The Importance of K (potassium)

now that the buds are in blossom when is the best time to use 10-52-10? i was told to give the ladies a double dose of it but wasnt told how much water to use per plant and how often should i use it? cheers.

You'll get much better results with a more balanced fert (10-50-10 and stuff like that lack Potassium). Basically, what you need is a balanced P:K ratio. You can also use a typical BN PK 13+14 bloom booster during two or three weeks just before you stop the nutes (last week of flowering).

chaman,question

you sort of lost me on bn bk 13+14 thing, is this something you can buy if so what is its name? what im using now 10-52-10 should i use it everytime i water, and can it burn the ladies if i mix it to strong?

Yeah, you can buy PK 13+14 in growshops. I have used Bio Nova PK 13+14 with very good results. B'cuzz (Atami) also offers a PK 13+14 bloom booster in their Bio Bizz range. I'm sure there are many others. The BN product is good because it also contains an enzyme against overfert... You can also use another additive, namely "Blossom blood". This one is used to boost the PK booster...

The 10+52+10 is probably slow release, and I would use it once a week only. But again, you don't have enough K in that thing, so 52% Phosphorous is ridiculous, really.

why is that ridiculous chaman?

it sounds like someone knows something about K finally! i have a question over in plants and foods you might want to look at. but ill ask here too. i got this stuff fox farm .01-.3-.7. (its organic thats why the low concentration) i dont need the N anyway because i put in a slow release granular in the spring. the P and K were my concern. its supposed to be some really good stuff but i havent gotten around to using it. instead im using 5 30 5.
so what do youthink about this ratio? why is it so necessary. please feel free to go into detail. id like to know as much about this as possible. thanks a lot.

The amount (number) of flowers is directly associated with the amount (number) of leaves, with the exception of specific strains that were designed for lazy growers who don't like manicuring buds for hours.

Now, although "bushyness" is mostly a phenotype, K will help you reduce internodal distance and promote "exploding" leaf growth. Do the test any time: grow one plant with lots of N, and grow another one (again, same age, same strain) with lots of K... One will stretch like mad and produce more stems than leaves (guess which one...), while the other one will stay much shorter but with nice short internodes and leaves everywhere (thus, bud sites everywhere).

Further, K (Potassium) is used as a P (Phosphorous) catalyst. Although it's true P is needed during flowering (and N too, btw...), you won't get the benefits of increased Phosphorous levels if you don't feed the plants with lots of Potassium too.

This has been well documented among professional growers, so you should be able to find references. I don't know if external references are welcome here, so I won't post links. But you could start by browsing the Cannabis Culture Magazine and search past articles...

If you're still not convinced, I can post pics. But I don't want everybody to think I'm showing off here.

no harm in showing off teach.

its funny you should mention the experimenting. with my fertilizing my tomatoes with this 3-2-2 slow release organic granular (turkey manure in it) crap during the beginning of the summer i added about 4 or more times as much to this one plant and now it looks REALLY lush and has a **** load of little tomatoes that appear very healthy and shiny. btw theyre still green so they could all get bigger.
alongside it there are the same champion tomatoes and they arent nearly as lush but have way bigger tomatoes.
im not sure which is better right now but i know that phosphorus from the slow release isnt helping too much because i put in on the top of the soil instead of tilling it in. im using the same 5-30-5 for P.
i know N leaches fine and im pretty sure K does too. what do you think contributed to the bunch of little flowers and lush, "healthy looking" growth?
oh and what do you think about the ratio on that fox farm. it won some kind of award for being the best bloom fert. its called big bloom. thank you for explaining this. im very interested in more knowledge of ferts.

3+2+2 is just fine. I use 3+1+4 for vegetative growth, personally (although any commercial all purpoise 7+6+6 or 7+5+6 would do the job, once per week).

Okay... so here we grow (sorry, I'm mashed )

This is a typical Sativa fed with too much Nitrogen. See how it has stretched ? This plant was more than 7 ft tall, but mostly stems. That's what you call a woody plant. Too bad we don't use fibers...

Nuther plant, same problem (too much horse manure : lots of Nitrogen, not enough Potassium). Net result : vertical growth but here again very short, bare sidies.

Now, something much better : a high K growing medium and also a high K feeding schedule. Make no mistake, this one is also mostly Sativa... but has not stretched.