Preface:
I’m setting up my first grow tent (hydroponic bubbler) with NL fems from ILGM. Rather small grow, 4 plants, to keep it within the legal limit of my town.
I have a friend who is a programmer and he’s working on automating the dosage of nutrients and ph balance solutions by using sensors to see when the levels are low in the hydroponic tub. He also has water level sensors to top the tub with water from a bucket when it runs low.
Question:
Since this is my first grow, I was trying to research how much nutrient solution I should dose and how often. I’ve read that you should start dosing half of the recommended amount on the bottle and slowly increasing it to the recommended amount. I’m using Dynagro Grow and Flower nutrients and they say 1 tablespoon per gallon in your tank so I’ll be using 2.5 tablespoons for my 5 gallon. Is this the plan that I should follow? Also I couldn’t find any clear info on how often I should dose the nutrient solution and how much I should dose each time. Could you give me any clear directions and recommendations?
Thanks a lot!
Just remember “Less is Best” can always increase believe your amounts night be a bit to much. Generally one starts out with at least 1/4 amounts (as per directions) increasing weekly Feed two out of three days
Hydro is a balancing game though I am sure it can be automated it would be a tricky endevor since every strain reacts differently and genetics from plant to plant vary. The main thing to keep in mind with hydro is you want your ppm’s to stay constant, by this I mean as your plant drinks water and your res lowers you don’t want your ppm’s going up. You want your plant absorbing nutrients at the same pace as water so if your water lvl drop 1 gal the ppm of remaining solution should read the same as start when it was full if it is less up dose more than lower dose etc.
Unless you are growing a strain you know you have to learn this as you go and adjust accordingly with each 10 day res change you should be able to up your nutrients slightly by 50-100 ppm depending on the length of veg and duration of grow by the time you are starting flower you’ll have progressed from 200-1100 ppm give or take some strains will eat more or less and be happy.
