Hey guys. I'm doin hydroponics using a flood and drain table. I'm going to be running autoflowers with advanced nutrients. I was wondering if anyone has a good feeding schedule or point me the right direction to find one.
Autoflower, AN Nutrients, and Hydroponics
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@TexasKracker
Welcome to AFNuse about 60% of the regular schedule. It is going to cost you an arm and a leg to run a flood and drain with AN.
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Hello,
I grow auto flowers a couple different ways on flood and drain tables (ebb & flow). When I’m growing my plants in “4x4” Grodan rock wool cubes with exposed roots, I flood the tray every 4 hours. If I’m growing plants on 9x8x3 rock wool slabs with “4x4”cubes on top, I water twice a day. I start out at 500 ppm and end up at around 850 ppm, at the end of flower. Using R/O water and Humbolt Secret nutrient's. I change out my nutrient tank every 10-14 days and start flushing the last 10 days of flowering. I use Clearex by Botanicare the first 2 days of flush, and will change the water dailey until I get down to about 50-60 ppm.
I’ll post some pics of some of my ebb & flow auto grows in the next few days. Good luck!
I grow auto flowers a couple different ways on flood and drain tables (ebb & flow). When I’m growing my plants in “4x4” Grodan rock wool cubes with exposed roots, I flood the tray every 4 hours. If I’m growing plants on 9x8x3 rock wool slabs with “4x4”cubes on top, I water twice a day. I start out at 500 ppm and end up at around 850 ppm, at the end of flower. Using R/O water and Humbolt Secret nutrient's. I change out my nutrient tank every 10-14 days and start flushing the last 10 days of flowering. I use Clearex by Botanicare the first 2 days of flush, and will change the water dailey until I get down to about 50-60 ppm.
I’ll post some pics of some of my ebb & flow auto grows in the next few days. Good luck!
@TexasKracker
Is there a nutrient line that you would suggest.
Thank you very much.
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If I was going with salt nutes, I would go with the two part MegaCrop. @Mañ'O'Green has worked up a fine feeding schedule that is a perfect way to start with that system. If the two part MC is not available to you, the Jack's 321 system would also work well, but the Part A MC has some extra goodies in it.
With either of those, you need pH and EC pens, they are not optional IMO, and don't go cheap on the pH pen, get a bluelab or Apera.
Good luck with it.
Awsome. Thank you very much.If I was going with salt nutes, I would go with the two part MegaCrop. @Mañ'O'Green has worked up a fine feeding schedule that is a perfect way to start with that system. If the two part MC is not available to you, the Jack's 321 system would also work well, but the Part A MC has some extra goodies in it.
With either of those, you need pH and EC pens, they are not optional IMO, and don't go cheap on the pH pen, get a bluelab or Apera.
Good luck with it.
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If you are in Texas, here is your Megacrop source, free shipping to you:
Mega Crop 2 Part A 5-12-26 Hydroponic Professional – Greenleaf Nutrients
The link is to Part A, you will need to order Part B as well. Part B is just Calcium Nitrate which sometimes is available cheaper without the brand name. Buy this and study the nutrient info from @Mañ'O'Green, and you should have fun and grow some nice bud.
It is also possible that you have hydroponic suppliers around where you live, in which case you might be able to avoid shipping delays which can be a nuisance these days.
Good luck with it, and don't hesitate to post more questions, AFN is always here to help.
Mega Crop 2 Part A 5-12-26 Hydroponic Professional – Greenleaf Nutrients
The link is to Part A, you will need to order Part B as well. Part B is just Calcium Nitrate which sometimes is available cheaper without the brand name. Buy this and study the nutrient info from @Mañ'O'Green, and you should have fun and grow some nice bud.
It is also possible that you have hydroponic suppliers around where you live, in which case you might be able to avoid shipping delays which can be a nuisance these days.
Good luck with it, and don't hesitate to post more questions, AFN is always here to help.
