How do I transition to flower without wasting a ton of nutrients?

I have a 62 gallon tote UCDWC setup running. I am at the end of veg and ready to flip. I'm using Botanicare Pro Nutrients, Cal-Mag with my RO, and Liquid Karma. From everything I have read, you need to keep some Veg nutes in during the transition phase.

How do you do this without wasting a ton of nutrients?

I was going to drain out 3/4 of my current veg water which is only at about 600ppm. Then add back with the recommended Week 1 Bloom formula. That would keep in some veg nutes to ride out the transition. Then going forward only top off and adjust with the recommended bloom nutes.

Does this sound okay to do? What do you do?

The other options I thought of was:

1. a full water change, add bloom nutes, and a little fresh veg nutes. or
2. Add the bloom nutes to the existing water for the transition period, then do a full water change after that. I don't like option 2 much because it will waste a lot of nutrients.

Not sure. But myself I would drain it all and do the bloom. Good luck with your choices.

You could do that for the first flower res, but i wouldnt do it. I also run the full line of pro blend with all additives in a 50 gal res and have never even considered doing that. My final nute cost is $1.14 per dried ounce, is it really gonna kill you to do it right? And the whole adding back thing usually ends up biting you in the ass about 3 weeks before harvest, when they need no problems. Keep your ratios correct, by adding back you will have salt buildup and also a build up of un needed nutes that could become toxic.

superstoner1 said:

You could do that for the first flower res, but i wouldnt do it. I also run the full line of pro blend with all additives in a 50 gal res and have never even considered doing that. My final nute cost is $1.14 per dried ounce, is it really gonna kill you to do it right? And the whole adding back thing usually ends up biting you in the ass about 3 weeks before harvest, when they need no problems. Keep your ratios correct, by adding back you will have salt buildup and also a build up of un needed nutes that could become toxic.

Click to expand...

So you don't add any veg nutes at all when you flip? From a few different posts, I'm just concerned that I may end up with some N deficiency during the transition period. How often do you do water changes after flipping. My strain is an 8-9 week flower.
GM15
I do have some pure N additive that I guess I could also put a few drip in if needed.

You should check my recipe on page 7 of my thread, my 3 stages of flower. I do run a 50/50 mix of bloom and grow the first two weeks in flower. I have had over a hundred harvests using this refined recipe, and many others have started using it as well, so i have a very good understanding of it and i can tell you that changing the res completely every 2-3 weeks is very important, in fact i never add more nutes to an old res even if i add water.