I'm kind of a stickler about the fundamentals of hydro so there's degrees to it where I make sure I stay within the "rules" and the rez changes are part of that. They suck and it's costly being the one major negative about hydro but I love the garden the day after a change because it gets so jacked up and excited.
The other side is show me a rez over two weeks old and I'll show you plants with some issues so for me it just has to be done.
I believe there's a lot lost in translation when it comes to microherds or bennies or whatever lingo is used.
Those terms are like trying to describe the difference between Chevy and Ford and the only word you can use is car.
I'd encourage fact checking me and independent discovery here as well.
The species and ingredients in products like Bigfoot are ancient, foundation of life type critters in Earth's soil and plants as well as human digestive system, sea sponges and more.
When they're alive and doing well in soil they can be seen to the naked eye and almost look like web or the precursor to mushrooms.
Have you ever seen that webbing on anybody's DWC roots like we do in soil? That's my first clue to it not being applicable in hydro.
Next, those species for the most part, break down organic matter so it can be taken up by plants. Some convert it to sugar, some nitrates, and so on. They're processors of ingredients to make it into food for the plants.
Some of these can work in soiless so I use them but they're no where near as effective or noticeable as when I use them in organic soil.
In hydro, your food is liquid and already available for uptake so there's no need for microbes to process it.
Your plants will take it all up and sometimes go gluttonous and burn up.
That's where the feed chart comes in to help keep you from redlining. It's still ez to do so thru trial and error, you find your way there to the happy place your nutes, plants, and water are all in sync.
Usually, staying below max strength and avoiding any bloom boosters or anything piled on top of Lucas should get you to the end with success.
Your biggest asset there is just the fact that it's hydroponics and the way it gets food and oxygen to your roots.
If your micro does not have the + symbol on the label you may also need calmag. IDK if that's a thing anymore but it once was.
Somewhere along the lines mycos products mistakenly became the "bennies" for DWC. If anything that would seem to be a placebo effect or maybe even something that could go alive then dead and become toxic to the garden.
The "bennies" for DWC are enzymes. More specifically whatever propitiatory enzyme Hygrozyme makes for indoor gardening.
So you really have two versions of bennies. 1 for soil and 1 for water and they're no where close to being the same.
The only need for that microbial enzyme life is to prevent and kill off root rot. No other benefit than prevention so you know it's working by not seeing root rot or if you get it, that stuff will clean it up to pearly white in short order.
Archae and trichoderma can also help a ton here but they can be overwhelmed. The enzymes make sure the empire doesn't fall.
That chart looks about like what I remember running it. Very simple and yeah no xtra stuff meant to go in soils.
Lucas is pretty much the commercial hydroponic nute formula for cannabis during a time when cannabis was mostly illegal.
Normal crops like hydro strawberry are also two part with a crop specific salt and calcium nitrate brought to a low EC for small plants and a higher EC for adult plants. It's actually kinda clunky in that version but with the liquid GH version it's streamlined and cleaned up but we're also paying more for that cleanliness.
It's agriculture man, they'll forgive you
FWIW when I say 90%, 85.7% is just as good. None of this stuff has to be on the dial exact so 90% translates to almost all of it.
The only reason to leave a little in there is for any beneficial microbial transition as a new starter but if there's a problem going on then there's been a time or two when I've taken the rez out to wash with the garden hose before I reset it.
That's usually if I see any kind of red gunk or slime or oil slick looking deal on the surface
