News — Nutrients

Bubble Flow Bucket Nutrient Guide 0

Knowing what kind and how much nutrients to use can be confusing for new growers. This guide is to help growers using one of our most popular systems, the SuperCloset Bubble Flow Buckets.

If possible, I always recommend buying all the nutrients you'll need for your grow beforehand. It allows you to buy in bulk and save some money and will keep you from making emergency runs to your hydro shop (or rushing shipping) when you realize you're out. 

Whatever you do, don't let your babies starve!

The amount of nutrients you'll need will depends on a lot of factors so let's make some assumptions to use for our calculations.

1) We're using a 6 Site Bubble Flow Bucket system. 

It comes with a 25 Gallon reservoir and 5 Gallon sites. For the 6-Site system that means we'll have about 55 gallons (25 from the reservoir and 30 from all 6 buckets) for maximum capacity, but let's plan around using 50 gallons.

Here's what each system can hold: 

If you have a 12 Site then multiply everything by 1.5 and if you have a 24 Site then multiply by 2.

If you're using another system, hopefully you can use the same technique to find out how much you'll need. 

2) We're going to use TechnaFlora nutrients.

They're reliable and known to work well for hydroponics. I used their nutrient calculator to get most of these numbers.

3) We'll have a 6 week vegetative phase and 10 week flowering phase.

This is an overestimate but it's always better to have a little extra than not enough.

4) We'll plan to change the water every 2 weeks.

You can change your water weekly but you'll use twice as much nutrients and usually won't get much out of it. 

This means we'll have 3 water changes in our 6 weeks of veg and 5 water changes in our 10 weeks of flowering.

OK, now let's look at how much nutrients we'll need. To keep things short, I'm not going to go into much detail about why we're using each nutrient. 

Single Water Change - Vegetative

Single Water Change - Flowering

So what will you need in the end? We'll multiply what we need for a single water change in veg by 3 and what we need for a single water change in flowering by 5 to get our totals.

Total Nutrients 

What to Buy

Unfortunately, you can't buy these exact amounts of nutrients. They're mostly available in 1 L, 4 L, and 10 L containers. Here's what I think makes the most sense based on what's available and pricing (at time of writing). 

B.C Boost, 10 L

Provides Calcium and Iron that your plants will need for both vegetation and flowering.

Note: It's about the same price as two 4 liter bottles, might as well get the extra

B.C Grow, 4L

Contains a full compliment of nutrients for vegetative growth. 

Note: It's about the same price as two 1 liters, you'll have a lot extra.

B.C Bloom, 4L

Contains a full compliment of nutrients for healthy bloom / flowering. 

Awesome Blossom, 1L

This ultra-fertilizer will increase your harvest size by providing a boost of sugar phosphates. 

Thrive Alive B-1 Red, 1 L

A plant tonic that encourages healthy root development. 

MagiCal, 1 L

A blend of magnesium, iron and calcium that promotes vigorous and healthy plant growth

1x Sugar Daddy, 4 L and 1x Sugar Daddy, 1L

Supplies essential carbohydrates and all twenty amino acids necessary in all phases of plant growth.

Notes: You could also go with the 10 L option if you want to have enough for your next grow too.

There you have it. That should be everything you need for vegetation and flowering. Hope that helps!