New Grower When to change to flower nutes?

[budelee]

My first grow I switched to flower nutes to early. I currently have 2 FasBuds Blackberry in 50/50 mix of OF and coco. They are now approx. 5 weeks old with lots of hairs. So when should I do the switch?
Thanks N4W

If you don't mind me asking,what problem/issue did it cause?? Stunted?? And how early did you switch??

 

[MoonDude]

Wow! Dude your talking above my head concerning secondary nute build-ups/deposits in the coco fibers. Right now I'm only using 50% coco, but I've got several 10lb blocks that are left over from mixing it 50'50 with my outdoor photoperiod grow. I've heard some good things about growing in coco/perlite mix and I had planned on going coco on my next auto grow. I have read that there's also a danger of an Iron lock-out or defiency, (I can't remember which). I wish I could supply a link to what I've read just to have some of the veteran coco growers weigh in. I've even seen a Cal/Mag product that also contains iron. Maybe called Cal/Mag plus, but I'm not sure. Also, how much is double Cal/Mag and what do you mean by a clean feed???

Anything I could learn about growing with a 50/50 mix of OF and coco in the meantime would also be of great interest as I already have my holes ready for a 20 plant outdoor grow


Your sure right about one thing Moondude, we could use some veteran growers to come in with advice and guidance.

I am growing with 50% OF / 50% coco. I do add some perlite.

The Iron lock deficiency potential has to do with the build up of secondary nutrients I was talking about. I have not experienced this with my first grow. Like I said, I went the other way and gave them extra secondaries (CAL-MAG) because the small deposits are not available. Part of my decision was based on growing Autoflowers. With the limited/short growth period of AutoFlowers I am feeling confident it is not going to be an issue. I am sure if I saw early signs of lock-out, the fellas here would have pointed me in the right direction and I would have corrected it.....but no issue, my plants are big.

Coco is re-uselable and for all I know some of these warnings coming from using it over and over and without soil. I was going to go with coco/perlite for complete control of nutrients, but have changed my mind and going to stick with 50% OF / 50% coco and a little perlite. I have no experience, this worked.

I did see GH has a coco buffer? I do remember having to confirm which cal-mag to buy when I started 60 days ago.... I do not remember why I bought the plus.....

I refer to watering my gals as feeding them..... I am giving them 10 ml per gallon instead of 5 ml per gallon. The option is specified in the mix instructions.

Right now I feel like a Mom with a newborn baby as my gals are going into the fourth quarter and not knowing when to pull the plug on adding any nutrients.

 

[MoonDude]

Hi guys,not trying to jack either but I have asked this same question and seen some other threads asking the same question,IME I have been switching around 33-40 days depending on strain,yes they are still stretching but buds are forming as they stretch,when they stop stretching they put on size and weight.im not saying this is correct it's just what I've done,I'm all for trying something different but keep in mind that if you have multiple plants with multiple estimated finish times( from the breeder) you could possibly have multiple buckets of nutes cause the plants will be at different stages,I usually try different strains that have a close finish time,,lastly I use coco/pearlite with HID and my plants have shown pistils as early as 14 days,,sorry for rambling

I learned the hard way that matching strains characteristics, climate included, will help me in the future.......

 

[Need4Weed]

If you don't mind me asking,what problem/issue did it cause?? Stunted?? And how early did you switch??

I don't mind at all you asking, but right now I can't give you an honest answer. I had so many problems my first grow and the quality flat out sucked and I was growing several different strains, so I figured it had to be me. For one thing, I kept moving my ladies from cfl to outdoors the 1st half the grow. I wasn't consistent enough with my feedings, (I should have kept it more basic I think). I'm just not sure when I did switch to flower nutes. The main problem was I never could get the trichs to amber or even cloud up. I think out of 9 plants, at least 4 or 5 went over a hundred days. I mean the plants were dying with clear trichs before my eyes!

Anyways, my grow journal is in my sig. I've just been too depressed about it to go back and look! But I know I need too read it all the way thru or I might repeat the same mistakes.

 

[Need4Weed]

I am growing with 50% OF / 50% coco. I do add some perlite.

The Iron lock deficiency potential has to do with the build up of secondary nutrients I was talking about. I have not experienced this with my first grow. Like I said, I went the other way and gave them extra secondaries (CAL-MAG) because the small deposits are not available. Part of my decision was based on growing Autoflowers. With the limited/short growth period of AutoFlowers I am feeling confident it is not going to be an issue. I am sure if I saw early signs of lock-out, the fellas here would have pointed me in the right direction and I would have corrected it.....but no issue, my plants are big.

Coco is re-uselable and for all I know some of these warnings coming from using it over and over and without soil. I was going to go with coco/perlite for complete control of nutrients, but have changed my mind and going to stick with 50% OF / 50% coco and a little perlite. I have no experience, this worked.

I did see GH has a coco buffer? I do remember having to confirm which cal-mag to buy when I started 60 days ago.... I do not remember why I bought the plus.....

I refer to watering my gals as feeding them..... I am giving them 10 ml per gallon instead of 5 ml per gallon. The option is specified in the mix instructions.

Right now I feel like a Mom with a newborn baby as my gals are going into the fourth quarter and not knowing when to pull the plug on adding any nutrients.

