Hey guys I'm new here and working out all the details before I start my first grow. So heres where I'm at so far: NUTES!!!
I know everyone is going to have a matter of opinion on which nutes I should use, so lets just say I'm using your favorite brand and we are growing hydroponically together.
What I'm wondering(i've been doing breeder research on the strain I'm choosing) is how to mix the nutes differently every few weeks. Maybe I'm not wording this right, lol but help! I'm trying to!
So if your nutrients are say 1-2-2 and in 2 weeks you want to change it to 2-1-1. how do you do this?
the chemical makeup of a nutrient solution will never change no matter how much or little you add. so a 2-1-2 nutrient is always going to be 2-1-2.
most nutrient companies sell both mixes. One for vegatative stage and one for bloom stage. if your growing hydro i think the fox farm trio has great reviews, its easy to use and all the instructions are right on the package.
essentially what you want to do is start out your seedlings in a verry weak solution, something like 200 ppm, then each week increase the PPM about 100. so week one when seedling pops above the rockwool and you place it in your system you will want a 200 ppm solution, week 2 you should start seeing the first set of true leaves and your roots should be growing through your medium and into your hydro area (growing out of the net pot) thenyou should increase the ppm to 300. week 3 you should be seeing significant growth as the roots have grown into the hydroponic solution and are growing at reasonably rapid rates, possibly 4th node already growing. up the nutes to 400ppm. you will neeed to watch the plants, light yellpow colors means nitrogen deficienct, raise the PPM...really really dark leaves and a glossy appearance means toxicity, keep the nutes the same for an additional week unless burn occurs then you want to lower the PPM. this is all the veg nutes.
once your ready for flower you will want to keep the PPM the same on week 1 of flower as it was in the last week of veg. mix 1/2 and 1/2 veg formula and bloom formula, the plants are going through preflower stretch and they need a fair amount of nitrogen. do this 12/ and 1/2 mixture untill the strething stops then just go 100% bloom nutes untill the plant is done. increase the PPM regularly but not more than every 4 days so you can see the plants reactions to the previous increase.
if you start to see signs of toxicity you know that you have reached the max ppm your plants genetics like. back it up around 200 ppm and stick with that for the duration of the grow. this should be around 800-1400 ppm depending on strain. (just a rough figure)
im sure you know all this already. to be honest it would help if you told us more information like medium? cocoa or clay pellet? nutrient company you are using? and hydroponic system you are using. this information allows us to give more detailed feedback for your given circumstances.
make sure you invest in a decent PH meter and PPM meter, some PH up and down and check your rez daily.