Good. The less things in your tent, the more room for you to get in there amongst your plants.
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My thoughts exactly. What type of humidifier do you suggest?
I would first wait to see if you even need a humidifier.
If you do, I would recommend an evaporative humidifier since you are humidifying an entire room.
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So, do you think that I just will need a flower/bloom nutrient with the soil that I am using or what ype of nutrients do I need and should I wait to flower to start applying?
It is impossible to say exactly when, but you likely wonât need nutrients until you are well into the flowering stage.
This is why a pH meter and a PPM meter are your two most valuable tools. Use the pH meter to check your water going in and out, and adjust the water going in if needed. Use the PPM meter to keep an eye on the nutrient levels and watch when they begin to drop during flower.
Here are some PPM numbers to aim for. This is just a general guideline. Different plants, different soils, different nutrients all make for different situations.
Seedlings: 100-250
Veg 1st half: 300-400
Veg 2nd half: 450-700
Flr 1st half: 750-950
Flr 2nd half: 1000-1600
Flower end: Work toward 0
Your runoff PPM readings will likely be much higher than the chart in the early stages. You shouldnât worry about that as long as your leaves look good. Thatâs just you rinsing some of the nutrients out of that Ocean Forest soil. As long as you layer the soil like @Carol4486 and I do, the plant wonât actually be eating those nutrients until it gets bigger and the roots grow into that portion.
As far as nutrient choices go⌠there are many, many, many to choose from. Off the top of my head, these are some of the most popular ones:
Advanced Nutrients
Fox Farms
General Hydroponics
Greenleaf Megacrop
And of course, our benefactor has his own line of nutrients, which can be found here:
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I plan on layering the soil as you and @Carol4486 have suggested. I have already purchased a PH meter and a TDS/EC meter and they are here already. I have a set of the Bergmanâs nutrients but want to save them when I grow the Gold Leaf that I purchased. I have been thinking about the GH since it is good for both soil and hydro. Which do you think I should purchase for this grow. I have found a 3 pack of gallon size but, am not sure that I will need all 3 this time around or maybe even the second, I donât really know. I have 8 cubic feet of happy frog and 6 cubic feet of Ocean forest. My first run, I want to try 6-5gallon cloth pots in a 5x5, with 6 different strains of auto-flower. I think my line-up will be the 00 Bubble Gum, which I have already started, Big Bud, BCN Power Plant, AK 420 and Purple Haze. Any thoughts, suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
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OOPs. I geezed again and either Blackberry Gum or Auto Purple.
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You will probably only need bloom nutrients. And you might consider a bloom booster as well, but it isnât necessary.
Personally, I really wouldnât recommend buying gallon sizes this time around- a little goes a long way and you will wind up locking yourself into a brand that you might not like in the long run. I would look for quart size or smaller, if available. When you settle on a brand you really love, then look into the big containers.
Perhaps consider just using the Bergmanâs nutrients youâve already purchased⌠if you bought one of their kits, youâve already got the Flowertime Booster and the Plant Booster.
Some companies also offer sample kits to try out. I know Advanced Nutrients (expensive stuff, though) offers products in little 250 mL containers. If you are in a location where itâs legal to grow, your local hydroponics store may have some samples for you to try out.
@TommyBahama, Thanks for getting back to me. I do have the Bergmanâs but I was planning on using it with the Gold Leaf in the spring. I still plan on growing a few outside 3-4, I have 20 gallon cloth pots for this and plan to do 1 of them with the Gold Leaf and also plan to do 1 inside at the same time, just for comparison.
Which brand of nutrients, would you recommend? I am open for suggestions, as I havenât purchased any yet. Unfortunately it is still not legal to grow in my location, hopefully some day soon, thatâs the reason I used to be a guerilla grower. I suppose that I would start the bloom nutrients 5-10 days after flipping to 12/12, is that correct? What are the advantages of a bloom booster? I have no problem using one if it would help.
The general consensus I am getting is, that with the soil I am using I should be okay without adding any nutrients until I switch to flower just, to keep an eye on the PH. I have purchased some Ph up and Ph down also and have it on hand. Am I understanding this correctly?
As far as Cal-Mag, I know that I should have some of that on hand also. Any experience or thoughts on this product? CALYX MAGNUM by Humboldt Nutrients.
