Newbie needs advice on nutes please!

[Achilles]

I've got an Early Miss that will be 6wks old in two days. She looks healthy to me but like I said in the title, I'm way new at this. She's 18" tall and is about 11" below the light. My 1st question is about the nutes I've been giving. I've been adding 1.5ml of FloraNova Grow & Cal Magic to each gal. of water and adjusting the pH to ~5.9-6.1. I've been doing this all along from sprout. I water until runoff whenever the pot feels light, usually about every 4-6 days. Recently I seen a feed schedule on this site that included using the FloraNova Bloom at the same time as the other nutes I've been giving. Have I messed up by only using the grow/cal mag to this point? I thought I was supposed to use the grow until she transitioned to the flowering stage and then start using bloom in place of grow. That same schedule showed using different amounts of each of the nutes as time progressed. I haven't been doing that either, just been going with the 1.5ml each time. Another mistake?? I only bought the 2 FloraNova & CalMagic nutes to start with, should I also be using FloraMicro too? I think she's showing signs of transitioning to flower, I'm hoping to include pics w/this novel I'm writing here. Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this and a big thank ya to anyone who's kind enough to answer my questions and give advice.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning Achilles, I don't know about GH,nutes, or any other really ,I mostly grow organic.
But I have use Advanced Nutrients and a couple of more kinds.
And advanced nutrients you use ,Grow -Micro-and Bloom, all together from the start, whenever they are old enough to start feeding them.
Plus you use your additives like BudCandy, BigBud,Hammerhead, and Overdrive the last two weeks before harvest, That's for Advanced Nutrients.
But I'm pretty sure that GHnutes are the same way.
I always start at about half strength of what's on the bottles, but everyone does things differently.
The best nutes I've found so for is MegaCrop, it's just a one part nutrient, that's super easy to use. And works great.They are even giving free samples away.

[Camk]

DAAS is the free sample enough to do one plant ?

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning camk, yeah, it's 230grams, of dry brown powder, I usually only use 5-6grams a gallon of water.
My plants like MegaCrop and SweetCandy.
The free stuff is still going on. And it's sure worth getting. It's so easy to use, too.

[Camk]

we need a megacrop thread
are you weighing it or measuring the amount?

[Obi-Wan]

Hi Achilles and welcome. I think your light is a little close at 11”, the plants would be happier at about 18-20” in this stage. I would also be feeding them more often and not letting the coco get dry, check out the coco tutorial by Campesino, he’s got feeding in coco spelled out pretty clearly. As far as your nutes go, flora nova is meant to be a two part nutrient so I would follow the GH feed schedule on their website for the flora nova line at reduced rates until you get more comfortable measuring EC.

[Achilles]

Thanks Obi-Wan! I'll raise the light a little and for sure check out the tutorial & GH feed schedule.
Would you agree that it's starting the flower stage according to the pics? Time to switch to a 12/12 light schedule??

[Campesino]

Hey Achilles
I'll be happy to help. I wanted to give you a link to the pdf of my guide.
You need to follow a nutrient schedule and to do it properly you need to measure EC/PPM.
I am running out the door, but check out the guide, esp part 3 (starts on p9). You will find my nutrient schedule at the end.
Cheers
Campesinos Guide to Growing in Coco 1-3a.pdf

Thanks Obi-Wan

[Campesino]

Happy to help.
Next step is getting EC meter!

[Achilles]

Campesino I have a ppm meter. Used it yesterday with updated nute mixture and the ppm was 561. Doesn't that convert to 1122EC?

[Campesino]

Yeah, probably. There are different conversions, but that is the US standard.
Actually would be about 1175-1200EC. Seems reasonable. Now measure run-off from the girl. Should be between 560-710PPM

[D.A.A.S.69]

Camk

[Camk]

I have the sample pack i havent used it yet was going to dedicate one plant to it

[D.A.A.S.69]

Well good deal, I bet your gonna like it. I know my plants do.

[Achilles]

Hey Campesino, I've taken your advice and increased my feeding. She's getting 3ml of GH Bloom & 2.5ml of CaliMagic twice daily and has really responded. I'll include pics today. The pics below are from 1 week ago. Thanks for the excellent advice.

[Campesino]

Already sent

[Achilles]

Campesino PPM in this morning was 616 & run-off was 531.

[Campesino]

It is odd for it to be that much lower... Not a problem, but keep your eye on it. It should be slightly higher than inflow.

[Achilles]

Campesino i supercropped her a week ago and she seems to have survived it just fine. I've included pics to compare with before doing it. Most recent ppm in was 721 and runoff was 893. ph has been varying between 6.08-6.20 & ppm has been 642-760 & runoff has been 860 & 893. She is 8 weeks old today.

