With my return to growing, I picked up a GO Box, as my growing adventures as a wee tike mainly involved feeding with a hodgepodge from my local gardening store, and a big box of epsom salt. An all-in-one set to get me started was quite appealing.
I’m approaching the end of my first grow, and I’d say I’m about 75% satisfied. It’s easy enough to mix up, growth during veg was quite vigorous, and my flowering plants smell dreamy. But, nothing’s perfect, and I’d love to hear other people’s opinions and experiences. In particular, my issues have been:
“No pH adjustment necessary”: I almost murdered my young plants with this advice. Once I got some tests, I discovered that my nutrient solution had a pH of around 4.8. Ouch.
P and K deficiency in veg. I’d love to get rid of my purple stems, and my oldest fan leaves consistently yellow in the margins and start dying back from the tips. Not a huge issue, but I’d like to keep my plants as happy as possible.
So. Anyone else out there using BioThrive or the GO Box? How much and how often do you feed, what do you do for pH adjustment, and how do you handle any deficiencies that come up?
I use Biothrive but add other stuff when needed. If you use potassium silicate it will raise ph for you. Silica is helpful and cannabis uses lots of potassium. I run a lot of unknown strains and rarely use a schedule for feeding. Handling deficiencies is just trial, error, and patience. Not all deficiencies are created equal. Don’t let your plants get to hot or your soil to cold would be the best advice for that.
I havent got around to trying it good heads up on 4.8 ph. I know that adding an acidic solution to soil is useful in adjusting PH however it takes quite a bit to actually change the soil PH. 4.8 is aggressive, but the result is the final PH of the soil. But err on the side of caution.
I’ve been using potassium carbonate (via GH “pH Up”) thus far, and while it’s good for adjusting pH of the nutrient solution, I’ve always been a little… uneasy… about how it might be reacting with the rest. I’ll look into potassium silicate – probably wouldn’t hurt to mix things up.
My curiosity about schedule/strength is mostly because I’ve been feeding full strength (and doing a mix of grow+bloom) during veg to try and deal with P+K deficiency without much luck, but it’s entirely possible that my cool night temps (around 18.5C/65F) are more to blame than what I’m feeding. We’ll see what happens when spring finally stabilizes here any my house warms up
Acknowledged. I’m just using straight Happy Frog right now (again, getting up and running was my highest priority of the time), and pH of run-off is always quite close to the pH of whatever goes in. I’m planning to add a bit of dolemite lime next time I repot, but need to do some experimentation first to see how much that’ll raise the pH at the root level.
Hello Oranje. Sixty five degree air temperature is fine. The soil temperature is easily controlled by keeping the pots raised off concrete or any cold floor. I use camping mats or yoga mats. Only because they are always around. If you are using calcium try adding it on your water day not your feed day so it will bind with your phosphorous less. I add a pinch of kelp and crabmeal when i water also so i have something for the soil to breakdown at all times. I stop the top dressing three weeks or so out from harvest. These are not on schedule and sometimes need to be added more or less depending on different variables. (calcium and top dressing.)
P.S. That pinch is on top of the soil after watering not in the water.
used the go box back in the day before monsanto owned GH. i worked great. i fed every watering. got some dank buds. but as soon as i tried real organics… theres no way to get bud this good with bottlesXD
Good tip, thank you. I’m using CaMg+ as the box has ordered, but the acidic smell always made me think it was a little less inert than I’d like it to be. Just fed my Tangilope and Papaya clones without that (but with a dash of epsom salt as they look like they need it). Will keep that up for a while, and do a foliar feed if Ca deficiency pops up.
On that note, anyone have feelings about the other supplements in the GO line? The BioRoot actually does seem to help build a vigorous root system and keep the plants happy, but couldn’t tell you if BioWeed, BioMarine, or BioBud do… anything.
Biomarine is mostly amino acids. It is good to add with Phosphorous and Sulfur. The other stuff i haven’t used.
protein hydrolysate a mixture of amino acids prepared by splitting a protein with acid, alkali, or enzyme. Such preparations provide the nutritive equivalent of the original material in the form of its constituent amino acids and are used as nutrient and fluid replenishers in special diets or for patients unable to take ordinary food proteins.
