Good Nutrient Combinations

[TorturedSoul]

Someone asked me what combination they should get when they go to the nearest hydroponics store. I gave them one possible choice, but since it's like a seven or eight hour round trip (not counting time in the store), I'd like to be able to give them several possibilities so that they won't have to spend another day going back if the place is out of something.

So, how about listing your favorite nutrient/supplement combo (veg and flower)? Looking for something that won't be all over the place pHwise or other things that would cause the person to pester me several times a week for help lol.

Give specific recipes if you like but I can always find out more in-depth stuff later I guess. I mainly want to give him a list so that he can be certain to be able to bring back one complete set - assuming that there is at least one that they have everything in stock of.

I'm hoping that I can do so and that I won't later hear him griping about a problem because something was left off. Unlikely I guess but you never know.

Not really all that concerned with "organic" (I'm sure whatever he brings back will have some carbon in it lol.) Seriously, though... anything that has the raw elements required (all of them) and has worked well for you will be considered & welcome.

I told him GH Flora 3-part would work by itself with the odd bit of cal/mag. I also said that he might pick up something that said "earth juice" on the label and a seaweed/kelp and fish emulsion product too if he has enough money. But it's been a long time and I'm (obviously) pretty vague on the details on that one.

Plus, there have been a lot of new products come out in the past 15 years.

Thank you!

 

[TorturedSoul]

Nobody has a package that they have found works well enough for them that they would recommend purchasing the lot?

 

[TorturedSoul]

There's an example! GH FloraNova looks like a 2-part program, one for growth phase and one for flowering. That's new since I was into it all so I don't know any more about it than what is on GH's website.

I would assume that using it would work.

But I would like to know a little bit more. Like, have you had an opportunity to compare it to their three-part Flora series? Do you use JUST the FloraNova the entire time from seed/clone to harvest, or have you found that using other products in conjunction with it seem to work well? If so, what else is in your regimen?

Anyone else want to chime in? Again, I am not asking for a step-by-step thing or feeding schedules/amounts. I just want to be offer several different "sets" of choices so that if when he goes to the store to pick up EVERYTHING that he will need, if they are out of one thing in whichever group of supplies he has chosen, he can just move on to the next set (and the next set after that if needed and so on).

He has not been to this store before, neither have I, and they don't have a website. And as it's not exactly next door, even if he leaves at dawn and goes straight there and straight back, if I look at what he's gotten and tell him that he needs to add something to it he'll not possibly be able to get back there the same day before the store closes.

Oh, and thank you Pitviper420 for replying to this thread. Hopefully you'll be the first of many!

 

[TorturedSoul]

I just had occasion to reread an interview from several years ago with Lawrence Brooke (the founder of General Hydroponics). It was at a fair and when asked if he had launched a new product, he had this to say about the FloraNova series:

Yes, I have a couple of very good products. My new fertilizer, FloraNova, is a onepart growth formula and a one-part bloom formula. It’s extremely concentrated: the use is 1-2ml per litre. The weight of this product is about 1.7kg per litre. It’s a purified mineral-based nutrient with an organic humic and fulvic acid additive; it makes a very high quality crop with a good flavour. The growth rate is excellent and it’s extremely easy to use because you need only to add one part to the water for each space that’s above the line.

Which makes it sound pretty interesting.

I'm still open to suggestions.

 

[mr areoponic]

advance nutes sensi grow and bloom parts a and b. i used to use the botanicare organics but did not like the comps that come with it. so far i can say that the 2 part sensi nutes have given me the best results so far.

 

[NoLogo]

I have used the DynaGrow/DynaBloom nutrients and been satisfied with the results and ease of use. Very good for someone just starting out.

I have got an order in for Advanced Nutrients Micro/Grow/Bloom nutrients for my next grow as I am looking to try something new. I will post a review of these once they arrive and I start using them.

 

[McBudz]

Nobody has a package that they have found works well enough for them that they would recommend purchasing the lot?

What are you feeding your plants?

 

[sharecropper]

if u want to go on the cheap side and follow the directions look into this recipe below.. u can get all this stuff at a farm supply store..

