Thank you. I only mentioned it because i dont have any NH4 whatsoever from my calnit (purecal) and figured it’d beneficial to have a tiny bit in there.
The plan is to use stock A/B concentrates to avoid the weighing errors. I see what you mean, once you start dropping the KNO3 and adding more KSO4, it changes the N:Ca ratios drastically. I think i found a compromise so that i’d be running closer to the ratios i’m familiar using Jack’s. It’s tempting to change too many things.
I can use the calcium acetate to bump up the calcium in transistion.
Another question. I notice that when I mix Jack’s 5-12-26, my pH drops in the mid 4’s when mixing with ro water. Obviously, they must be adding some kind of acid to bring the pH down. I’d typically add a little bit of high alkalinity tap water to get my pH where I want it.
When making your own mixes, are there any tricks to get your pH where you’d like? I know silica raises pH but what if you want to lower your pH a bit? Would balancing amounts of MKP and something like PeKacid do the trick?
This must be some of my issue as I’m using Ca N03 as my sole N source. I’m also having a hell of a time trying to raise my brix past 5. Can you please elaborate more on the Athena ratios and , what ratios you used to achieve a higher brix?
The data is expensive to generate ( I allocate 1200sf in a licensed canopy to test stuff like this), so I won’t spill all the beans. Brix is also at least as dependent on environment as nutritionals. There is a “perfect” point of ratios on a bell shaped curve to hit high brix. Calcium is is very antagonistic, that is why you see the the higher K:N ratios with HGV and Athena. All that Ca and K antagonize N and slow down growth rate compared to what it could be. The starter of this thread has given a recipe that is getting pretty damn good brix. Compare his ratios to yours.
I’ve been testing my mix diluted from 1.9 EC down to 1.2 EC on some rooted clones .
I topped them this morning and for the hell of it, decided to test brix from the cut tops. Brix was @ 10% and the dividing line was diffuse but not as diffuse as the plant the cuttings were taken from (and which is also getting the full 1.9 EC)
Clones rooted in coco about a week ago and have been fed the 1.2 EC feed for the past week. I’m wondering what kind of brix levels are to be expected on freshly rooted clones. I was surprised to see a reading of 10%, i was expecting lower.
I bumped their feed up to 1.4 EC and will be transplanting them into their final 1 gallon pots soon. Looking forward to see how this mix performs from clone to flower. They look fantastic so far.
Question. I’ve been running the following ratio since i began veg, it mixes to 2.3 EC full strength
N 139
P 51
K 207
Mg 62
Ca 157
S 111
Fe 3.1
Mn 0.89
Zn 0.18
B 0.584
Cu 0.045
Mo 0.003
DTW coco in 1 gallon pots, I’ve been vegging for about 2 weeks and started with the mix diluted to about 1.5 EC. My plants looked meh, not really deficient but just didn’t seem as vigorous as i’d like. The plants started to look much better as i increased the EC to full strength. No shit, right?
My question is, if i ran Jack’s at 2.3 EC, i’d typically start getting some tip burn in my setup. The only deviation from Jack’s is that i increased the Calcium quite a bit and lowered N a little bit. Does this allow you to get away with a little bit higher EC?
I measured brix a couple of times and they’ve been in the 11-12-ish range. Getting some 7 blade leaves but the majority are still 5.
I think things are going in the right direction but i’m just not used to running such a high EC. The highest I’d run Jack’s is 2 EC. I’m resisting the temptation to change anything but it’s hard. ha
I was also not used to running such a high Ec. I was always taught to mix full strength and, dilute to desired Ec. Emdub set me straight on that. If we mix full strength and then dilute, we no longer have the profile we were shooting for because we just added more water to the mix lol! Don’t be afraid of the higher Ec.
Your numbers are real close to the numbers I’m running now in veg. I finally got my leaflets up to five with N @ 152 ppm and, K @ 217. I’m thinking of increasing K to about 222, to see if that gets me to 7 and 9 leaflets. I want to see 11 and 13!
I finally got the brix in my flowering girls to 12-13%. It seems the reduction of No3 and, the increase of K, Ca, and S achieved this maybe?
I’m still in veg and plan on flipping in about a week. I’m getting a lot more 7 blade leaves on new growth without any changes to the above ratios. I’m guessing it has more to do with the increase in light they are getting more than anything.
I thought the same thing but, was still getting 3 and 5 fingers under the big light in my flower tent. I usually let them veg 7-10 days in the flower tent before flipping to 12/12 so, I’ll keep giving them the same mix and see if my leaflets increase or stay the same before I change anything.
It’s so hard to fight the temptation to change things but i’m going to stick with this mix just to have a baseline to go from. I do plan on bumping K up during flower.
The only 3 finger leaves i’ve seen the round were close to the bottom of the plants and not getting much light. I’d love to see some 9, 11 and 13 leaflets as well… I’m wondering if genetics play a significant role in this.
My last grow with Jack’s, i saw some 9 finger leaves during stretch, nothing above that though.
That said, I am considering ditching coco for rockwool since i already have the irrigation system in place and would only have to do a few minor tweaks. My thought is that taking CEC out of the equation would take a bit more of the guesswork out of things, there’s plenty already, haha
Once you bring the Ca up above the N, tip burn is less likely at any EC, unless you antagonize the Ca somehow, like with insane K levels. It works to a point, but if Ca gets too much higher than N, it will start antagonizing N. If you get to that situation you typically end up with a plant that tests high brix, but grows slower than ideal with purple petioles and smaller leaves.
Try not to get too caught up in number of blades, instead read the blades you have. Excess K will have longer narrow sativa appearing blades, excess Ca will have short wide indica appearing blades. Of course the absolute shape varies with genetics, but you get the idea. You can learn a lot about leaf morphology by growing out a big plant and drastically changing ratios every 5 or so nodes. It’s a trip so see leaves ranging from a 3 blade heavy indica shape to a 9 blade heavy sativa shape all on the same plant.
I’m going to do a learning experiment in rockwool during the summer when i’m not flowering to: (a) learn rockwool and (b) see what different ratios of Ca and K do to the plants. It seems like Ca and K are the ions to play around with first since N and P appear fairly straightforward. Thanks again!
