Reduce Mega Crop during bloom or not?

[HemiSync]

What PH do you guys aim for with the mega crop?


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Isn't PH more about the growing medium you're using than the nutes? I have a mix of coco and peat and some organics and I go for 6.5. With my water and the MC nutes I don't have to adjust PH after mixing it up and let it sit for a day. It settles pretty much at 6.4 to 6.5.

It is about the growing medium. If growing in soil I go for 6.5 and let it creep up as high as 6.8 before adjusting it back down, but if growing hydro like DWC or all coco I aim for 5.8 and let it creep no higher than 6.2. Here is s chart illustrating it for both soil and hydro.

 

[HemiSync]

Best thing since autocobs too. I do like the MC product. Just not the calculator math or the whole idea of upping MC instead of decreasing it. Maybe the calc is more dialed in for photos, not autos.

I dumped it because I didn't want to do the math on how to dilute the N and increase PK.

Maybe I'm seeing things that I want to see, but I really did notice my plants perked up a few hours after the change. The canopy is reaching to the lights like they have not over the past few weeks. I'm hoping this is a good thing and I caught this in time to make a difference.

I thought someone was giving you prop's for your growing and I was just saying ya I agree your grows are great.

I don’t think it’s for photos either. That’s what I’ve been growing most of this year and have had four different strains and none of them went over 5gpg. Wait, I’m lying. I do gave some clones I just stuck in the ground out behind ny house in the woods. They have been getting 6gpg ever since I put them in the ground but that is only once a week, there is plenty of rain in between, and the soil back there isn’t that good.

I’m sure your girls did perk up after you changed the dosage. My one photo girl can empty her tray in a few hours if I turn the reservoir off. So it doesn’t take long to see the change in your reservoir. One of the things I love about MC is the lack of additives, which makes it much easier for me to dial it in. I’m keeping track of everything about my nutrients this grow and hope to be able replicate it if I grow this strain again.

That’s something else some of us should really consider, growing single strains, multiple times, so you learn all it’s quirks and issues and then can perfect the growing environment for that one strain. I know this would be a pain for a lot of small growers because we like variety but would sure help with yield. One of the things that will be fun when growing is actually legal, we can trade with fellow growers to get variety.

 

[lunarman]

I don’t think it’s for photos either. That’s what I’ve been growing most of this year and have had four different strains and none of them went over 5gpg. Wait, I’m lying. I do gave some clones I just stuck in the ground out behind ny house in the woods. They have been getting 6gpg ever since I put them in the ground but that is only once a week, there is plenty of rain in between, and the soil back there isn’t that good.

I’m sure your girls did perk up after you changed the dosage. My one photo girl can empty her tray in a few hours if I turn the reservoir off. So it doesn’t take long to see the change in your reservoir. One of the things I love about MC is the lack of additives, which makes it much easier for me to dial it in. I’m keeping track of everything about my nutrients this grow and hope to be able replicate it if I grow this strain again.

That’s something else some of us should really consider, growing single strains, multiple times, so you learn all it’s quirks and issues and then can perfect the growing environment for that one strain. I know this would be a pain for a lot of small growers because we like variety but would sure help with yield. One of the things that will be fun when growing is actually legal, we can trade with fellow growers to get variety.

Man I can't wait until the day comes where i can trade you one of my indoor mini mutants for one of your outdoor scrog monsters. Maybe It will have to be 10 of my indoors for one of you outdoors.

The thing about adjusting nutes with autopots its easy during the first 21 days since you are watering by hand. And even the veg growth phases is easy as its really just about MC and CMP and that part seems pretty spot for as far as the calculator goes and I've never had any big issues and res reloads using turn out fine. The hard part of me right now is when to switch to bloom, and what values of MC and BE do I use. MC would be in the decline at this point and introduce and even gradually increase BE or PK boost. What was hard to read for me what I didn't see a leaf color change or any tip burn tells. It was more subtle than that. The plants looked great, but the tells where a longer veg mode, prolonged slow stretching and slow bed development. That is harder for a newb to pick up on an react too compared to the more obvious tip burns from tox, or light green from N def.