200 gallon reservoir changed once a week
12 weeks
2400 total gallons used

total nutes needed
19.5# Peters Pro 5-11-26 hydroponic special (has micro nutes) (aprox $50 for 25 lbs dry)
12.9# Calcium Nitrate 15-0-0 (aprox $35 for 50 lbs dry)
3# Agricultural grade (if available) Epsom salt (aprox 2 dollars a pound dry)
(the usage and amount Epsom salt is only necessary pending a water analysis for already present Magnesium) ( optimal total 50ppm for Magnesium in an ongoing feeding sched) watch your Ca:Mg ratios (I shoot for 5:1)

total approximately $70 per 2400 gallons of reservoir water
$0.03 per gallon of water


PETERS PRO 5-11-26 instructions::::

STEP 1: Dissolve 130 ounces or 8 pounds 2 ounces of this material in 1000 gallons
to obtain the following concentrations:
Total ppm
Nitrogen (All Nitrate) N 50
Phosphorus P 48
Potassium K 216
Magnesium Mg 31
Sulfate SO4 125
Iron Fe 3
Manganese Mn 0.50
Zinc Zn 0.15
Copper Cu 0.15
Boron B 0.50
Molybdenum Mo 0.10
STEP 2: Based on the results of a current water test, determine if additional
Magnesium is required. An average of 50 ppm magnesium in the final
solution is desirable for most crops. If water test results indicate that
additional magnesium is required, dissolve Epsom salts. One ounce of
Epsom salts dissolved in 100 gallons (10 oz./1,000 gallons) supplies 7.5
ppm magnesium. Water with very low magnesium levels may require the
addition of up to 2 oz./100 gallons (20 oz./1,000 gallons) of Epsom Salts.
STEP 3: After the Hydroponic Special and any Epsom Salts needed have been
dissolved in the tank, proceed as follows:
•Dissolve 86 ounces of calcium nitrate in the same 1000 gallons. Total
nutrient concentration will then be: Nitrogen as N: 150 ppm N, Calcium
as Ca: 116 ppm Ca.



(i know this is for a more advanced grower i suppose, but u could save urself days of driving time and tons of money!!!)

on the other side of the coin.... check out
fox farms ocean forest potting soil as well as their light warrior or
pro mix bx or hp..
#4 grade chunky perlite 4 cubic ft bags (check farm supply stores)
pumice (6 bucks for 50 pound bag)
fox farms nutes grow big, big bloom, tiger bloom.. (dont forget to grab a feeding schedule)
dont forget some rooting solution with a fungicide in it already.. IBA .3% or better (u can get this at home cheapo)
organic earthworm castings (check garden centers)

dont forget to get your ph indicator solution for ph testing ur water/nute solution , that is if u dont have a ph/ec/tds meter .. if u do ,
dont forget to stock up on solutions for calibration, electrode cleaning and storage ...

my favorite rooting medium of all time are these little plugs that look that turds that have a hole poked in them already, better than oasis, better than rockwool, better than jiffy cubes,, if in a pinch rooting in straight perlite is easy..

stock up on the free magazines/literature often found at the store,, as well as pick the brain of the salesperson...

also, be sure to grab those extra large humidity domes while at the hydro store .. the hold those tall cuttings!

if u dont have a inline blower , get one..

stock up on bulbs.... (recently home cheapo has started carrying up to 400w bulbs for hps and MH for around 25 bucks !!)


happy growing ...

 

[Caber1]

What have earthworm castings have to do with Hydro?

 

[sharecropper]

nothing really , although u could make a foliar feed out of worm castings ... but a lot of serious soil growers get their supplies at hydro stores as well... from ur post it sounded like the friend was going hydro, but i thru in some soil recommendations also , just in case ... ur friend sounds like an inexperienced grower, and if thats the case , they should probably do the first few grows in soil to get that hang of it anyways.. jmho ..

 

[sharecropper]

i have some friends that swear by Dutch Master hydro nutes. and i have heard good stuff about House and Garden Nutes by Van de Zwaan but have never used them myself... if u look at the labels u'll find that a lot of the nutes out their liquid or dry are basically the same ingredients in slightly different ratios

 

[TorturedSoul]

What have earthworm castings have to do with Hydro?

The same thing that (for example) General Hydroponics Three-Part Flora Series nutrients have to do with soil growing: It's something that the grower can use.

Growing hydroponically does not mean one has to use "hydro" nutrients/supplements or products that arent certified as being "organic" - just like such things often work very well in a soil grow.

