# Best nutes for autos in a bubble bucket hydro grow



## Surfer Joe (Nov 27, 2013)

Can anyone please suggest a good brand of nutes for growing autos in a bubble hydro grow?
I was considering something like canna aqua vega and aqua flores. These are supposed to be a complete nutrition and I wanted to keep it simple.
Is a feeding plan of canna aqua vega and flores going to provide all of the nutes needed for pot to grow well?


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## WeedHopper (Nov 27, 2013)

I used Dutch Master Grow A&B and Bloom A&B. Easy to use and my Girls loved it.


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 28, 2013)

Most any of the hydro nutes will work. GH Flora 3part is tried and true. And it is fairly easy to get many places. I personally prefer AN Jungle Juice 3part. With the 3part Nutes for autos, I would use equal parts of them. The Jungle Juice, I would use 20ml per 5gal on all 3 parts Until the plants began to really develop the buds hard then I would cut the grow in half and double the bloom and run that the rest of the way. I would imagine the Flora would work about the same way.

If you run them in hydro, you will need to have a liquid cal/mag as well.
Have you checked the "Auto" section here to see what most folks run for autos?


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 28, 2013)

Hushpuppy said:
			
		

> If you run them in hydro, you will need to have a liquid cal/mag as well.
> Have you checked the "Auto" section here to see what most folks run for autos?


Thanks.
But why does the canna aqua veg and flores say that they are a complete feed if I also need to add cal/mag?
And they also sell a ton of additives, which makes it even stranger to claim that the basic nute products are complete but then tell you to buy a bunch of other additives.
What is cal/mag for?
How can I find out about all the additives that are needed?


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## Hushpuppy (Nov 30, 2013)

Cal/Mag is critical to healthy plants and typically isn't contained with other nutes in large amounts due to the chems mixing, binding, and then precipitating out of the solution where it is unavailable to the plants. If your water has high levels of calcium then that is ok. most often in soil cal/mag is usually enough, plus most people use dolomite lime in soil which has both elements. But in hydro, you cant use lime well as there is nothing to break it down, so the additive form is necessary.

Many of the nute companies want to sell nutes so they "assume that you know all of these little tricks", so they don't tell you everything, such as the need for certain additives that cant be included with a one size fits all nute. That is why I prefer a 3part nute because it is able to keep the important nutes separate that need to be separate but still have everything that is needed for the nute base. 

These 3 part nutes can carry a grow from start to finish without any additives, buuut by adding some stuff, you can "punch-up" the grow some depending on the additives and the needs of a particular strain. It is next to impossible to know just from study which brands will have all that you need without them blowing at least a little smoke at ya. That is why its best to talk to others to see what they have had success with, and what the differences are for the pros and cons. All nute brands have their pros and cons because there is no one brand that is "perfect for growing". This is because MJ comes in so many varieties that have different needs, and then there are almost endless grow situations that affect how well a particular nute will do, and what extra stuff may be needed.

I love Jungle Juice in coco, but it requires extra calmag and constant monitoring and adjustment of pH. That is because it doesn't include pH buffers in its solutions. I however, prefer to have a fairly wide pH swing as I have found for my grows that it makes the plants quite healthy.

Many people here love the GH flora 3part as it is very similar to JJ but has buffers that help balance the pH a good bit. I haven't used it so I cant give pros or cons on it. It does require the calmag additive when used in hydro as this is typical of hydro as opposed to the nutes as most nutes do not hold enough calmag in solution for hydro for the reason I stated at the beginning.

If you go to the Advanced Nutrients site, you will see that they offer a slew of additives and nute varieties, and they will let you spend lots of money on these additives while knowing that if you use JJ 3part, you don't need all of them. But at the same time Most of these companies do the same. 

If you ever have tropical fish and buy fish food, you will see that the manufacturers advise feeding fish 2-3x a day as much as they will devour in 2 minutes. If you go by that, your fish will be dead in a week and your tank will be filthy. Fish don't need to be fed but 2x a week (not 2x a day). But the fish food companies are trying to sell food and they figure that if you know what you are doing then you will not even look at the directions.

So which nute brand is best for you? If you don't have a lot of growing experience, then I would say GH flora 3part. More experienced growers will experiment with other brands to see about optimizing their grows but for new growers GH Flora will be the best bet I think. Or Jungle Juice 3part If you are more of a hands on type of person


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## Surfer Joe (Nov 30, 2013)

Thanks, that was highly informative
We have limescale buildup around here so it must be hard water.
I will look for cal mag.
The Canna grow guides for the aqua nutes that I bought say to add some rhyzotonic root  stimulator and some cannazym to their standard aqua veg and aqua flores nutes, but they make no mention of cal mag in their products.
I learned from my first grow to use much less than the grow guides suggest when starting out.


