Trying KRATKY 12/12 FS

Hey everyone. So I started a couple seeds about 7 or 8 weeks ago. One ended up showing male preflower, so on the porch he went. Having a hard time killing him off. The other one wasnt showing any preflowers (same strain seeds from the same plant) so I flipped the lights to 12.5/11.5, and In About 3 days I had some pistols showing up!! Super stoked
Here's my setup:
• 8 x 32.5w cfl total 20,000 lm
• Miracle gro Cactus palm citrus potting soil and added perlite (has worked great for me in the past) and it has enough food for a month or so of veg
• tap water dwclorinated for 24 hrs
• 3 gallon pot
• Soul Synthetics bloom for flowering
• Grow space is 2'w x 1'd x 3'h

She is looking great at 2 weeks into flowering! Also I am a LST guy, so she all bent up.



So... I wanted try a 12 12 from seed and hydro... I picked up a 2" bet pot, made a res out of a coffee jug (plastic) and also picked up a bag of Maxibloom. This is a 1/2 gallon KRATKY ot non-recirculating hydro. So I had a few seeds sprout, I picked the best looking one for my first hydro experiment. I didn't have any rock wool or hydroton, so I attempted perlite/vermeculite in the net pot. It works, but it like to fall through the net cup. For next go around I'll be getting the right stuff. I started with 1/4 tsp of maxibloom yo get the seedling started, leaves started to yellow so I switched it up to 1/2 tsp. She seemed to like it so this weeks I went just under full strength witch is 1 full tsp per gallon. So far she has good roots growing Into the res and she seems to be growing quite well. This little baby just started its 2nd week from sprout.


I will keep posting with updates. Any replies are welcome. Let me know what you think!

Happy grows!!!

longarms90 said:

The other one wasnt showing any preflowers (same strain seeds from the same plant) so I flipped the lights to 12.5/11.5, and In About 3 days I had some pistols showing up!! Super stoked

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U wanna be real careful if your plants have pistols. Do they look something like this:

All I can advice here is that you get yourself a bullet proof vest when u get close....

longarms90 said:

I started with 1/4 tsp of maxibloom yo get the seedling started, leaves started to yellow so I switched it up to 1/2 tsp. She seemed to like it so this weeks I went just under full strength witch is 1 full tsp per gallon.

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Why do u use maxibloom in seedling stage? No nutes at this stage or you will be held responsible for killing the poor, defenceless seedling!

Ahh I see what ya did there haha well it Seemed like it wanted food, and I'm using maxibloom through the entire grow. It was yellowing really early on.

Rainbow Warrior said:

U wanna be real careful if your plants have pistols. Do they look something like this:
View attachment 4354054
All I can advice here is that you get yourself a bullet proof vest when u get close....

Why do u use maxibloom in seedling stage? No nutes at this stage or you will be held responsible for killing the poor, defenceless seedling!

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I've never tried hydroponics, so I really have no idea what I'm doing.

longarms90 said:

Ahh I see what ya did there haha well it Seemed like it wanted food, and I'm using maxibloom through the entire grow. It was yellowing really early on.

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I wouldn’t use maxibloom until blooming...

I'm not a fan of MG products, but I have to say, you plant is looking very happy!

I'm just finishing my first indoor grow and getting started on my second round. You've convinced me to try a Kratky Hydro experiment like you've got there. I already have a bunch of Megacrop so I'll be using that. Have you changed out your res yet? How often do you plan on doing so?

Rainbow Warrior said:

I wouldn’t use maxibloom until blooming...

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It's the lucas formula, use maxibloom from start to finish. Well lucas formula uses GH flora bloom and flora micro, but the maxi bloom has enough N to keep a plant happy in veg.

Unorthodoxy said:

I'm not a fan of MG products, but I have to say, you plant is looking very happy!

I'm just finishing my first indoor grow and getting started on my second round. You've convinced me to try a Kratky Hydro experiment like you've got there. I already have a bunch of Megacrop so I'll be using that. Have you changed out your res yet? How often do you plan on doing so?

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Thank you, she is pretty happy. I dont like MG products either, but I have had really good luck with the Cactus Palm Citrus blend they have. I might try and build my own soil next to around. Or possibly give hempy buckets a try. Idk we will see. But I have her on Soul Synthetics bloom now, and she seems to be loving that too!

And yes I've changed it out twice, only to adjust the amount of nutrients in the res. Really with kratky you let the plant drink it up until the res gets low, not empty, then you just top it off. But I think I'll be changing it every week or two. Depends on how she acts. This is my first try at hydro so I really dont know what I'm doing. I Just learned from research.

Cool. I had read up about the kratky method then forgot some of the details. I think I'll give that a try. You'll need to keep the light out of the res, yes? Any issues with growth in the res?

Unorthodoxy said:

Cool. I had read up about the kratky method then forgot some of the details. I think I'll give that a try. You'll need to keep the light out of the res, yes? Any issues with growth in the res?

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Ya light still needs to be kept out, its just like DWC, without the pump and stone. It's only been about 2.5 weeks since she sprouted, so no growth yet. I messed up though and thought I could get away with perlite and vermeculite in the net pot. It's working, obviously, but the res has a bunch of it floating and settled at the bottom. Next time I will be getting rockwool and hydroton. But no algae yet.

So the kratky 12/12 from seed project is a bust. I went to check on the plants today after work and the kratky plant ended up sprouting some male parts. Needless to say, with the girl I already have in there that is about 3 weeks into flower, I pulled him and threw him out! Oh well, there is always next time. At least I know that the kratky system works just fine. I think I need some ph down and a meter for the next go around. I am using declorinated tap water, and the leaves seemed like they had some slight yellowing spots. My guess is ph is still a little high
But here is my ,so far, success story, she is looking super healthy, I am feeding her soul synthetics bloom and a little epsom salt. Here are a couple pics before the chop.

longarms90 said:

It's the lucas formula, use maxibloom from start to finish. Well lucas formula uses GH flora bloom and flora micro, but the maxi bloom has enough N to keep a plant happy in veg.

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I still use H3ads modified Lucas for coco. Cal mag, Micro and Bloom from day 1 to finished. Zero grow bottle. Plenty of N from the Micro. Can't go wrong.

Ya I havnt heard anything bad about Lucas formula or a modified. Maxibloom by itself is supposed to be enough, but it only has 3 listed micro nutrients on the bag besides NPK and Cal/Mag. Once I get a ph meter I will have an answer on the yellow blotching on the leaves.