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Thread: NPK - a penny for your thoughts

  1. #1

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    Default NPK - a penny for your thoughts

    NPK and corresponding ratios have been on my mind lately, and since I have some OCD in me, plus the insomnia, I've ended up reading more than I would have imagined on the topic. I'm on my first grow ever, started with a Coco + Perlite medium using Canna Coco A+B as the base feed, simply because it was what the guy at the grow shop recommended for beginners in Coco - would probably agree with him given everything I've learned since now and then to be fair.

    Since I'm curious by nature, I've obviously kept on researching stuff and realised that a single A+B mix from seed to harvest can either be a positive thing if one is just starting or wants to keep it simple, or it can actually be fairly challenging if you're somewhat of a perfectionist like me. As far as my readings took me, one thing is sure - Cannabis plants want more Nitrogen in Veg and more Potassium in Flower. We can take this further when some say K should always be double of N, some say they should be roughly the same, etc., etc..

    Getting a serious kick from my perfectionist side, I've started to look at other brands and their specific Coco nutes - I even ended up buying a small set of AN pH Perfect Coco Bloom just to give it a go, but let's not go into comparing these two as this is not the point. The point I kind of got was a surprise to me, and it started with AN, was the amount of Nitrogen present in Bloom nutes. AN for instance, it actually has more Nitrogen in Bloom vs Flower (4-4-5 vs 3-2-4). Dutch Pro again shows the same tendency (5-2-6 vs 4-2-6), hell, it's pretty much the same composition... I actually had to search a while to find one nutrient line for Coco that has less Nitrogen in their Bloom feed versus the Grow, and this was Growth Technology Ionic - Bloom 1.5-1.4-3.1 vs Grow 2.1-0.7-2.6 (I know, crazy ratios).

    This really puts my head to spin with a really, really basic question - why?!

    The only brand I could find, that seems to align with expectations (at least mine) is good old GH. Just considering Flora Coco (but it's roughly the same with Flora Series), if one follows their feeding schedule/ratio between Grow and Flower, the Flower NPK will be something like 3-4.5-6.5, and obviously one can adjust the feed as they see fit. This applies to pretty much all brands that have Grow, Bloom and Micro (if applicable) nutes to be mixed on demand.

    I personally want the freedom to adjust as I see fit, but want to avoid the basic 4 bottles needed for Coco with GH FloraSeries - Micro, Grow, Bloom & CalMag. Apart from GH FloraCoco (that is not your traditional A+B mix), is it really so that all other mixes really have such high Nitrogen ratios in Flowering? Again, why?!

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  3. #2

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    Nitrogen helps build big buds, I was amazed when I first started adding a little bit of nitrogen in flour and I got better harvests. Of course, with auto flowers it's better to have less nitrogen during the vegetative. In my opinion anyway. I like to keep them just a little bit pale

    There was a time back in the day when people were doing a two-part feed with just GH micro and bloom, they were following some guy named Lucas. I think you can probably find a write up around somewhere on the Lucas formula.

    I'll find a link.

    https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-for...-Lucas-Formula

    J

    Last edited by Jingo; 31-07-20 at 09:24 PM.
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  5. #3

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    Thanks Jingo, I've come across the Lucas formula before, but pretty much ignored it because of the CalMag need - would rather stick to Coco specific nutes to be honest.

    Out of curiosity, what's the NPK ratio do you go for in flower? You've mentioned that when you started to add Nitrogen in flower you got better harvest, do you recall the base value and the increase?

    By all means I think the people who make nutrients don't know what they're doing - if there's something I've learned in this world, is that there's always a reason for something, usually it always come down to what they're trying to achieve. I assume that not all plants are the same, and a lot of these nutrients are not necessarily just made for Cannabis, they have to serve the largest amount possible of plants they can.

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  7. #4

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    My standard bloom feed in coco using the general hydroponics line is 8-16-17, If I'm nitrogen toxic I will drop down to 3-16-16. That's using reverse osmosis water and adding in calimagic.



    J


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  9. #5

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    On the EC scale I'm hitting about 1.2, otherwise it's 750 to 800 ppm.



    J


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  11. #6

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    Forget all that rubbish in bottles and build a proper living soil and let the plant get all the nutrition it needs rather than pumping it full of salts.
    You'll see a plants full potential this way IMHO
    Atb
    Redz
    NO-TILL Gardening with REDZ


    REDZ BUILDS LIVING SOIL!!!


    Redz & Ironjustice Do super lemon haze in rdwc for GWP

    https://www.thctalk.com/cannabis-foru...n-rdwc-for-GPW(COMPLETE)
    LOOSE LIPS SINK SHIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  13. #7

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    Yeah, I've just checked your thread on building a living soil - damn that looks good, but way too complex to setup for my liking - awesome thread btw.

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