From Lucas himself. (serious growers with patience only)

[NorCalHal]

Great Debate on both Jbonez and Skallies part.

 

[JBonez]

yo skallie, youve proven your point and made some valid points, i really cant go any further until i have some better experience especially with hydro.

If i listen to lucas, then i would only top off my res.

If i listen to reason, and a proven method, then i would just swap my res every week, which i have absolutely no prob doing, as my RO unit is pretty BA, it can make a 150gpd as it has two membranes and a booster with auto shutoff.

The point you make about not knowing which trace elements are actually contained in the res got me thinking.

 

[WeedHopper]

If i listen to lucas, then i would only top off my res

If i listen to reason, and a proven method, then i would just swap my res every week

Pretty much sums it up. Very good JBonze.

 

[JBonez]

i think what im gonna do is try adding back on a smaller scale, that way if it doesnt go well, no harm no foul.

Im still VERY "for" the idea tho, i mean, someone has success, gave us the variables which, if you think about it, plant type is the only really "variable"

if you follow directions, use pure RO water and dont overdue anything.

from what i understand, the lucas formula is good due to the fact that nutrients are supposed to be in such perfect balance as far as quantity for even sensitive plants. Sure you will have to tweak, but it really is fascinating to me.

 

[GrowinGreen]

I just got my micro, bloom, and grow in the mail... and from what I understand is the Lucas formula is----well----very basic. I have plants growing at 3 different stages. Mature.. kinda mature... and not very mature. Sounds like my friends :laugh:

I love this stuff. My plants already look healthier. I have 3 milk jugs filled with different concentrations of nutrients.

I also keep a log book now- because I can't remember what I feed them... I won't go back, you should go forward

 

[Sir_Tokie]

I have read the" ask Lucas" threads before but it was at a diffrent web site, don't remember the name of it but there is a great deal of info there. He seems to be geared more towards hydro growing. But does have some good info for soil growing also. Very smart man from what I have read, he has done his homework thats for sure. But if I remember right he did'nt create the 0-8-16 Lucas formula his friend (ph) did. But either way it was created to be just as GG said to keep it simple...take care..

 

[skallie]

Well i thought lucas was the star wars bloke.
Ok ill come clean ive never even read the lucas formula i know many use his method so if it works for them go for it jbonez.
ro unit = reverse osmosis gbd this is another language.
in u.k. we get water from tap leave for 24 hours for clorine/flouride etc to dissipate then make the mix.
im sure the nutrients are in perfect balance initially but lets imagine you have ten identical plants all same size all healthy.

so day one lets drink the nutes plants.

day two cf/ph starting to drift.

day three some plants start to show deficency and some start to show too much nutes some going bright green (def) some going dark green (excessive).

what im saying is although all the plants are healthy equal size etc some will drink more of one or two minerals and some will drink more of one or two of the other minerals so balancing out the cf/ph to an extent yet its not really as it appears.


how would you remedy this situation a flush contains nothing so would effectively make matters worse as the ones with excessive nute uptake aka the dark green plants would benefit yet the ones with bright green leaves (def) are getting worse not receiving the nitrogen they need.

just my ideas madness in my method or is it the other way around.

lol

skallie.

 

[winstonwolf]

And personally, i think people should start in hydro then learn soil, soil is much more complicated imho.

Hydro just costs more to get the right supplies to do the job, overall its much easier compared to soil.

I'm still a relative newbie (I'm on my third grow) so you can take this for what it's worth, but I find soil to be much easier than hydro. I wouldn't rule out altogether the possibility of doing hydro again but I'm pleased with the results I'm getting from soil without the whole hassle of sloshing around large amounts of water.

 

[NorCalHal]

im sure the nutrients are in perfect balance initially but lets imagine you have ten identical plants all same size all healthy.

so day one lets drink the nutes plants.

day two cf/ph starting to drift.

day three some plants start to show deficency and some start to show too much nutes some going bright green (def) some going dark green (excessive).

what im saying is although all the plants are healthy equal size etc some will drink more of one or two minerals and some will drink more of one or two of the other minerals so balancing out the cf/ph to an extent yet its not really as it appears.


how would you remedy this situation a flush contains nothing so would effectively make matters worse as the ones with excessive nute uptake aka the dark green plants would benefit yet the ones with bright green leaves (def) are getting worse not receiving the nitrogen they need.

If you run the same strain on all 10 plants, chances are, you are not going to have any individual Nuit issues with individual plants. This has been my experience with many hydro grows. The only time you really see some plants doing well, and others not so well, is when you have different strains feeding off the same res.
This is the KEY reason that I only run one flavor at a time, per table/res.

So that brings us to topping off. I would have to say that in general, I do not top off. BUT, I also use larger resovoirs and usually, by the 7th day, I just change the whole res.
Sometimes, if they drink a little faster then "normal" (nothing is usually normal in a hydro grow!), I will top off the res with plain water. But I do PH the res afterwards. I will go back and change the whole res out though on schedule (day 7, 9 at the latrest if I topped off).
Is it harmful? Not in my book. But really, it is only running the "topped" off nuit mix for a max of 3-4 days.
Then, when I make my new nuit mix, I judge by the plants health what the nuit mix should be and how strong/weak.

As far as topping off every day to acheive the original level of the res is not needed and does more harm then good IMO. Topping off to get you to "day 7-9" should be just fine. Does that make sense?

Lucas came up with a pretty fail safe nuitriunt mix that works WELL for almost all MJ strains and is a GREAT guide for beggineers IF they follow it to a tee. The key factor in Lucas's mix, imho, is that he runs lower ppm's, which I think we can all agree is a far better and safer bet in maintaining gerneral health of the plant thoughout it's 3-4 month indoor life span.
You have to realize, that an Indoor plant usually goes no longer then 4 months from being rooted to being chopped down.

That brings me to another point. In soil, I believe it takes longer to VEG then hydro, so, you will have to be EXTRA carful about not burning up your plants, because they have to stay alive and healthy a little longer then hydro plants, so the nuit mix should even be lower ppm then hydro.
Just taking an educated guess here, but it makes sense to me.

 

[skallie]

i agree with everything you say nch except the nute issues with same strains.

i have many experiences in hydro with same strains aeroponics/nft/dripper systems/ and have had some plants exibit overdoseing and some deficencies so although in an ideal situation your statement does work but in reality it also doesnt work bit of this and that.

saying that your method for topping up res changes does make more sense than just topping up the res.

skallie