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## Growdude (Dec 1, 2013)

Surfer Joe said:
			
		

> Thanks, that was highly informative
> We have limescale buildup around here so it must be hard water.
> I will look for cal mag.
> The Canna grow guides for the aqua nutes that I bought say to add some rhyzotonic root  stimulator and some cannazym to their standard aqua veg and aqua flores nutes, but they make no mention of cal mag in their products.


 
Calmag is just Calcium (Ca), and Magnesium (Mg),  Look for Ca and Mg on there products, I'm sure its there. 

Have your hard water analyzed, It could be full of both already.


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## Hushpuppy (Dec 1, 2013)

Yeah if you have hard water(lime scale) then you may have all the calcium you need. Definitely have your water analyzed so that you know whats in it and so that you don't have fits with element lockout and pH craziness, both of which occur often with hard water.

Also check the levels of calcium and magnesium in the Aqua nute brand before buying anything else as it may be there enough with the combined mineral in your water to eliminate the need for extra


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## The Hemp Goddess (Dec 1, 2013)

Do you have something to measure ppm?  This is important when running hydro.  It is also quite important to know what dissolved solids you have in your water already.  If the ppm of your tap water is too high, you really need to think about an RO or bottled.  So, the first thing I would recommend is testing the dissolved solids in your water.  If they are low, there is no concern, but if they are high, you are most likely going to want to use a different water source or add an RO.  

If you are going to buy 2 other things to add (not actually keeping it '1 nute' simple), I would recommend going with GH Flora series of nutes--grow, micro, and bloom which you use in different proportions depending on what stage of growing you are in.


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## Surfer Joe (Dec 1, 2013)

My tap water is about pH7.4 and has an EC of 0.3

I mixed up the first nutes today for the new plants and it was balanced at pH5.6 and an EC of 0.9. The pH of the water and nutes was about 7.1, so it took a fair amount of pH down to bring it to 5.6.
Canna suggests a pH of 5.2-6.2 for their aqua nute range, although that is at odds with some info I have read elsewhere.
I plan to follow the Canna grow guide but reduce the amounts suggested and see how that goes.
The temps in the buckets are around 20C with the system running.
I planted the seeds today in a warm propagator in rock wool that had been soaking in pH water for a day. When they pop out, I'll put them in the mesh pots.
I hope to have one NL, one WW and one autojack- all of them are autofems.


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## Hushpuppy (Dec 1, 2013)

That is a fairly high EC. You really need to see if you can have it tested as that high of mineral content can cause you grief, although I suspect that most of that is actually calcium, given the high pH of the water. However, if your tap water comes from a treatment plant then You really need to know if any of that is sodium as that is often used to soften hard water. 

If you are growing from seed, don't add any nutes until the seedlings are about 2-3 weeks or the cotyledons (first little round leaves) begin to yellow off. Feeding before then risks burning the roots. Only give them water as the cotyledons are their food source while the roots are developing.

 Once you begin feeding you will need to watch the pH as it will drift due to concentration changes. You want to allow this drift as it is better for the plants than a static pH. The range you want to stay in is 6.2-5.3


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## Surfer Joe (Dec 2, 2013)

Thanks.
The Canna website has a grow guide that gives you specific info about your nutes and water, and I dialled in hard water and they gave an EC reading of water as .6,  and a target of EC 1.2 for the nute solution.
Since my water is actually EC .3, then it seems to be within their recommended range since their EC of 1.2 for the nutes is based on water being .6, so an EC of .9 for the nutes with water EC at .3 seems about the same.
There's not a whole lot that I can do about the tap water, so if it proves to be too problematic for hydro, I'll probably just go back to growing in soil. The local hydroponic shops that have grow rooms don't seem to have any problems with the water, but I will ask around to see what I can learn about the water quality in my area.


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## Growdude (Dec 2, 2013)

.3 EC is fine, but the point is you may not need any Calmag at all.


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## Hushpuppy (Dec 3, 2013)

It sounds like you are on top of it so you will probably be fine with it. As Growdude said, it looks like you may not need any calmag additive. But just in case, watch the leaves of the plants as they grow to see if you are getting any light green coloring that follows the margins of the leaf fronds like an outline of the leaves as that is the first real notable sign of magnesium deficiency. If that happens, don't panic but you will need to get a mag additive to them before they go too long. A little Epsom salt sprinkled into the medium or in the rez should help if that happens.


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