I'd like to know more about GH coco buffer. Do you have more info on what it does, or a link? Also, at just 2 - 3 ml of Cal/Mag it would appear I need to increase my dosage. I sure don't want to screw this grow up! I've heard about coco specific nutes from AN, but I don't have that kind of jack

 

[MoonDude]

Did you reference this:

http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/frontpage/feeding-schedules.html


I used the one from GHydroponics as a reference (I am using GH flora series). GH feeding schedule is specific to photoperiods. Backed with plenty of research, Grow #1/Round #1, I did not start nutes at all until week three. Week three I started at 1/8 dosage, then 1/4 dosage week four. At this point, I went against advise of research (based on my rookie theory that "today's" AutoFlowers are not the same as yesterdays (getting stronger EVERY generation) and went to full recommended feeding schedule. Because photoperiod plants take longer, you have to use more subjectivity for switching nute phases; which leads us to our struggle.

Again, were I am struggling is that I have found each plant is different. Most advice, charts, temps, RH and feed are going to vary from strain to strain and phenotype to phenotype and plant to plant. I am really concerned about WHEN TO GO TO STRAIGHT RO WATER FOR TWO WEEKS??? I have one plant with 60% of hairs orange and I am concerned the trichomes are going to be 50% grey before I have two weeks to go without nutes in RO water?

General Hydroponics Coco Tech:

http://generalhydroponics.com/cocotek-nutrient

 

[Need4Weed]

Did you reference this:

http://foxfarmfertilizer.com/frontpage/feeding-schedules.html


I used the one from GHydroponics as a reference (I am using GH flora series). GH feeding schedule is specific to photoperiods. Backed with plenty of research, Grow #1/Round #1, I did not start nutes at all until week three. Week three I started at 1/8 dosage, then 1/4 dosage week four. At this point, I went against advise of research (based on my rookie theory that "today's" AutoFlowers are not the same as yesterdays (getting stronger EVERY generation) and went to full recommended feeding schedule. Because photoperiod plants take longer, you have to use more subjectivity for switching nute phases; which leads us to our struggle.

Again, were I am struggling is that I have found each plant is different. Most advice, charts, temps, RH and feed are going to vary from strain to strain and phenotype to phenotype and plant to plant. I am really concerned about WHEN TO GO TO STRAIGHT RO WATER FOR TWO WEEKS??? I have one plant with 60% of hairs orange and I am concerned the trichomes are going to be 50% grey before I have two weeks to go without nutes in RO water?

General Hydroponics Coco Tech:

http://generalhydroponics.com/cocotek-nutrient

Yes, I've seen the fox farm feeding schedule and I use several of their products, Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Boomerang and Sledgehammer. I also go by the 1/4 strength schedule for auto flowers and your absolutely right on plants, strains and phenos being different. I wish I could find a strain that I really like and didn't build up a tolerance for, but that may be asking for too much, lol However, who knows! Maybe these BlackBerry Kush is the strain I've been looking for. I've also read on a FastBuds answer forum that the guy from Fastbuds wrote that you could really push the Blackberry Kush as far as nutes, but I haven't been very brave, lol I haven't had time to read the GH link yet, but I will. I just wish some of the veterans would stop by and give us some support and guidance.

 

[MoonDude]

Yes, I've seen the fox farm feeding schedule and I use several of their products, Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Boomerang and Sledgehammer. I also go by the 1/4 strength schedule for auto flowers and your absolutely right on plants, strains and phenos being different. I wish I could find a strain that I really like and didn't build up a tolerance for, but that may be asking for too much, lol However, who knows! Maybe these BlackBerry Kush is the strain I've been looking for. I've also read on a FastBuds answer forum that the guy from Fastbuds wrote that you could really push the Blackberry Kush as far as nutes, but I haven't been very brave, lol I haven't had time to read the GH link yet, but I will. I just wish some of the veterans would stop by and give us some support and guidance.

From my grow, Pyramid Seeds Tutankhamon and Seeds-of-Live Big Low are both idiot proof I think......

 

[MoonDude]

Yes, I've seen the fox farm feeding schedule and I use several of their products, Grow Big, Big Bloom, Tiger Bloom, Boomerang and Sledgehammer. I also go by the 1/4 strength schedule for auto flowers and your absolutely right on plants, strains and phenos being different. I wish I could find a strain that I really like and didn't build up a tolerance for, but that may be asking for too much, lol However, who knows! Maybe these BlackBerry Kush is the strain I've been looking for. I've also read on a FastBuds answer forum that the guy from Fastbuds wrote that you could really push the Blackberry Kush as far as nutes, but I haven't been very brave, lol I haven't had time to read the GH link yet, but I will. I just wish some of the veterans would stop by and give us some support and guidance.

I am not sure I mentioned that I use RO water, which influences my decision to double up on the CAL-MAG.

As an update, for the first time my gals starting looking a little dark, I feed straight RO water and they are happy.

 

[Need4Weed]

Well today I started the switch to flower nutes at approx. 6 weeks, well maybe a day or two over. 2 ml of big bloom, 1 ml of tiger bloom and 1/2 ml of grow big at 550 ppm, (I guess I'm doing a gradual change to flower nutes lol). But seriously, from now on the only extra N they will get is maybe from foliar or maybe as part of a tea, (cept for the N in the other ff ferts). Also, I can report that I have one of the dark phenos ... so far.