Don’t even try man, it’s not worth it. He simply refuses to even look at the science.
The black vs white ash thing has long since been proven a stoner myth, much like “flushing nutrients from a plant”. Just take a look at any of the hundreds of studies that the tobacco industry did on this very subject – just because it’s cannabis doesn’t change that it’s a plant we’re burning to smoke.
Anyway, I won’t try and change his mind, I could care less what he smokes, but I won’t let his bullshit be what future people see via a Google search. Instead I’ll leave them with good links where they can see the science themselves and learn something, instead of being stuck with 20 year old stoner logic.
Keep in mind they also state in the study that flushing did not reduce yield, so you can water-only feed the last 2 weeks to save on nutrient costs, but there’s no “flushing of nutrients” happening. If you flush, do it for that reason, not some made-up one.
Does the 321 work in coco? I have half a bag of coco after my failed attempts at DTW. Have read more about coco and found out I was letting my coco dry out.
Its weird I can do harder systems like RDWC and DWC but coco gave me troubles. But i wanna learn to run outdoors this upcoming summer.
321 can be challenging in coco if you have really soft water. I was always right on the edge of a calcium deficiency, and finally just gave it up as a result. Also I hate fungus gnats.
My water is 50ppm, and I used the standard 321 ratio. About the only successful tweak I found was to use magnesium nitrate in place of epsom in veg (at the same ratio). MKP, potassium sulfate, bloom boosters were all a nightmare for me and rapidly caused calcium deficiency. You can’t get more calcium without more nitrogen though, so you really can’t do much in adjusting the formula or else everything goes off. Some people mentioned using CalPrime, and that’s what I’d try next if I were still growing in coco. It has a higher calcium/nitrogen ratio, so you can hit the same N target but get more Ca.
Fungus gnats… well they were just the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. Their eggs are all up in coco bricks and I was always fighting them too.
I ran 12 plants outdoors last year in coco and it was a nightmare. They dry out so fast. In 5 gallons, I was watering them 3 times a day. Such a waste of water. Don’t be a slave to your garden this summer and go soil.
You will be going through a ton of nutrients and water with an outdoor setup. Make a soil that will give you lots of water retention if you’re running things outside. I just made a soil using Buildasoil.com LOS 3.0 nutrient and mineral kit, along with local compost and peat. Cost me around $200 for about 9 cu ft of soil. Filled two 30 gallon bags to the top. This setup will be water only for the most part, with a few top dresses through the run. This will avoid having to mix your nutrients every day, feeding them multiple times. day, phing every nute mix. In the long run, it’s a lot cheaper and easier than buying nutrient bottles all summer long. Then for your next run, you reamend the soil and plant right next to your old plant. Keep using that soil.
I run 321 in coco with no problems, but I wouldn’t do coco outdoors. It’s best in a recirculating system where you don’t waste nutes from the runoff.
That’s interesting. I run nothing beyond the 321 mix in pure RO and have no calcium problems.
Weird, the only time I had gnats was when I accidentally grabbed a bag of Coco Loco, but that’s because I was running my normal 3 waterings per day and Coco Loco is more like soil and needs more time between to dry out. Then again, I also run sterile so that eliminates most of my problems right up front.
And actually, speaking of sterile – that’s probably why I don’t have calcium problems as well. I run HTH Pool Shock (calcium hypochlorite) which breaks down into calcium.
Good point about the pool shock. I wasn’t using it, because my res refills were frequent enough not to need it… but it might have actually helped. Funny things is that I use it now in hydro, but don’t need the extra calcium. Go figure.
All the coco bricks I had tons of gnat eggs. I gave them to my wife to use for her vegetables and now they’re all over her tent.
Coco has some really compelling features for growing indoor, and I didn’t have too many issues with the 321 formula. I mostly encountered problems at every turn when I tried to make adjustments to the formula, and sometimes had issues with N sensitive sativas in flower. Heavy feeders were usually ok, but I felt there was not a lot of wiggle room in the formula to make adjustments to individual nutrients. Since K antagonizes Ca,Mg and Ca is tied to N through calcium nitrate, there’s just not much I could do without causing Ca deficiency.
As a side note, I had horrible nitrogen issues using masterblend with coco. On paper, it has lower N, but it’s a lot more NH4+, which does not seem to react the same way as NO3- in the medium. Coco holds onto the positive ions, and my guess is that it causes some buildup that can be detrimental in flower. Or perhaps it is doing something weird to the root zone pH. I suspect that the best adjustment to the 321 formula for N sensitive plants is to use CalPrime, because it reduces the NH4 and N by a little overall.
Alright…point taken. But dont I need to pH my water anyways in soil? Where ill be growing has 6.7pH water but doesnt soil require 6.5?
I was going to use a pH doser. Im sure theres a way to reclaim run off. But dont alot of people do DTW coco? I thought DTW was preferred over recirculating
Ive seen numerous grow logs using Jack’s and I’m thinking of switching. Tired of paying ridiculous prices for bottles of nutrients that I burn through in a cycle.
Few questions about the 321 program and Jack’s in general.
How do you store your nutrients? I’m looking at a 25lbs bags of A and B, that should last atleast two years. Worried about long term storage when not in use. Do you guys seal your nutrients in containers? Or is folding the bag in a dark spot sufficient?
Epsom Salt.
I am trying to find an affordable bulk bag of this on Amazon (in canada) are there any brands you recommend.
I’m new to this, been running Advanced Nutrients and GH since I started.
Definitely worth the switch. I switched from Megacrop which I had issues with (v1 and v2).
I store mine in ziplock freezer bags and haven’t had any issues and it’s stored in my grow room which has high humidity. It’s lasted me close to a year so far. I’ve had a lot of MC turn to nasty sludge.
You can get epsom salt for very cheap at shoppers drug mart but any brand should be fine.
I got mine from @AquaTerra store Coming Soon Was the only place I could find Jack’s in Canada.
I have the 25# bags as well, they just sit open on the lung room floor. The A and Epsom will clump up slightly, but it’s easy enough to break up with your hands and it’s just like new. The B doesn’t seem to clump up at all though.
The 2 part MC part A is not bad and doesn’t’ absorb moisture since no CalNit in it. I left one open by accident for a week in the shop and it was still dry and super dusty. I just threw out the 1 part MC bad liek 5kg as forgot to close it and it turned into a clump lol
The Jacks same thing no clumping.
MC 1 part does the same thing as MaxiGrow and MaxiBloom did.
