Maybe related to your water?
If so, you should be growing in soil and you’re all set… 
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Yeah. I’ve heard that jacks 321 was pretty ph stable. I haven’t sent in a water test yet. It’s probably my water.
@MichiGreen I want to try buildasoil sips but I want to mess around with a few more things before I go organic.
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I have heard the same thing, I am about to start using it myself, but not the 321 formula.
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It’s not necessary to “go organic” to grow in soil…
It’s just another medium with built-in nutes.
They will need to be supplemented with your choice of nutes after a few weeks of veg growth.
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What will you be using? If you don’t mind me asking
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Go to last few post, I spelled it all out there…ratio’s, PPM, and which nutes I will use.
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What media do you grow in?
I grow in pure coco and I used to use megacrop but the N content was too high for me.
1 teaspoon is roughly* 4 grams. I did the math and one teaspoon for that jacks blossom booster is 211 ppms of N per gallon compared to megacrops 98 ppms of N per gallon (4.5 grams per gallon). I chose jacks 321 because I could modify the N content below 78 if I choose too. Coco is basically Hydro and another grower told me to go lower than 80 ppms per gallon of N in coco in flower.
The highest I would go in veg is 150 ppms of N per gallon. Jacks 321 is about 119 ppms of N per gallon. Still too much in flower so I already made a custom feed of jacks.
I’m interested to see how your grow turns out with those numbers.
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You and I have different numbers. I get 130 for N @ 1 tea / gallon, not 211! With my 50/50 mix, N is under 100.
I have done the work, what matters to the plant is NOT the total of N P or K but the ratio’s at which they take them up.
From my own eyes, i have seen that ratios drive the plant not total volume #'s.
My last run, which you can see, produced super dense, heavy , leaf sparse Bud. Ratios were 2/1/1 veg, 1/2/2 early flower, 1/3/3 mid flower, a week blast @ 1/6/6.
My posted feed schedule is very close to that run, expect results will be also.
I grow in a bottom wicking 6 gallon system, feed every fill up. My soil is pretty much inert, just there to hold roots, wick water from the res, and provide a buffer zone.
Been closing in on these ratios for 2 years now. I KNOW what accepted standards are, they are incorrect IMHO. I have seen with my own eyes, N is a killer in flower, just is. We need some yes, but very little. We can tolerate higher amounts of N, AS LONG AS the ratios of NPK are correct, and we adjust PPM for such. Long as my P and K are 2 -4 times my N level, I am good.
By my numbers:
Megacrap has horrible ratio’s, I would never touch it. See all the LARFY Bud produced by it here.
My mid ratio of 1/3/3
My late flower blast:
Why is this so, dont care, just know it is. Ratios drive the plant, and I use that to my advantage.
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There’s two different bags
This is where I got the 211 lol
This is from the jacks website
Going by the numbers of the jacks website I get closer to your number of 130
Yes I’ve heard that plants take what they need but those numbers I use for veg are based on reading the plants leaves.
Edit: what does your inert soil consist of?
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As long as the ratios are correct, plant takes what it needs. If N is out of whack in flower, it confuses the plant, she wants to grow bud, but high RATIO of N to P n K tell her NO!!! She makes skinny leaf filled buds.
lets just say plant WANTS X of P and K. That is just fine, long as ratios are right. IF your food has 3X of N than it does P or K, NO MATTER HOW MUCH you give her…nope, notta gonna happen…she will not take up enough to satisfy her needs. Hard to 'splain to someone, so I generally do not. I say instead, watch my grow, you like what happens , use my #'s, you do not like what happens, do your own…IM EASY…LMAO!!!
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4 part equal mix:
Sunshine # 4
Root Organic Original
Worm castings
perlite
mixed well, then 15 -20 % more perlite added to “WICK” and be “loose”
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I cut my nitrogen off completely at week 4 this run and noticed a difference in the buds , much nicer .
