I have a 4.5KW perpetual setup that's basically hydroton in e&f 3x3 and 4x4s. The 3x3 for veg is lit by a 400w, the 4x4s by 1000w AAW HPS units. Long story short the E&F has an aweful habit of leaving this rim of wicked salt buildup at the top of all the pots where the water level tops off. No amount of flushing with RO, RO + H2O2, RO + H2O2 + FloraKleen will kill this and by the time they hit flower it starts to basically kill them. My strain of choice, Jilly Bean, seems to survive this but any lesser strain subjected to them simply withers and dies. My soup consists of 800ppm of HydroFuel Bloie A+B, 200ppm HydroFuel Massive, 100ppm HF Finisher, 100ppm Mad Farmer M.O.A.B., SuperThrive @ drop-a-gal, and a capful of HygroZyme, in bloom and just CE Grow, Micro, Bloom with SuperThrive and HygroZyme. I don't use the bloom boosters until flower set outside of a half dose of MOAB to speed transition. And of course everything gets copious daily doses of fresh tea before one of the floods set at 90minutes. For the record I've been growing 25 plants vegged in 6" pots in the 4x4, transplanted into 9" "pond baskets" (square net pots) and dropped in a 4x4 under a 1kw, but working with my own mothers now I'm going to try out a few 48 plant crops vegged in 3" deltas, drip or flood fed, and then dropped into 6" pots with chow mix and drip fed either my HF chem line, or a new hydro-organic approach I'll be asking about in detail below.
I'm not too unsatisfied with my nutrient lineup. I may drop the HF in favor of the less salty and notoriously well chelated CE Micro and Bloom for the flowering area, but I'll keep the additives if I don't switch to the Hydro-Organics setup.
So now that I've explained my setup in long winded detail I'll throw my questions out there.
I'm aware that switching to hydro-organics can really bring out the flavor and aroma, and the Jilly Bean is tasty so I'd really like to see it at it's best. I'm concerned however that I won't reach my 1lb per 4x4/1000w that I'm shooting for, and that's an important goal. I'm looking at Earth Juice nutrients, specifically one of the recirculating system friendly lines ("Sweet and Heavy" and "Sugar Peak" both claim to be recirc friendly) and not their original line-up which is apparently for hand feeding, maybe DTW. I was thinking the Sweet and Heavy line dripped onto 3" deltas that are bare in veg, and in a 80/20 chow mix for bloom. I'm choosing the deltas for ease of transplanting, instead of disturbing everything by dropping hydroton from pot to pot I just plop the root system un-disturbed into a bed of chow mix and backfill. I was thinking 15 minutes on 15 off feeding or just constant on, I only have simple timers and Im not looking to upgrade.
I'm switching to drip all around, as well as the delta/chow mix but the nutrient swap is up the air. If anybody has any experience comparing a chem nute with basic boosters to the EJ I'd love to hear your feedback. I'm also up to any feedback on the medium swap. I'd like to keep it chow mix in veg but I can't find 3" containers!
I'm not too unsatisfied with my nutrient lineup. I may drop the HF in favor of the less salty and notoriously well chelated CE Micro and Bloom for the flowering area, but I'll keep the additives if I don't switch to the Hydro-Organics setup.
So now that I've explained my setup in long winded detail I'll throw my questions out there.
I'm aware that switching to hydro-organics can really bring out the flavor and aroma, and the Jilly Bean is tasty so I'd really like to see it at it's best. I'm concerned however that I won't reach my 1lb per 4x4/1000w that I'm shooting for, and that's an important goal. I'm looking at Earth Juice nutrients, specifically one of the recirculating system friendly lines ("Sweet and Heavy" and "Sugar Peak" both claim to be recirc friendly) and not their original line-up which is apparently for hand feeding, maybe DTW. I was thinking the Sweet and Heavy line dripped onto 3" deltas that are bare in veg, and in a 80/20 chow mix for bloom. I'm choosing the deltas for ease of transplanting, instead of disturbing everything by dropping hydroton from pot to pot I just plop the root system un-disturbed into a bed of chow mix and backfill. I was thinking 15 minutes on 15 off feeding or just constant on, I only have simple timers and Im not looking to upgrade.
I'm switching to drip all around, as well as the delta/chow mix but the nutrient swap is up the air. If anybody has any experience comparing a chem nute with basic boosters to the EJ I'd love to hear your feedback. I'm also up to any feedback on the medium swap. I'd like to keep it chow mix in veg but I can't find 3" containers!