[Campesino]

The green fuzzy plant restraint made me laugh!

Supercrops look great - well done You'll be happy you did that at harvest time

Those numbers all sound reasonable
I was just asked about Run-off EC being lower than inflow in a different forum. How long did that stay the case, and what do you think resolved it?

Run-off PPM is now actually getting towards the point where you want to adjust (increase) fertigation frequency (if possible) to lower it. If increasing frequency is not possible then you can try to keep it lower by increasing run-off during events - but that won't get you as far. Finally, you should set a max - acceptable run-off and if you can't hold it by changing frequency or quantity, you may need to lower inflow EC.

You are doing great - and your plants look Healthy and Strong

[Achilles]

They made me laugh too. It's all I could find at my local craft supply store. I took the wrap off where I supercropped her last night and it didn't look completely healed so I put it back on for a few more days. I may have to do it again, it's about 17" below my light and my light is as high as I can get it. The cola that was supercropped has curled back up and is about 12" below the light.

I really appreciate all your advice.

It's hard to say how long the EC runoff was lower than inflow because I only started checking it after you and I started communicating. It wouldn't surprise me if it were that way from the beginning since I was only feeding a couple of times per week. After taking your suggestion and increasing the frequency of fertigation the EC runoff went in the opposite direction.

I'm giving the big girl about 48oz twice daily and the smaller one about 16-20oz twice daily. (They are both the same age but the smaller one appeared to be dead after the first week and just as I was about to toss her out she popped out of the coco and has been thriving ever since. She's about 14" tall and hasn't started to flower but I'm giving feeding her the same nute solution as her big sister.) Maybe I need to measure the amount in oz. of runoff to determine if I'm feeding too much or too little.

How do I determine a max. acceptable runoff? Is that in your guide?

[Campesino]

I am talking about max acceptable EC or PPM for your run-off. You can increase quantity of run-off all you want (it's just wasteful), and you don't need to measure or be super-precise about the amount as long as there is "enough".
You set an inflow target, and working in PPM, your run-off Max should be about 200 points higher than that in PPM. It looks like you are targeting about 700 for inflow, so this means that you max outflow would be 900. So, try to keep run-off below 900 by increasing frequency of fertigation events or quantity applied during events. If that becomes impossible, you may need to lower the PPM of the inflow.
Let me know if you have any questions!

Really happy that your plants are loving it

[Achilles]

Campesino Our girl is on day one of week 10 today and according to my GH nute schedule I'm supposed to start decreasing the amount of CaliMagic this week (wk 10) & decrease my FloraNova Bloom next week (wk 11) along with eliminating the CaliMagic next week (wk 11) & flush the following week (wk 12) & harvest the following week (wk 13). That's all well and good but I question whether or not you think she looks like she's 3 weeks from harvest. I've included pics from today.
If she's more than 3 weeks away then I won't begin to decrease my nutes yet. What does you think?

[Achilles]

Campesino Here is the little sister-she was a slow starter for some reason but has really been coming on lately. Do you think I should supercrop her or maybe FIM? My tent is getting a little crowed with her big sister taking some much space.

[Achilles]

I'm saying she's 9 weeks old today because she's been in the coco for 9 weeks as of today, thus today marks not only her 9wk birthday but the first day of week 10. I hope that made sense, it sounds more confusing than it should be.

I'd say 2.5-3 weeks on the pistils. My pics from 5/30 may show a few of them but my pics from 6/6 definitely show pistils.

I really have no idea of an expected timeline. The nute schedule from GH calls for flushing to begin the 12th week & Crop King states that this Early Miss flowering time is 7 weeks. So I have no clue how far along she is, I'm relying on the experts such as yourself to help me with that.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Morning Achilles, Don't mean to be cutting in, but if she were mine, I would cut about a quarter inch, if that much, off of the main cola, that should help make, all of the other colas, catch up to the main cola, and make the main cola, much fatter, and not grow any taller, but that's just what I would do, everyone grows differently, And good luck with your plants.
Have a nice weekend.

[Achilles]

The little sister actually germinated on the same day as the other girl we've been discussing but she was lifeless for about 10+ days in the coco and I was about to toss her out and somehow she just revived and has been going strong ever since. To my untrained eye I think she' about to show signs of flowering. I may top her tonight and hope she can continue to thrive while sharing space with her sister in my little 3X3 tent.

[Achilles]

Perfect-Thank you so much!!!

[Achilles]

D.A.A.S.69 -Thanks for the advice, you're not intruding at all, I welcome any knowledge I can get from y'all! Just to be clear though, you are talking about the more mature of the two girls right? One is budding and the other hasn't started yet.

[Achilles]

Campesino -Where do you stand on pruning? I feel like both of my girls could stand a haircut to permit light to penetrate better.