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Beginner need lots of help


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Old 07-06-2010, 12:35 AM
joesf1026 joesf1026 is offline
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Default Beginner need lots of help

Alright so I have been trying to do all the research I can into all of hydroponics before I actually start growing I am building a 3 in one system that uses a top drip/aeroponics/deepwater culture for various growth stages. I feel like I understand everything with temp of my grow room and cycle of my aeroponics system and have chosen a media (sure to grow) and so forth.What I really have been searching for and can not find is how I am supposed to know how much of a particular nutrient mix to add for each specific plant I was looking at using Advanced nutrients grow/micro/bloom combo but in doing this how am I supposed to regulate all the different nutrients if I am using 3 premixed nutrient solutions. It just seems like it would be hard to get the nutrient requirement down just right if you dont have control over adjusting only one particular nutrient. With that said I have not found it anywhere but I thought I should just ask is a nutrient combo like this just a base nutrient mix to use in place of the natural nutrients found in soil and then I am supposed to get more specific additives on top of these and here again with that said how am I to know what ammount I need for say a tomatoe plant and then later peppers or strawberries and so forth I cant really find anything on this and any help would be greatly appriciated

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Old 07-06-2010, 03:44 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Do you have a link the the particular nutrients you are using/planing, I wasn't aware that Advanced Nutrients had a 3 part nutrient mix. Or are you talking about 3 different nutrients for 3 different crops? Also I am a little confused on your setup. Are you planing 3 separate systems, with one crop in each? What crops are you planing? How many plants each? What is the size (gallons) of the reservoir/s.

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how am I supposed to regulate all the different nutrients if I am using 3 premixed nutrient solutions
I'm not sure if you mean each individual element (nutrient) in a pre-mixed nutrient or not, but if so you cant. That is why you change the nutrient solution periodically to bring it back to a balanced solution.
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Old 07-06-2010, 01:51 PM
joe.jr317 joe.jr317 is offline
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Not sure if Advanced has a feed schedule online or not. Personally, I stay away from that company. Can't go wrong with General Hydroponics. There are others out there that are great, too.

You won't get things "just right" when using commercial nutes unless they are made specifically for a certain type of plant. That doesn't mean you will harm your plants. You just might be wasting more of one nutrient or other than you would with special formulas of your own. One of the prices of convenience.

I've noticed that tomatoes do well with a "general purpose" mix throughout. I'm now using Floramato on tomatoes, but when I used GH's liquid 3 part nutes I used the general purpose instructions. Peppers do better with a bloom ratio. I don't know much about strawberries, but I am guessing they would do best with a bloom ratio.

Are you using an EC Meter? I recommend one. You can follow instructions on the bottles, but often they give much higher concentrations than are necessary. See, tomatoes generally do well with a much higher concentration than peppers. It won't tell you what nutes you have, but it will give you an idea of how strong it is when you mix it.
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Old 07-07-2010, 02:30 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Quote:
Not sure if Advanced has a feed schedule online or not. Personally, I stay away from that company.
Hello Joe,
I was just wondering (out of curiosity) why you don't like the company "advanced nutrients?" I don't either, although I cant say it's because I have ever had problems with there products. To be honest, I have never tried there products (and don't plan to). I don't agree with some of there advertising practices, specifically the videos. And if I don't feel comfortable with doing business with someone, I just don't.

P.S. I'm not trying to put down any company, just expressing my feelings. Also I agree with what you said about nutrients made for specific plants. I guess I just worded it that way as a disclaimer, and I didn't know what type of plants were planed.

As for the strawberry's, I had great success with a bloom ratio of the GH Flora Series nutrients last year. I don't know the ratio exactly, but the regular ratio was 10mL of each per gallon. Although I know now, that I probably should have reduced the ratios because it was hot weather. I mostly just added a little more Bloom to the mix at the end. I had as many as 15-20 blooms per plant. Then before I could harvest, the nutrient temps got out of control (90-100 degrees). So I pulled the plug knowing that plants abort fruiting with high nutrient temperatures, and I had no way of controlling it at that point.
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Old 07-07-2010, 09:59 AM
joe.jr317 joe.jr317 is offline
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Actually, GPS, your reasons are pretty much the same as mine. Thing is, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and wrote them when I saw all the rumors that it appeared they were starting about others and the horrible videos that seemed to have no basis of truth. I was allowing them an opportunity to denounce that behavior. They never responded. That leads me to believe they did, in fact, do those things. At the very least, the fact that they didn't respond to a request for info is bad enough in my book. The way I see it, if a company displays a lack of integrity, I don't feel I can trust their product to be clean and as advertised. That is only my opinion and based on circumstantial evidence.
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Old 07-30-2010, 11:47 AM
stella stella is offline
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Use General Hydroponics Flora series, it's cheap, excellent and easy to use.
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Old 07-30-2010, 07:35 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I like the flora series myself, but where I live it's not what I would call cheep. Buying the gallon size (of all 3 needed), costs over $75 (+shipping for me), for a total of over $100, and only makes about 380 gallons (depending on how you mix it). That's about $0.40 to $0.45 per gallon of nutrient solution. I like the flora series, and I'm glad I used it to start with because I knew it was a good product and would work. But now that I'm expanding my hydroponic setups, I'm experimenting with other nutrients because of the cost.
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Old 08-09-2010, 11:48 PM
watercatwn6535nd watercatwn6535nd is offline
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Since i have switched to floramato my garden has been very happy. 1 part solution is the way to go. i have not calculated the price difference but i know this summer i spent a lot less than buying 3 part. love my 3 part but its growing as good or better now and much simplier.

I bet every one that switches never goes back. its just to easy with powder i can totaly see why comercial guys buy this stuff.

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