Hey all. If you have seen some of my other posts, you have probably seen that I do all of my growing outside. I live in Southern California. I always tell people that I am about 15 minutes from the Mouse Ears. This outdoor growing applies to both my marijuana and my other regular garden stuff. Some is in pots/planters with soil, some in the garden ground, and some in 5-gallon buckets for hydroponics. I’ve posted many pictures in other posts, but I’ll drop a couple here for reference. Because of the extreme heat we are having in here in SoCal (90 degrees), my hydroponic bucket plants were getting dry too fast. I was sometimes adding water/nutrients/PH twice a day. I was definitely having to water all my soil stuff daily, but twice a day is rough. So today I switched over to the big Costco totes for my big photoperiod plants.. I was using one to make big batches of the MasterBlend 3-part dry mix up for my bucket changes as well as feeding my soil plants a couple of times a week with it. Easier to just make a big batch. So I thought to myself, self, why not just use the big totes as a larger reservoir? A little manual labor, some power tools, lots of water (did I mention it’s hot?), a few choice cuss words thrown around, and this is what I got. I have an air pump going 24/7 with 4-inch air stones in each bucket/tote. Approx. 22 gallons of nutrients in each tote with enough room for air considering the depth of the 6 inch net pots with clay pebbles as the medium. Running 1100PPM, EC of 2.1. One is an ILGM Gold leaf not showing flower signs yet on the right side. The other is a White Truffle from ILGM that is showing flowering on the left. I’m thinking about doing another tote for the Community Grow #2 Godfather OG Feminized Photo grow that we are doing instead of the 5-gallon bucket that I was planning on. I have grown several Auto Flowers in the 5-gallon buckets, but they are always smaller and never seemed to drink like these photoperiod plants are doing. Please let me know what you think and if there is anything missing, something I need to look out for, or just any words of wisdom from those that have done this before. Thanks for looking and commenting.
What ratios are you mixing it at, or are you just using the mfg recommended?
I love this stuff and I’ve been going on a deep dive lately trying to get even more out of it.
Flowering I run it 4g part A, 1.5g ES, and 2.4g part B per gallon. I pushed it a little harder this time and it worked out well.
I’m still tweaking the veg mix but for the indoor grow off I’m going to start at 2g part A, 1g ES, 3g part B. It’s a little lower on the part a this time but it will be more nitrogen for early growth.
Hey there @JPhoenixX , I’ve just been using the recommended blend. I too have been looking for some more info on changing it up. But I’ve run across a lot of MasterBlend users that swear by using the recommended doses start to finish (except seeds and seedlings) I’m usually running 1100-1300PPM, EC of 2.0-2.2, PH of 5.5-6.2. I was mixing it for 5 gallon buckets at 2 teaspoons MB Grow, 1 teaspoon of Epsom Salt, and 2 teaspoons of Cal-Nitrate, (in order, correctly blended). 1/4 strength for seedlings until 3rd set of leaves (not counting Cotyledon leaves of course), then 1/2 strength until 6th set, do a topping of the plant, wait 1 week and then go full strength. Some people say that what strength I am using should only be once it is in flower, but I personally have not had any adverse effects so far in Veg. Hope that helps and definitely tag me if you come across something different. I probably wouldn’t change mid-grow, but would be willing to try something new on a fresh start. Thanks!
For flowering I’m at an EC of 2.0 give or take, the n-p-k is roughly 7-9-19 with that ratio.
My veg mix should come in around 1.3 to 1.6 EC with an n-p-k around 9-6-13. I give them only ro water the first 2-3 weeks then it’s full strength.
I can never leave well enough alone and I like to push things as far as I can so those might not be final numbers. I can’t complain with the results I’ve had so far tho.
So you upped your gallons and are running 20 more. That should be a significant increase in yield. I’m gonna tag along as I’ve debated doing something similiar.
I have the drip emitters and tubing but I’ve never set it up as hydro. That much hydroton rock is expensive eh?
Hey @2GreenThumbs@JPhoenixX , not really, the only hydroton is in the 6 inch net cups. I got a 40 liter bag, about 20 pounds, for like $30 on Amazon. I filled up 8 6-inch netcups, 8 2-inch netcups (was trying Kratky in Mason jars) and still had a bunch leftover. I only had to end up buying more because I started using it at the bottom of 10-gallon fabric grow bags for drainage and absorption from the large saucers that they sit in.
