then start back down to 50%.

With both nute systems,
I stop feeding when the calyx' swell,
usually somewhere between week 8, 9, or 10.

Then I flush with plain water.

I use RO with no pH adjustment,
to force the plant use the N it has stored.

My RO only flush last from 1 week,
up to 2 months.

The purpose of the flush
is to allow the plant to use
the stored nutes it has in the roots and leaves.

There is no reason to adjust the pH of the water,
since the pH only affects the solutbility of the metals
that the plant can absorb.

We are not trying to add any more nutes to the plant,
so there is no need to adjust the pH,
and putting your probe into RO
with only some pH adjuster,
will cause you to need a new probe soon.

We want the plant to become deficient during the flush.

Thanks for all the help guys and taking the time to help-a-brother out. That's very interesting earl, all that you say about nutrient absorption, storage, and deficiency- I am half way through a dietetics/food science degree and it seems plants don't differ to much from humans. It makes sense to flush and 'starve' the plants for a short period so as not to let certain nutrients build up to toxic levels. Thanks once again

That's a good point you make Earl. Whether you've got a medium like grow rocks or none at all can play an important role in your use of nutrients.

I would say that if you're using something professional grade like Advanced Nutrients you should do fine either way. As you say, the important factor with grow rocks or other media is their nutrient retention and the solubility of the nutrient you're using. AN uses top-quality sources for their nutrients so the solubility is pretty much as good as you can get.

So that way you don't have to worry too much about nutrient salts building up in your grow rocks, but as you say it's still important to keep an eye on that kind of thing and take the steps to keep it from becoming a problem.

Don't forget that not all rocks are the same when you start adding nutrients and using them as a growing medium.

Some types of rocks aren't suitable as a growing medium because they can chemically react to hydroponic nutrients or release soluble ions into the nutrient solution that are harmful to your grow. Some rocks have high sodium content, for example, and can kill your plants.

So you gotta make sure not just that you're using good nutrients. The Advanced Nutrients Earl and Knowboddy mentioned are my favorite too. But you have to make sure you're using the right kind of medium, and not just with rocks. Unwashed coco coir for example is often exposed to sea spray and thus can have a high salt content.