A few noob questions about tap water, nute switch and misc

[Myskellos]

Hi everyone, I'm starting a new round of growing. My seed already germinated and I'm going to log this grow on the journal here on autoflower.net.
I want to ask you a few question to set things straight from the beginning:

• Starting Water. The tap water analysis is the following:

Bicarbonates alkalinity: mg/L	Total alkalinity: mg/L	Ammonium: mg/L	Calcium mg/L	Residual chlorine mg/L:	Chloride mg/L	pH	Conductivity: µS/cm a 20°C	Water Hardness °F	Fluoride mg/L	Magnesium mg/L	Manganese: µg/L	(NO2-) mg/L:	(NO2) mg/L:	Potassium mg/L	Dry residue at 180° C mg/L:	Sodium mg/L:	Sulphate mg/L
232	191	0,02	77	0,2	27	7,5	558	26	< 0,10	14	< 5	4	< 0,02	2	378	21	51

Last time I probably had a nute lockout due to excess of calcium in the water+nutes (as @Mañ'O'Green pointed out). Given the high conductivity of water should I mix the tap water with distilled water? Or avoid tap water at all and go with distilled water for both plain watering and fertigation?

• Transplant: I have a 3 days old seedling in a plastic glass covered with cling film. When should I transplant it? I guess before it is root bound, but I don't know how to translate this in days/weeks. I was thining to put it in the final fabric pot when it has developed a one or two sets of true leaves.
• When to switch nutes: I've read the Muddy post (https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-life-cycle-of-auto-flowering-cannabis.5113/) but I have some doubts. He advice to stick to veg nute until the stretching phase is over. But looking at the Biobizz schedule I can see that they ramp up the bloom nute waaay before the stretch.

I get that those charts are made for photos and not autos. Last round of grow, my plants stopped the strech at week 6 or 7. What strategy should I use? Is the Muddy advice somewhat 'vendor-dependents'? (I doubt it though)

• Watering and fertigation: I will use the soil as medium (biobizz light mix). Biobizz suggest to fertigate every watering to avoid ph fluctuation, no need to run off. I have read many opinions on that subject. Would it be better to fertigate, so to speak, once a week and water with ph-ed water? And then, water to runoff or just when the weight is enough?

Cheers !

 

[DCLXVI]

Hey I'm still pretty new so take my advice carefully and I'm sure the real knowledgeable guys will chime in soon.

However, my water is pretty hard and I run the biobizz lightmix soil also. It's very possible the BBLM has a bit of calcium in it and the two together is a lot of Ca. I have been cutting my tap water with distilled water to bring it down to around 100ppm. I have just started a new grow so we will see if doing so helps.

Do you have a ppm/ec meter?

 

[Myskellos]

Yes I bought an Apera Instr. PC60, which is EC/TDS/pH meter. Pretty solid compared to the cheap chinese shit found on Amazon for ten bucks

 

[Mañ'O'Green]

Hi everyone, I'm starting a new round of growing. My seed already germinated and I'm going to log this grow on the journal here on autoflower.net.
I want to ask you a few question to set things straight from the beginning:

• Starting Water. The tap water analysis is the following:

Bicarbonates alkalinity: mg/L	Total alkalinity: mg/L	Ammonium: mg/L	Calcium mg/L	Residual chlorine mg/L:	Chloride mg/L	pH	Conductivity: µS/cm a 20°C	Water Hardness °F	Fluoride mg/L	Magnesium mg/L	Manganese: µg/L	(NO2-) mg/L:	(NO2) mg/L:	Potassium mg/L	Dry residue at 180° C mg/L:	Sodium mg/L:	Sulphate mg/L
232	191	0,02	77	0,2	27	7,5	558	26	< 0,10	14	< 5	4	< 0,02	2	378	21	51

Last time I probably had a nute lockout due to excess of calcium in the water+nutes (as @Mañ'O'Green pointed out). Given the high conductivity of water should I mix the tap water with distilled water? Or avoid tap water at all and go with distilled water for both plain watering and fertigation?

• Transplant: I have a 3 days old seedling in a plastic glass covered with cling film. When should I transplant it? I guess before it is root bound, but I don't know how to translate this in days/weeks. I was thining to put it in the final fabric pot when it has developed a one or two sets of true leaves.
• When to switch nutes: I've read the Muddy post (https://www.autoflower.org/threads/the-life-cycle-of-auto-flowering-cannabis.5113/) but I have some doubts. He advice to stick to veg nute until the stretching phase is over. But looking at the Biobizz schedule I can see that they ramp up the bloom nute waaay before the stretch.

View attachment 1292972

I get that those charts are made for photos and not autos. Last round of grow, my plants stopped the strech at week 6 or 7. What strategy should I use? Is the Muddy advice somewhat 'vendor-dependents'? (I doubt it though)

• Watering and fertigation: I will use the soil as medium (biobizz light mix). Biobizz suggest to fertigate every watering to avoid ph fluctuation, no need to run off. I have read many opinions on that subject. Would it be better to fertigate, so to speak, once a week and water with ph-ed water? And then, water to runoff or just when the weight is enough?

Cheers !

Your water is really bad. You can mix distilled probably about 4 gallons to one gallon tap water. This is going to get expensive. You could use water from the corner store at about $.30 a gallon or get an RO system. I have and like this one.



I do not like the germination method you are using. I plant direct when ever possible.

No you do not fertigate bio-bizz every time. More like F,W,W, repeat. You want to run about 50% of the chart for autos.

The timeline on the chart is just a frame work. You will want to fertigate based on the maturity of the plant and not the calendar.

 

[Myskellos]

Thank you Man! Unfortunately I don't have much space in to place the seed in the final pot and keep it warm. I'm not a fan of transplanting too, mostly because I never did it

As for the nutes, so I will keep the BioGrow up to the end of stretch and then switch to bloom. It is not very clear how to feed the plant according to the plant age. I mean, assuming that the end of stretch equals the week 3 of the chart, so I will introduce the bloom. But until then should I keep a constant regime of BioGrow (0.5 ml/l) and adjust accordingly to the plant signs?

Thanks again!