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You have to do it to understand it , see it in person. You do not need to cut it off, the plant will, if you are feeding enough P and K to her. She needs some N but really not too much if you set them up well in veg, like I know you do. Thinking as long as she gets at least 2 times as much P and K as you feed N , you will be just fine. For most that means dropping a complete formula or “bottle” and is really not the best way to go in my opinion. Megacrop at about 1.5/1/2 is marginal in my opinion, and is about as low as I would try, actually, I would not try it, lol, I know what it will grow. I just mix fed to achieve the levels I want to run. I agree, just dropping N in mid flower would produce harder denser stinkier nugs.
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I guess I should mention I’m using general hydro flora line 11 jugs to be exact so there is still nitrogen being fed just not the veg nute ,plants still stayed green till week 7 . Lol
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OMG you PIG!!! LMAO
Holy shitcans Savior…just starting to cure Orange Goji has just kicked my fucking ass…1/2 a joint!!!
WOW
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If you want more nitro in veg you can sub magnesium nitrate 1 for 1 with Epsom. If you want less in flower, get yourself some calcium EDTA.
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Refresh my memory - was this in an active system or just sitting in a container? Aerated? Recirculating or drain to waste? Whats your water initial PH?
My water often does the same thing your does if I draw it from the tap and quickly mix up the rez. I will PH down, and then the PH climbs back up over the next few hours. I think thats due to the excess C02 leaving the water. Part of it is temperature change for me. My water starts at 55-58 deg out of the tap. As it warms up, it holds less C02, so the PH goes UP as the C02 leaves the solution. Aeration just speeds things up.
See what it does after a few hours. If you PH down again, it may hold just fine.
Also - what EC are you running? Lower EC levels of Jacks will have a harder time holding the PH.
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You can test your water for the C02 issues yourself easily.
Just take some tap water and check PH as soon as you get it from the tap. Note the temp of the water.
Then you can either just wait or actively aerate the water using an air stone or what ever. I have just used mason jars. I leave them sitting open, but every so often put the lid on and shake hard to aerate. An air stone works better.
In any case, just check the PH every few hours. If it climbs, steadily, you may have the problem water, or you may just have cold water. The temp increasing will change the amount of dissolved C02 all by itself.
After the PH seems to have stabilized - never more than 12 hours for my water if aerated - then use some PH down to take it to your desired level.
Now see what the PH does over the next few hours. If it climbs back up when aerated - you have the suck ass water.
Thats my water, but the Jacks can handle my water ok as long as my EC is high enough - above 1.0 to 1.2 seems to work ok so far. Havent tried lower than that yet, but will soon when I start some new seeds in my aero chamber of death…
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Keep in mind there are (at least) three things going on with PH and nute water.
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Biological action from the plants. As the plants eat, the PH can go up or down depending on EC, PH etc. I have no clue how to predict that.
1A) Biological action from bacteria/algae eating organic stuff in the nutes in the rez. This always drives the PH in the rez UP for me - even in drain to waste. Fortunately, its easy to see if you have cloudy water or slime or green or brown crap growing in the rez or buckets. I use fanatical light control in the rez, plus I run sterile. Jacks does NOT seem to have any organic stuff my bacteria like, so they have not been growing in my rez since the switch to Jacks. -
Carbonates/dissolved C02 in your water. I discussed this above. As far as I know, there is no “fix” for this unless you switch to distilled water maybe. RO didnt help me at all, but that was back before I switched to Jacks. Might be worth an experiment for someone to do. Im good as is.
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Temps. Low temp water - as it comes out of the tap - holds more C02. That extra C02 is in the form of carbonic acid - which lowers PH. As the water warms up, the excess C02 goes away, which raises the PH.
Your specific water may have one or all of those issues - or none of them if you are lucky.
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Hey everyone,
I’ve got potential Cal Mag issues, using 321 as my base formula. Yes, everyone jumps on Cal Mag as a first solution and I’ve added GH’s CaliMagic but it does not seem to be effective - or perhaps effective enough. I add it to the mix as the last ingredient, after the Cal Nit.
My first question is this: if I add Cal Mag (at recommended 5ml/gal), will it negatively affect the 321 ratios and lock out other elements?
Secondarily, should I just cut Cal Nit entirely and rely on Cal Mag (since Cal Nit is in it)?
Finally, if I change the 321 formula to 322 (or thereabouts) will I create a better solution to Cal Mag issues than by adding Cal Mag to the 321 formula?
Thank you.
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