Hydroponic feeding schedules

If anybody has any tried and true schedules they would like to let me have, I will take them! I’m specifically looking for nutrient schedules. I’m growing hydroponically. Thanks in advance :grin:

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I think you would prune just the same for hydro as you do in soil, so no changes needed there. if you are a pruner - like me, then go for it. If you are a leaver, then leave them alone :slight_smile:

As far as a feeding schedule for hydro, they get fed constantly, so Im not sure what you are asking. Or do you mean changing the concentrations and/or type of nutes between veg and flowering and possibly late flowering?

If the latter, I would suggest you follow the label directions for what ever nutes you have. You can also Google those nutes and see what others are doing or read a bunch of threads and FAQ’s :slight_smile:

I use Mega Crop so its much easier for me. I dont change nutes as I grow - its always Mega Crop and its always set to an EC of aprox 1.3 and adjusted as needed based on what the plant tells me.

I adjust the EC to around 1.3 and then watch the EC and PH changes as the water in the rez drops. Then I follow this rule:

EC goes up and or PH goes down, lower EC
EC goes down and PH goes up, consider raising EC

Its that simple. All you need is a decent EC or PPM meter and a decent PH meter.

That rule applies to any nute brand by the way, but Mega Crop is about as simple and easy as it gets. I love the stuff.

In case you’re new to hydro, I should explain that a little better maybe.

Start with a fresh full rez. Note the PH and EC. As the plants drink the nutes, the water level will start to drop. Check the EC and PH daily as the water level drops - but DONT add any water or nutes yet. Keep track of the EC and PH as the water level drops. When its time to top off the rez, then adjust the EC as indicated by the rule above.

Its good to also watch how much the plants are drinking because if they stop drinking or slow down a bunch, then you know something is wrong.

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Hey @anon32470837, I do have a PH kit and a PPM meter, not really using the PPM meter since I started using the Lucas formula. Honestly I didn’t know the plants get fed constantly, I top off each bucket with fresh water between changing every week, I suppose that’s not right? :grimacing: I started out using the recommended amount on the bottles for early stages of growth and it seemed to burn the plants so I found the Lucas formula which seems to work. I don’t have a reservoir, each bucket is independent, which I think might be too much fuss. I might look around and find some other hydro system. I guess when I asked for feeding schedules I meant: what does everyone feed their plants? Is everybody going by the schedule on the bottle? Are ppl using something that’s better for their plants than General Hydroponics? (I’ll check out Mega Crop) Trying to figure out exactly how and when to feed my babies has been the most confusing part of this whole first grow. (And I’ve never grown in soil before, so no prior pruning or feeding experience at all) Pruning has been scary! Just don’t want to cut off the wrong shit lol. I’m starting to accumulate enough info on pruning so that I feel confident enough to do it properly on my next grow, but I thought I’d make it easier on myself and ask y’all for some tried and true schedules really outlining when and where to prune throughout the plants life. I’ve looked a lot of stuff up about all of this of course. There’s just a lot of conflicting info out there on growing pot, so it’s nice to get all this different input in one place. Thanks for the advice!

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I keep it rather simple and start between EC 0.7 and 1.0 and ramp all the way up to 1.1 to 1.3 over ten days and keep it at 1.0 to 1.3 for the entire grow. I lower the EC to 1 during summer when the plants drink more and 1.3 in winter when they suck up less. this is the same as Larry said above about if the EC goes up then use less next time etc.
With my PH I like to start it at 5.6 and let it swing to 6.1 if doing a perpetual grow or just keep it at 5.7 until the last few weeks then let it swing to 6.0.

I run a small flood and drain SoG.

Keep Smiling

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Thanks! I have the right equipment to measure the ph and ppm levels, really I was only checking that once a week when I changed water out and then topping off with fresh water throughout the week. I’ll def approach this a different way from now on and make sure I’m always checking levels and then topping off the buckets with nute water and not plain water. Harvesting my first grow in two days, so here’s to getting the second grow right! Lol :grin:

Its a good idea to do a complete water change every so often. You will see recommendations that are all over the place though. Some people do a water change every week or maybe every 10 days, or every two weeks, or maybe only one time between veg and flower. Some dont do it at all - they just top off like you are doing now.

The reason to do complete changes - dump the old water and start fresh - is because the plants wont use all the nutes equally over time. So they may be sucking up all of one type of stuff while leaving some of another type. That results in the rez water gradually getting more and more out of balance as you top it off. There may be way to much of one nutrient and not enough of another, but your PPMs will look fine, and you will have no clue its happening - untill the plant starts telling you it has a deficiency or too much of something.

I am in the change it at least every two weeks school. If you are new and possibly feeding too much or too little, then more frequent changes might be a good idea.

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I used to not be able to see my babies for four days at a time and while I know how to grow, there is only so much you can do with four day gaps in between care so I was forced to get an automatic doser and the first time I used it I set it to the same numbers I was doing by hand and I got 60% extra yield and the quality was much higher as well…

My point being that the more often you check your numbers and the closer you keep your numbers where they should be the better. Doing those checks and adjustments is work that pays off in yield and quality. Plants do not like change much and they like their environment and root space to stay stable. When it is they respond well.

Also what @anon32470837 said.

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I def believe in changing completely once a week. Left them for two weeks and they did NOT like it!

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I let my last grow go all the way without a water change but I was using poolshock to keep the bubbler sterile. Only real issue I had was I had 2 different auto strains in same tote. One loved high ppms and the other got slightly burned so I backed off with the nutrients so they were both happy.