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Lets talk a minute about why I do not do flood and drain. If you do not flood above the top of the media you run the risk of creating a salt line in the media where the evaporation happens inside the media. This can become toxic to the plant as the salts concentrate there. You can mitigate this by top watering once a week.
Basically that means a 4 inch fertigation depth for a 4 inch cube . In a 2x4 flood tray (2 plants) that will be 20 gallons (6 inch cubes grow a better plant but 10 more gallons). Your reservoir will need 5 more gallons to keep the pump primed. 25 gallons of fertilizer a week. Sure you may be able to go 10 days but that is risky especially in flower when they are using P-K heavily. So in veg you are looking at ~$45 worth of nutrients Then in bloom about $120. That is about $165 dollars to grow 2 plants. This does not include topping up the nutrients daily. Ouch.
You can do the same F&D with GreenLeaf, Bioag Ful-Power and NPK Raw products for about $40 including topping off the nutrients.
I grow 6 plants in 6 inch cubes using drip to waste for <$50.
You may be able to get away with only 2 inches of nutrients in the tray if you top fertigate at least once a week but you will need to change the reservoir much more often. Remember the reason we need to change the reservoir is because we do not know what the plant is using out of the mix at any given time. There is no other way to keep the nutrients in balance. In my drip system I return to the starting PPM daily by adding ~33% of the original nutrients back into the reservoir but after a week it needs to be changed because there is now way to know what the plants have taken out.
This is not a perfect schedule. It is for autos only. I need to bump up the overall strength by about 15% in the next run. I have been leaning my formula out to save on money and not wanting to over feed which is easy to do in hydro. I think I found the bottom of what will work at about 450 PPM. I will go back up to ~ 550PPM which gave me a happier plant over-all.
I document my grows well so go see the Lil'Wild Lamb, Lil'MOBstar, Double Grape
Have Fun!
Basically that means a 4 inch fertigation depth for a 4 inch cube . In a 2x4 flood tray (2 plants) that will be 20 gallons (6 inch cubes grow a better plant but 10 more gallons). Your reservoir will need 5 more gallons to keep the pump primed. 25 gallons of fertilizer a week. Sure you may be able to go 10 days but that is risky especially in flower when they are using P-K heavily. So in veg you are looking at ~$45 worth of nutrients Then in bloom about $120. That is about $165 dollars to grow 2 plants. This does not include topping up the nutrients daily. Ouch.
You can do the same F&D with GreenLeaf, Bioag Ful-Power and NPK Raw products for about $40 including topping off the nutrients.
I grow 6 plants in 6 inch cubes using drip to waste for <$50.
You may be able to get away with only 2 inches of nutrients in the tray if you top fertigate at least once a week but you will need to change the reservoir much more often. Remember the reason we need to change the reservoir is because we do not know what the plant is using out of the mix at any given time. There is no other way to keep the nutrients in balance. In my drip system I return to the starting PPM daily by adding ~33% of the original nutrients back into the reservoir but after a week it needs to be changed because there is now way to know what the plants have taken out.
This is not a perfect schedule. It is for autos only. I need to bump up the overall strength by about 15% in the next run. I have been leaning my formula out to save on money and not wanting to over feed which is easy to do in hydro. I think I found the bottom of what will work at about 450 PPM. I will go back up to ~ 550PPM which gave me a happier plant over-all.
I document my grows well so go see the Lil'Wild Lamb, Lil'MOBstar, Double Grape
Have Fun!
If you are in Texas, here is your Megacrop source, free shipping to you:
Mega Crop 2 Part A 5-12-26 Hydroponic Professional – Greenleaf Nutrients
The link is to Part A, you will need to order Part B as well. Part B is just Calcium Nitrate which sometimes is available cheaper without the brand name. Buy this and study the nutrient info from @Mañ'O'Green, and you should have fun and grow some nice bud.
It is also possible that you have hydroponic suppliers around where you live, in which case you might be able to avoid shipping delays which can be a nuisance these days.
Good luck with it, and don't hesitate to post more questions, AFN is always here to help.
I will definitely look those up. Thank you.
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