 

[HemiSync]

Man I can't wait until the day comes where i can trade you one of my indoor mini mutants for one of your outdoor scrog monsters. Maybe It will have to be 10 of my indoors for one of you outdoors.

The thing about adjusting nutes with autopots its easy during the first 21 days since you are watering by hand. And even the veg growth phases is easy as its really just about MC and CMP and that part seems pretty spot for as far as the calculator goes and I've never had any big issues and res reloads using turn out fine. The hard part of me right now is when to switch to bloom, and what values of MC and BE do I use. MC would be in the decline at this point and introduce and even gradually increase BE or PK boost. What was hard to read for me what I didn't see a leaf color change or any tip burn tells. It was more subtle than that. The plants looked great, but the tells where a longer veg mode, prolonged slow stretching and slow bed development. That is harder for a newb to pick up on an react too compared to the more obvious tip burns from tox, or light green from N def.

I agree bloom can be a bitch. :smoking: Look at my past grows with other nutrients and you will see where this grower burned up some plants in bloom. Got the buds to harvest but it could have been so much more had I not overfed. I like to kid, I’ve killed more plants than I’ve ever harvested and not afraid to admit it.

That’s one of the reasons I want to try the MedMan method of dropping your base nutes in half and doubling your bloom enhancers during the last two weeks of bloom. Of course if you flush it would be the two weeks before that. I’m three weeks out and have actually started the process by cutting the MC & CM 20%, while upping the SC & BE by the same amount for my next feeding. By only making 10 liters at a time I should be able to complete the change within a week since she will drink that in 3 days. Check it out over the next few weeks and you can see how that works.

 

[Greenleaf Nutrients]

The calculator has you increase MC throughout bloom until 5 weeks then stop increasing and keep it steadt. See below where MC starts bloom at 25 grams and then finishes at 30 grams.
View attachment 944056

But I was reading an AFN thread on how to increase terpines and someone referred to a growweedeasy article that says to reduce N, which in my mind means reduce MC during flower, not increase it.

View attachment 944057
View attachment 944058

Full article: https://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-improve-cannabis-smell

I know you need to read your plants and that is probably the best thing one can do. But for those that are still learning its nice to use a calculator to get in the right ballpark. But Greenleaf's calculator is obviously increasing MC in bloom, not decreasing it. So what gives with the contradiction? I know Greenleaf knows a hell of a lot more than I do so I listen to them. But this contradiction is bugging the crap out of me and I'd like to know what people in the 'field' are doing in real life and if you feel reducing MC during bloom is the way to go in general. I have some plants, my first grow using MC from start to finish, that are not putting on bud weight very well. They almost seem to be in an extended stretch that seems to be finally over, but they are still flowering slowly compared to what I've seen in the past and I find this very frustrating to say the least. Nobody wants slow bud development.

I would only reduce your MEGA CROP dosage if you have nitrogen toxicity/burning.
Check out the Dial-In guide here!
https://greenleafnutrients.com/feeding-calculator/#!/dial-in

What PH do you guys aim for with the mega crop?


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recommended pH range is 5.5-6.5

 

[midIN]

Imo and if I compared all my feed schedule pH ranges, I think the MegaCrop is like a pH balance formula once mixed with water, yes mine moves a little but it pretty well holds perfect for me at 6.7 - 6.8 only seeing spikes when bud explosion and Mammoth P are introduced in to the water, didn't we talk about this @johnp540, couldn't remember for sure if I posted all my g/gal pH and EC levels from 1g-5g mega, and then the difference when u add bud explosion and sweet candy.

