Nutrient suggestions

[Olderfart]

@pop22 is another site member that uses MC with pretty impressive recommendations.

All depending upon the kind of water you're using.

Something not mentioned is, use an EC & PH pen if possible this will help you dial in your feed for concistancy.

I use tap water with a little ascorbic acid to kill the chlorine,
The strain I grow is very finicky about magnesium def'c, so I start my feed mix with 20ppm (straight tap water), then add a little Epsom salt to bring the ppm up to about 50 to 70ppm, add the Sweet Candy to a ppm of about 150ppm.
Finally, I add the Mega Crop to top up to 500ppm.

I use this feed from the second week of seedling to flower.
Once into flower, the reciepe will next to be readjusted to a higher concentration of Bud Explosion to Mega Crop.

As @Olderfart mentioned, start low, and listen to your plants.
Some strains are really greedy and some not so much.
Better to start low, and add,...than to get nute burn and wonder what solution is now required to fix

Oops, @GeorgeCloney, I missed your reply, so much of mine was redundant. Great advice on the meters and water supply, and nice to see that I have not mislead the OP too much. Thanks for chiming in on mixing ratios and how to put them together.

Stay safe, and happy growing.

 

[pop22]

I suspect people using Megacrop 2.0 or the newest formulation, are having problems being mistaken as Cal/Mag def. I have my doubts about that. I've grown about 40 strains with MC 2.0 and have never needed to add more cal/mag. Nor a straight magnesium def either. The original MC did need a cal/mag boost I found that about 30 ppm more fixed it.

A PH and a ppm or EC meter is a must when growing any style but organic in pots. And you want to invest in a good PH meter, I reccomend Extech p105 or Blue Labs PH meters. DO NOT buy a cheap PH meter. I started with a ebay cheapy and completely ruined a DWC grow by using a failed meter!

PPM EC meters are ok in lower priced meters, I've got am HM meter I paid $22 for and have used for three years now.

 

[GeorgeCloney]

@pop22 and @Olderfart

You guys got me thinking about the PH effect vs concentration..
So I did a little test.
This is how it went...
Measured my PH and EC of regular tap water.
Then added 1 gm in 4 liters of water.
then added 1 more gm, then 1 more and one more for a total of 4 grams per 4 liters of water.
Here are the progressive results.

As for my Epsom addition, simple,..my plants get nute burn if I adjust to get the purple stems gone by adjusting MC.
It's not a biggie, just a habit I got into ,..and the plants are happy...

So here are the results:
Tap water : 0ppm 6.62PH
1gm: 170ppm 6.13
2gm: 340ppm 5.97
3gm: 470ppm 5.91
4gm: 680ppm 5.85 (GN recommended mix)
So we cannot argue with science, MC does make PH drop somewhat.
(PH pen was calibrated yesterday, btw).

 

[pop22]

I like your PH meter. Looks like a re-branded Extech. does yours have a replaceable probe?

 

[Gary Laser Eyes]

Hello again,

If you have a ppm/ec meter, I suggest using it to mix your nutes. EC meters are reasonably reliable and accurate even when cheap, unlike pH pens, so I recommend putting one in your kit. As I mentioned, I do not have enough experience to confidently advise you on nute concentrations with your setup. However, since others haven't chimed in, here is what I will likely be doing in my next grow with autopots and MC. I will start at ~6-800EC (3-400ppm on most meters), and plan on increasing that gradually to no more than ~1000EC once plants start putting on some volume, unless the plants ask for more due to leaf color. You will want to check the EC of your water source as well, and if it is more than ~300, you may want to find another source as higher EC levels can bugger your nute delivery, at least with coco medium. I ended up using creek and lake water after I was having possible nute problems and discovered that my tap water was almost 400EC.

As I recall, @Dabber goes more or less immediately to ~1200EC, but he is not using Autopots, so the irrigation conditions in his setup may not be precisely comparable to yours. In any case, your plants will guide you as long as you get them started happily - they do not need a lot of nutes initially. You are a lot better off starting low and raising concentrations gradually while monitoring leaf color. If you are doing more than one strain off one autopot reservoir, you will want to adjust nutes to the most sensitive plant in the grow.

You will need to watch pH of both your mix and possibly your runoff if you end up chasing a problem. If you do not want to spend ~$75US or so on an Apera or equivalent meter, my advice is stick with the pH drops. Cheap pH meters fail too often to bother with them. The drops are a pain, and not as accurate, but they are better then nothing, and with care they can keep your grow on track. Having said that, by the time I was using MC, I had a meter, so I have not tried testing and MC mix with pH drops. MC produces a nute mix with a tan color which may interfere with color of the test results, maybe interfere a lot, I don't know. After working quite a bit with the drops, I would not do a grow without a pH meter, especially with MC.

Good luck with the grow.

I'll most likely get the drops without any sort of ph tester I'm sure it would become a pain in the ass I've been using tap and letting it sit for 24 hours or more to dechlorinate although I may switch if I see any issues as you had.

 

[GeorgeCloney]

Nah , I think its a knock off, but does the job.
I do check it for accuracy regularly with my Bluelab soil ph tester.

 

[Gary Laser Eyes]

How do you guys regulate ph? Raise if it's too low or lower it if too high?

 

[GeorgeCloney]

I'll most likely get the drops without any sort of ph tester I'm sure it would become a pain in the ass I've been using tap and letting it sit for 24 hours or more to dechlorinate although I may switch if I see any issues as you had.

If ever you're in a rush for water (using tap water that is).
You can drop a 100 milligram vitamin c cap into a 5 gallon bucket, and you're good to go.
@Waira could chime in on an exact measure of vitamin c.
I use ascorbic acid in my tap water.
There is so little chlorine where I live, my EC pen doesn't even register it.
(My pen starts at 10ppm,...) I figure the chlorine content is in the 3-5ppm.

 

[GeorgeCloney]

You can use vinigar or bicarbonate of soda to adjust.
The problem with both is that they don't last once in the soil.
What I don't like about the bicarb is that its one more chemical to slow down nute uptake by the plant.

These 2 bottles set me back a whole $15.
Considering the cost of seeds and the value of my plants.
I rather do it the best way possible.
Only a couple of drops of either is plent to adjust ph to an exact measure.

 

[Gary Laser Eyes]

You can use vinigar or bicarbonate of soda to adjust.
The problem with both is that they don't last once in the soil.
What I don't like about the bicarb is that its one more chemical to slow down nute uptake by the plant.

These 2 bottles set me back a whole $15.
Considering the cost of seeds and the value of my plants.
I rather do it the best way possible.
Only a couple of drops of either is plent to adjust ph to an exact measure.
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Nice thats pretty cheap to I'll pick some of that up