As always, I appreciate your and anyone elseâs advice, comments or suggestions. I am getting closer and closer to starting to assemble my set-up. Moved the dog crates outta the bedroom that I am now going to use so, I can close the door and put a keyed lock on the door. The dogâs are now going to sleeping in the basement, thatâs the only time that they are in their crates. Working on giving the room a good cleaning right now and hopefully by tomorrow or the next day, I will start putting everything together just donât want to jump the gun again.
Sorry that it took so long to respond. I had to run to Loweâs and Wally World this morning to pick up some supplies. This time of year, I try to get in and outta town early to avoid the leaf peepers, they come every year around this time to look at the leaves changing colors and make it a real pain in the ass to get around town. I work in the city and live where I do to get away from all the people and traffic.
If you want to save your Bergmanâs product for later, I would recommend any of these 3 of the 4 brands I mentioned earlier:
Advanced Nutrients
Fox Farms
General Hydroponics
Iâm going to skip recommending Greenleaf Megacrop just because itâs not quite as âhands-offâ as the other brands are. Itâs main reason for popularity is that it is inexpensive. Donât get me wrong - itâs a great product but Iâm trying to help keep things simple for now - youâve already discovered thereâs a lot of stuff to learn.
Take some time and check out the websites of the other 3. You will be able to find lots of help here with all of them.
As far as switching to bloom nutrients, you donât base that on time, but rather on what the plants tell you. Watch for the PPM reading to start dropping during those first few weeks of flower. As it begins to approach 1000 it will be time to start thinking about adding some nutrients. Keep an eye on your leaves as well. If they start yellowing, they may be in need of nitrogen or a supplement. The best thing you can do if youâre not sure what the leaves are telling you is to take a photo in either natural sunlight or incandescent light, then post the photo here for people to analyze.
Bloom boosters - these contain additional phosphorus and potassium (and sometimes a little magnesium) that the plant will love to eat up during the flowering stage. Your normal nutrients contain these as well, but this booster doesnât bring with it (well, just a little bit) the extra nitrogen that your normal nutrients do. Keep in mind - you donât need bloom booster. Your grow will be just fine without it, so if you want to keep things simple this time around, thatâs great.
pH - yep, just test your pH going in, and measure what comes out as well. When growing in soil you want to keep the runoff pH between 6.2 and 6.8, with 6.5 being kind of a sweet spot in the middle. Here is a chart that shows how certain elements are locked out from the plant when your pH is outside of that range:
Cal-Mag - Thatâs one that you may or may not need. Advanced Nutrients Sensi Grow already has it, Fox Farms Grow Big does not, and I couldnât find out the ingredients for General Hydroponics. Perhaps someone reading this who has some GH can look on the back of the bottle. Iâve never needed to add it for a soil grow. If you want to have some on hand just in case, I would recommend you get General Hydroponics Cal-MAGic as it has the least amount of nitrogen of any of the cal-mag supplements Iâve seen.
If you are using well water (I do for soil grows) for your plants, itâs likely you wonât need it. If you are using city water, there is a possibility - who knows what your city has removed/added? If you are using distilled or reverse osmosis water, odds are good you will need to add some.
Thanks as always @TommyBahama, for getting back to me. I sure do appreciate it. So, I reckon that my take on not having to use nutrients until into the flower stage is correct. I will be checking my PH and PPM. I had planned on doing it every time I watered, or is that not often enough/too often? I will be checking PH in PH out and PPM. I am also on a well so, I wonât be using city water. I also intend on keeping a notebook to keep record of all of my readings and date of reading. As far as the nutrients, I was kinda leaning towards this product: Advanced Nutrients Grow Micro Bloom pH Perfect Bundle Set Combo Base Nutrient 1L. It sounds like I may only need the bloom and some sort of bloom booster. If it will improve the end product, I really would rather use it than not. Would I need anything like this also: Advanced Nutrients Carboload Liquid 1 Liter Carbohydrate yield booster? Which booster would you recommend from Advanced Nutrients? Would I need any of these products: Voodoo Juice, Big Bud, B-52, & Overdrive, SensiZym, Bud Ignitor or Bud Candy? I am trying my best to make sure that I donât skimp on lighting, soil or nutrients. I have gathered that these are the 3 main things other than watching my PH in, PH out and PPM out. Does Advanced nutrients make a Cal-Mag? What about this product:Advanced Nutrients Sensi Cal-Mag Xtra Plant Nutrient ? The Sensi Grow that you mentioned is a 2 part, parts A&B and appears to be for growing. They make a product called: Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom A & B pH Perfect Nutrient Part A Part B 1 L Liter. In your opinion, would this be a good choice and then some kinda bloom booster? If so, in your opinion what would be the best bloom booster from the same manufacturer? I would rather stay with one manufacturerâs product. Do I need to purchase this also: Advanced Nutrients Flawless Finish Flushing Solution - 1L ? Again, I thank you so much for your help advice and guidance as well as the help, guidance and advice that I have received from everyone else on this forum. Damn, I am sooooooo glad that I finally found this place. Looks like it is gonna be next weekend before I can start my set-up, the dogs room is taking a little longer than anticipated to get in order. Hope everyone had a great weekend, back to the suck for me in the am.
