NPKGuy

I prefer to run sterile if growing in hydro/autopots.  Hth works wonders at keeping your roots nice and white and pathogen free. 2-4 ppm chlorine works like a charm and does not harm roots at all.

5 minutes ago, McB said:

very interesting and at times entertaining read so far.

 i'm still solidly in the hps camp but i will say that the sprinkler analogy makes sense.

having grown with a cidly apollo 8 and now since under hps i can honestly say there isnt really a comparison, but that isn't the arguement here. 260w vs 400w isnt really fair.

facing the exact issue mentioned above, lost a bank of leds, now the fault finding begins

the qb and similar smd appeal to my fidget-er\gadgety side and i will probably convert a cfl micro cab to them in time just for shits and giggles as i seem to have a stupid amount of random heat syncs and coolers lying around from gaming/overclocking days

surely cobs required headroom cuts them out for your average tent or god forbid closet grower, my thinking is you would have to dim so heavily to get it to work in available headroom you would lose a lot of oomph

 

Good luck on that fault finding....  been there. 

Cobs running at 50w adequately spaced will still require less head room than large sodium's.  I have a mate uk side who uses those vero29 chips to great success in 1.2m tents.  Once we have access here in Sa to more of the global market offerings without needing to spend 30-40% markup over int prices, ill prob do the switch as Ill need less airflow and therefore less fan power which would make my tent quieter.  I don't mind spending the extra on eskom due to the fact we still pay very a very low price internationally for our electricity and I do about 2 grows a year which keeps me plenty stocked up.

I am not a big fan of led's at the moment purely due the price to run a decent cob setup.

I run 2x600w Hps in a 1.5x1.5m tent and both those lights+ bulbs+ballasts were a fraction the cost of the admittedly fong kong lights I bought before.

When a multi chip led has a failure it starts a fun game of fault finding and if your chip failed under an acrylic lens then unlucky for you but the lens will have probably melted too vs either a the bulb is dead or b the ballast is dead.

Cheap leds at 70lm a Watt will not compete with Hps especially once they start breaking down after a few grows and then you kicking yourself because the increased cost for longevity was not worth it.

Now the expensive kind with a proven track record are great but again very expensive and  I would only consider them If I plenty extra cash fell on my lap or for what ever reason I could not manage my temps then they would for sure be worth it.

For a newbie who will face many trials and tribulations on their first few grows and then only really start to get the hang of producing top tier bud once these lessons have been learned. Do not go in and buy 15-20K worth of lighting as you will fuck something in your grow up eg over-watering/loved to death and then what was the point of this massive investment. Get a few grows under a 400w Hps or a 600w Hps before you consider a good quality led light or a diy cob equivalent but for heavens sake do not waste your cash on fong kong led's.  Right now I have 3 shells that are all sitting doing nothing because I will never repair them.... and that was about 9k from aliexpress a few years ago for 3 x bsled sp 140 which if some remember was rated almost as good as the hydrogrow led it copied.  I managed 3 good runs before all the leds started to fail with the first being those uv/ir chips then the blues started to go and of course the one fan driver died so all the chips blew...

Stick to proven cost effective lighting and if you are a experienced grower then you already know what your setup needs.  I for one would like to run an additional 200w true of led broken down into 4 50w cobs but of one of those spectrum enhancers for led so lots of blue and a bit of 660nm red that the hps lack. 1400w of juice in a 1.5x1.5 tent would be pushing the limits without extra co2.  A efficient 600w sodium plus led spectrum enhancers would be a force to be reckoned with I believe.

3 hours ago, Batista said:

Awesome man, YOu werent on 420 magazines aswell?

I was not.  Preferred the smaller forums.

28 minutes ago, Batista said:

Hi NPKGuy

You seem to really know your stuff.I for one would love a diy nutrient thread.

 

Thanks

Ill start a new thread I think.

Glad there is now a Sa forum that I can join as I have been active for years but more the uk  forum side.

Hey guys I just wanted to give you a heads up about false advertising when it comes to nutriplex

They marketed it as a flora replacement, advertising the same n.pk ratios on bottles. Micro 5.0.1 Grow 2.1.6 and Bloom 0.5.4

This is where the fun starts as not what Nutriplex has been registered with Gov we can see the actual elemental npk percentages on the bottle.  As a result the current pics on their website show the origional packaging but the new bottles in store do not show the old 2.1.6, 0.5.4, 5.0.1 ect only the elemental percentages.

Here is an example with the help of hydro buddy. and Yara Conversion tool https://www.yara.co.uk/crop-nutrition/tools-and-services/conversion-calculator/

General Hydro Mico = N5% K1%(k2o) Ca5% This gives us N 60.5 K 10.41 Ca 60.5 ppm at 1ml/L

Nutriplex Micro original = 5.0.1 = N5% K1.2%(k2o) Ca 3.8%.  Sounds great for tap water but then now with the new gov regulated packaging = N39.2 K 28.5 Ca 36.1 ppm at 1ml/L

Now that is a lot more K than advertised in the micro. Elemental K of 2.85% adjusted back to k2o is 3.42 so an accurate representation with the old packaging would be 4-0-3.4 3.6Ca.  Notice the whole less 1% of the nitrogen.... to keep the Ca down.

Gen Hydro Bloom 0.5.4  p2o5 + k2o  = P 24 K36.5 Mg 16.5 S 11 ppm at 1ml/L

Nutriplex Bloom 0.5.4 3Mg + 5S  with the old packaging now if redone wold read 0-4.28-4.87. Notice the lower P and marginally lower K = actual ppm at 1ml/L = P 18.7 K 40.6 Mg 29.6 S 46

Gen Hydro Grow 2.1.6  = N 23.4 P 5.15 K 58.27 Mg 5.85 

Nutriplex Grow 2.1.6  0.6Mg old packaging. Actual ppm at 1ml/l = N 25.84 P 4.32 K 46.23 Mg5.82.  The grow is a decent replacement with a bit less K. Old packaging redone = 2.5-1-5.5

Ok now that the explanation of the basic core differences have been shown the next question is how does this actually effect me.

Well lets look at Nutriplex 1.1.1 Veg ratio and at 2.2.2 Veg ratio -  rounded the decimals

1.1.1 Npk =  N 78 P 26 K 133 Mg 39 Ca 44 S 51

2.2.2 = N 155 P51 K 266 Mg 79 Ca 87 S 101

 Gen Hydro with the same ml/L

1.1.1 Npk = N 84 P39 K95 Mg 22 Ca 61 S 11

2.2.2 = N 168 P78 K190 Mg 44 Ca 122 S 22

Now they look quite different! The massive amount more K in the Nutriplex is the most obvious as well as the low levels of Ca but that was advertised.

I will post the rest of the Nutriplex feed chart NPK and ppms tomorrow and give you some comparisons to the GHSC Hybrid and EHG series both regular and coco version.  Then I will show you how to manipulate your existing Nutriplex schedule with some some Calcium Nitrate and MPK to give you better ratios more suited to veg and coco and who knows perhaps you will be buying the raw salts and mixing your own formulas your self in no time.

Show you guys how to mix a diy version of Hybrid + booster and the same for EHG.

If you doubt my numbers feel free to download Hydrobuddy and use the Yara conversion tool I posted the link to at the top.

https://www.gardengoods.co.za/Inorganic-Fertilizer-Kunsmis/Hydroponics

These guys sell raw salts and decant to 5-10 kg apparently.

Perhaps I should just start a Diy Nutrients Thread.