Good morning my friends.
Today is the beginning of week 3 for my 2nd grow (3 weeks since the seeds were planted). I’ve got a few questions I was hoping to get some assistance with;
All Autos.
1- What should my lux level be at week two?
2- Medium is Happy Frog, haven’t fed anything other than water. When should I start nutes?
3- I have some supplements I was interested in trying this time around (Botanicare Sweet Raw, and Liquid Karma), the Sweet Raw says to start week 4 but the Liquid Karma says it can be used all along. Any info on these?
4- Would epsom salt be a benefit?
5- I’m planning on using the FF trio, should I start with 1/4 strength?
I just want to make sure I’m not gonna screw up as much as I did last time.
Thanks dudes/dudettes!
When speaking about horticulture lighting we measure in ppfd. Depending on the light you have…generally you want it around 20 to 24 inches above the canopy. If the plants start getting leggy then you can lower the light. If the plants are staying really squaty then you can raise it. Adjust up or down until you get the desired node spacing.
You start feeding them whenever you see the ppm start to deplete from the soil. I’m not sure how hot happy frog is but I would start giving food whenever your runoff gets below 600 to 700ppm. Again…just watch the plants and read what they tell you.
Epsom salt is a good source for magnesium so if you see your self running into a magnesium deficiency then sure, but your base nutrients should have everything needed to carry a plant “proficiently” from seed to harvest.
I disagree with diluting nutrients. But by the time your plants will need nutrients you should be able to pick up in the feeding schedule with wherever your at in the plants life.
I’m not sure on the additional additives your wanting to use so I wont chime in there.
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^^^^^^^ that’s a pretty much sums it up. I use hf a lot too and I don’t even check r/o for a month. I use same ff trio also and just add calmag , well I use recharge also but I’ve found that out from my own experiences like you will as well.
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Wow all excellent info!
I’ve got my lights around 24" above and I think they’re doing fine. They’re just two 130W fixtures. You’re saying the distance (height?) between the nodes can be controlled based on the height of the fixture? So if I wanted the plant to be shorter I can lower the light so that it doesn’t have to reach for it as much.
That makes sense.
My last grow I wasn’t diluting the nutrients at all, and I didn’t even check ppm once the whole grow (because I didn’t know any better) until about a week before harvest. This time around I’ll definitely be more conscious of that. I’m curious to know what the HF runoff is too I’ll have to check. So with the nutrients I can start when I see the runoff go under 6-700, got it.
Thank you!
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That’s one thing I don’t know how to figure out when I would need it, referring to cal/mag.
At what point do you start to use the trio?
Usually start around 4 weeks but sometimes the ppm caused me to wait til week 5 or 6
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Good to know.
How about misting them? Do you bother?
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Fx farms has a foliar spray called flower kiss that I love. has cal in it as well. I use calmag the entire grow. from seedling to harvest.
You know you hear a million different things, everyone has their own regiment. I’ve heard both sides that mag doesn’t foilar feed well but I foilar 1 tbs (table) epsom salt/ gal … I’ll also mist the girls if they aren’t all on the same schedule for watering to keep up until. That’s my 2 cents. Buy I will for sure spray a couple x’s per grow
I missed that question but I’m exactly the same as skorp, won’t even check r/o until around 4 weeks even to judge wether to feed. That’s ff soil to boot and I even cut it with old soil sometimes. Amongst some other lil additives, far cry from homemade super soil but maybe a “neat-o soil” LMAO
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I’ve never heard of Flower Kiss I’ll have to check it out.
I’ve read that there’s a bunch of different things you can spray on but it’s hard to know which ones are worth it.
I have a somewhat large pile of spent soil in my driveway I was trying to figure out what to do with it, mixing it with HF is a great idea!
Thanks again for the info. Ive been spraying them once a day mostly and watering when the buckets feel light.
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De root the old soil best ya can, I add some castings, perlite and touch of ocean as well. There is nothing wrong at all using old soil as a base or filler. I do put the majority in one my compost piles plus it also sits for a bit.
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I have yet to make a compost pile.
When I bought my last batch of soil I bought way too much HF, I have like 2 full bags left. This would be a great way to stretch it out to last even longer.
Day 18 from seeds in the soil.
I saw someone else on here put up reflectors around their lights and plants, I decided to do the same. I was amazed that it increased the lux by about 10k. So at 25" I’m getting around 25k lux at the top of the plants when the tents closed up (not sure what level is adequate at this stage). Last grow I lost so much light I never even realized.
I know that in horticulture they don’t measure lux as @imSICKkid pointed out but that’s all I can do with the meter I have.
Day 17 from seeds popping.