Definitely check your pH and PPM every time you water. Since you are on well water, you will likely find that your pH is high. That said, you may not have to deal with it that much. Read onâŚ
Advanced Nutrients is a great choice. Their products are expensive but practically foolproof once you have the formulas (see below) figured out. The good news is, you can get most Advanced Nutrients products in small bottles, so you wonât need to spend much for just doing the flowering portion you are doing.
It is a good idea to stick with one brand of products when possible. Cal-Mag is an exception - you can use anyoneâs. But, I still recommend the General Hydroponics product when it comes to that because of the low nitrogen concentration mentioned earlier.
So, this is all you really need to finish out your grow once it gets to the flowering stage:
pH Perfect Sensi Bloom (parts A & B). This product actually adjusts the pH for you to be right in that optimal range mentioned earlier. You add part A to your water, wait 5 minutes, add part B, wait 5 minutes, then add any more supplements you may have.
I found 500mL bottles of this selling for $21.95 on eBay. It is also available for $34.95 on Amazon if you donât do eBay. That will feed several plantsâŚ
If I could recommend one additional product, that would be Bud Candy. You can find a 250mL bottle on eBay for $10.89 and on Amazon for $11.99. Bud Candy is essentially food for the bacteria in your soil that in turn process your nutrients and feed your plants. This actually helps as a bloom booster in a roundabout way.
If you want to try some Big Bud bloom booster, I found 250mL bottles on eBay for $12.42 and $12.81 on Amazon.
You asked about Flawless Finish. Itâs a good product, but not absolutely necessary. You can just give the plant plain water for the last 2 weeks before harvest.
Figuring out the right concentrations can be confusing, but Iâve already got that worked out for you. This chart has the complete line of soil products, but all you care about is the products weâve talked about. If you decide you like Advanced Nutrients and want to try other products in the future, they are all here for you as well.
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Oh, one other note: When you do finally add nutrients and supplements, I wouldnât jump right in with what the chart says, but rather a lower value. Example: If you are 3 weeks into flowering when you finally decide to add nutrients, give it half the week 3 amounts at first so itâs not such a jolt to the system. If everything looks good, ramp up the values over the next couple of feedings.
Thanks so much once again for your response @TommyBahama. You have no idea how much I appreciate all of the assistance and guidance that you have provided me. Sorry for taking up so much of your time, but you have been a tremendous help. You and the others that I have come into contact with on this forum have been phenomenal and a tremendous amount of assistance to me and I greatly appreciate everyone, you actually have been more help to me though and I am sorry if I am becoming a PIA, I just wannna know. I have purchased the Cal-Magic from GH. I have also purchased the Sensi-Bloom parts A&B, The Bud Candy and the Big Bud all Advanced Nutrients products except the Cal-Magic. I thank you for confirming that I should check my PH in PH out and PPM every watering. I was pretty sure that was what I was understanding. I will just do the water wash at the end, just wanted to make sure the other product wasnât a necessary step. Like I said before, I want Quality and although Quanity would be nice, I am willing to sacrifice for the first (Quality). I am assuming, although I donât like to do so, that if I re-use any sol additional products will need to be added. I will deal with that issue when I get there. I was under the understanding that I should start out at 1/4 strength and then work my way up. If 1/2 strength and then to full strength, if that is okay, I will start there. It is taking longer to get the other room cleaned and ready so, probably going to be this weekend before I start setting everything up. I ordered some light warrior from fox farms and it should be here in the next day or so, I will use that in my solo cups after germination and then into 5 gallon cloth pots. I am already aware to avoid over watering in the bigger pots and will do my best to stick to that regiment. The chart is awesome and I will definitely save it for future reference. Have a great evening.