 

[lunarman]

I would only reduce your MEGA CROP dosage if you have nitrogen toxicity/burning.
Check out the Dial-In guide here!
https://greenleafnutrients.com/feeding-calculator/#!/dial-in



recommended pH range is 5.5-6.5

That dialing in info is pretty helpful but not fully. The thing is when in bloom my plants look great as for leaf color. A nice shade of green. Not too light. And not too dark and signs of tip burn. And that's at 5 and even 6 grams per gallon. Works great in veg phase. But once I go in to bloom the color still looks good. No signs of toxicity or deficiency as far as nitrogen and megacrop goes. So I kept the MC dose at 6 grams per gallon and then add in Bud Explosion. But heres the catch. Bud development sucks. And I have seen where the preflower stretch takes longer than I am used to, a sign that there is too much N and plants want to still grow instead of kicking in to flowering properly. This is not something you can see if the color of the leaf because as I said the color is fine.

I think your calculator should be changed to be honest. I don't think its right. And this isn't something that you can just say use the calc and then read your plants and dial it all in because its not like a tip burn or pale green coloring is happening. The PK booster dial info does touch on the fine points of dialing in PK and what too look for. But I don't think the calculator should be increasing MC in the bloom phase. That doesn't seem right to me. I get the increaswe in MC during veg time, but then it should stop when in bloom. Don't increase it. But then again, as mentioned above, I don't know near as much as you do. Just trying to give you some feedback that hopefully has some value. I personally need to spend more time with my new findings and see how this run finishes off. I'll be interested to see if I see a lot of bud growth in the next couple of days now that I reduced the MC and increased BE.

 

[Greenleaf Nutrients]

That dialing in info is pretty helpful but not fully. The thing is when in bloom my plants look great as for leaf color. A nice shade of green. Not too light. And not too dark and signs of tip burn. And that's at 5 and even 6 grams per gallon. Works great in veg phase. But once I go in to bloom the color still looks good. No signs of toxicity or deficiency as far as nitrogen and megacrop goes. So I kept the MC dose at 6 grams per gallon and then add in Bud Explosion. But heres the catch. Bud development sucks. And I have seen where the preflower stretch takes longer than I am used to, a sign that there is too much N and plants want to still grow instead of kicking in to flowering properly. This is not something you can see if the color of the leaf because as I said the color is fine.

I think your calculator should be changed to be honest. I don't think its right. And this isn't something that you can just say use the calc and then read your plants and dial it all in because its not like a tip burn or pale green coloring is happening. The PK booster dial info does touch on the fine points of dialing in PK and what too look for. But I don't think the calculator should be increasing MC in the bloom phase. That doesn't seem right to me. I get the increaswe in MC during veg time, but then it should stop when in bloom. Don't increase it. But then again, as mentioned above, I don't know near as much as you do. Just trying to give you some feedback that hopefully has some value. I personally need to spend more time with my new findings and see how this run finishes off. I'll be interested to see if I see a lot of bud growth in the next couple of days now that I reduced the MC and increased BE.

I think your issue is with the CalMag you are using, you realize that boosts a ton of nitrogen?

 

[lunarman]

I think your issue is with the CalMag you are using, you realize that boosts a ton of nitrogen?

Really? I'm using your CMP at 1g per gallon. my medium has about 40 percent coco and I run COB LED lights so I do need some calmag. Do you think I'm using too much of your CMP?

I did dump my res and which has a mix including 6g per gallon of MC and went down to 4g instead. And 1.5g per gallon of Bud Explosion. And 1 g of cal mag pro. I noticed a difference right away in that the leaves really perked up. Whether that is a good thing or not is beyond me. I figure I need to watch over the next couple of days and see if the buds develop at a faster rate than before. It's a work in progress.

 

[BII]

...But if the general direction from Greenleaf's calculator is to increase MC thru bloom instead of decreasing, then we're not talking about strain differences. If anything we should see a decrease in the calculator values, not an increase.

You cite decreasing nute concentrations as bloom progresses. I keep constant base nutes. But don't many or even most, including some top AFN growers, generally increase nutes, 'push' their plants, in mid or late bloom?

And then there is the common debate about nutes or not, how much, in the very last weeks. I seen no reason or logic in cutting nutes when the plant is likely working hardest at resin production.