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You are off to a great start, @repins12
If you feel more comfortable starting off with 1/4 strength nutrients, by all means do so and ramp up from there. Better safe than sorry!
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Iâm not sure about 1/4 strength personally, just seems to be in a lot of what I am reading. I will admit, I am outta my element. I have grown outdoors before but never a complete grow indoors. Some of the questions I ask, I feel like I already probably/possibly know the answer, just wanna check myself. I would rather ask than not and I sure appreciate your help and patience with me. Just wanna make sure that I have all of my bases covered as best that I can, before I jump in with both feet. Iâm sure that I am going to make mistakes along the way, just want to make every effort to keep them to a minimum, if at all possible. I am hoping for the best but, wanna be as prepared for the worse as possible. Again, I do thank you for your help and advice, you have no idea hoe much I appreciate it. I will definitely keep you posted when I get up in running if you would like. Iâm sure I am going to have questions along the way and things that I would like to be able to bounce off of you, if you donât mind and as far as that goes off of everyone on this forum. I hope everyone has a great evening, Iâm fixing to crash OâDark thirty is 3:15-3:30 for me in the am every day. Canât even seem to sleep in on my days off.
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When you first start feeding nutrients to a plant, you definitely want to start off lightly, and 1/4 strength is right for most plants. If you look at the feeding chart I posted above, you will see that it actually begins at 1/4 strength in Veg Week 1, and then goes up from there.
Thereâs absolutely nothing wrong with starting out at 1/4 strength flower nutrients when you begin feeding at that stage. Itâs not like you will be starving your plants, because in reality they are also getting nutrients from the Fox Farms soil. Go ahead and start with 1/4 strength (4mL/gal) flower nutrients, and if it looks good a week later, try 1/2 strength.
As always @TommyBahama, thanks for your response. You have no idea how much I appreciate your help. Itâs such a pleasure and a relief to be able to actually communicate with someone and not worry about if Iâm going to get busted or they are just giving me bad information. Everyone that I have communicated with on this site have been awesome and incredibly helpful. My analogy of life has always been that I am a sponge and life is water and I want to absorb as much as I can. Donât know whether that sounds corny or not but, I want know as much as I can about any endeavor that I make. Never had the option to be able to have access to such a tremendous amount of knowledge and a vast amount of experience about growing weed as I have found here. I think that I have finally found a place that I feel comfortable. Itâs taking longer than I expected to get the room in order as, the dogs have had that room for quite some time. I just want to make sure that I have got it as clean as I can before I set everything up. Much easier now than afterwards. Starting to get a little anxious but, have to keep telling myself Patience Grass Hopper. The older I get the less and less I try to get in a hurry. Whatâs that old saying the hurrider I go the behinder I get. Again, I can not express how much I appreciate your help as well as everyone elseâs on this forum. This is such an awesome place. Iâm sorry if I ask a lot of questions but, I just wanna know. If there is anything that you or anyone else can think of that I have forgot, need to know, might need to know or whatever, please let me know. When I do finally get up and running I will need some assistance/guidance in setting up a grow journal and I will tag everyone that I have communicated with in on it. Itâs getting close to the time to either sh** or get off the pot. No pun intended. I hope that you and everyone else on this forum have a great evening
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Have a heater which is the same i think but have a problem getting it work right. Instructions say to turn it to high and then back it off until you hear a click. But never seems to work right. Even tried opening the tent and letting it cool down to the exact temp i want and the backing it off to it clicks. Still gives me too high of a temp. Have Inkbirds controlling night and day temps so that i can dial it in. But to no avail it seems. Comments?
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I would start by setting it at a low temperature, leave it for a few hours and see if the tent reaches the temperature you want. If itâs too cool, turn the dial a little bit and check back in a few hours. Repeat until you get it where you want.
If you set it to a low temperature and it just gets super hot, then it probably has a bad thermostat.
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