Some have made "tea" out of worm castings, guano, fish emulsion, etc. Some will powder the stuff in a coffee grinder and add it directly to their reservoir (works great in a "bubbler" type setup where there are no feedlines to worry about possibly plugging down the road in the next grow or two and the many airstones and aquarium powerhead keep the solution constantly mixed, and some choose to feed entirely or supplement with things that already have such things mixed into them.

 

[tintala]

A complete package could be the 3 part gh flora series , i had great results from that, and good for a beginner,. oR BOTANICARE pure blend pro , GROW< bloom, an dliquid karma, with hyrgozyme and calmag, This is a complete ORGANIC package. but a bit more $. I would say start off with the 3 part gh FLORA series , reliable and user freindly.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yes that is what I'm recommending (GH Flora) because I know it works quite well all by itself and I can if pressed think of a few "organic type" additives that he can get to go along with it if he feels like it.

But it is not unheard of for a store to be out of something so I do appreciate all the other "packages" that I can also put down on the list for him. It might save me the annoyance (lol) of being called from the store and having to play question and answer about the store's entire stock while I do searches here on the site.

 

[Racefan]

I started out hydro with the GH 3 part series. If I remember right there were certain ways it had to be mixed and all 3 were required at all stages of growth. With micro being added first and then grow and then bloom. Each nutrient needed to be diluted before another nutrient was added and if one got stoned before mixing it was easy to forget where one was and with what bottle. i switched to Pure Blend Pro. It was a great decision for me and one I've stuck with for 5 years now. One bottle for grow, one bottle for bloom. No mixing, no certain ways or steps required and fool proof no matter how stoned someone is.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Yeah, the micro had to be added first I believe or it could cause precipitation issues.

No additional additives, just PBP for veg and the other PBP for flower? How's the pH stability? If it drifts up (through solution consumption by the girls) can you just add a bit of PBP bloom(?) when you top of the reservoir with water (if you do that) to bring it back down without bothering with pH down?

That sounds like something I could tell him to get lol.

Thanks!

 

[tintala]

Yeah, the micro had to be added first I believe or it could cause precipitation issues.

No additional additives, just PBP for veg and the other PBP for flower? How's the pH stability? If it drifts up (through solution consumption by the girls) can you just add a bit of PBP bloom(?) when you top of the reservoir with water (if you do that) to bring it back down without bothering with pH down?

That sounds like something I could tell him to get lol.

Thanks!

You have to add micro first on the GH so that it wont lock out the others, other wise it will lock out the gro and bloom nutes. That was the main problem with the flora series. When I used GH , I also used, liquid bloom, and floralicious gro and bloom, with outstanding results.
Like racefan says, the PBP , is really easy , one does not have to be careful. it's just one jug then , maybe LK ..

 

[pan4gold49]

I myself use the Dutchmaster Gold series. It's been a very easy system to use and was very cheap on a per tank value. Since I have 3 tank 3 stage system it works well for me. Just look at the plants in my last updates.

Pan4

 

[TorturedSoul]

I myself use the Dutchmaster Gold series. It's been a very easy system to use and was very cheap on a per tank value. Since I have 3 tank 3 stage system it works well for me. Just look at the plants in my last updates.

Pan4

Is gold better than the advanced, max, or folitech stuff? Companies that put out several different lines of stuff that all claim to be the best in the business and are within a dollar or two in price confuse me.

Do you add the gold Liquid Light? Penetrator? Phosphoload? Potash Plus? Silica? Zone?

I admit that your grows are OUTSTANDING (and there's dried drool on my keyboard from reading your journals lol). And therefore that I'm guessing that if he uses what you do - and doesn't screw it up through newbishness - he ought to do just fine. He'll be using an oxygenated reservoir with plant's roots growing down into it from large drink cups of geolite(?) exploded clay balls because he doesn't have any money and will be bumming stuff off of... you guessed it - and I've got some drinking cups and found a bucket of used clay balls in the basement that got missed (have to boil the salts off them I suppose).

I wish more companies would introduce a line of hydroponic nutrients like this: "Hello ladies and gentlemen, here is our complete line of hydroponic products, our veg/grow nutrient called Grow, our blooming/flowering nutrient called Bloom, and for our additives we have NOTHING! Yes, that's right, nothing - because we just put everything in the other two bottles."

I'd buy a bottle of each just to have it on the shelf.

Sorry, that might have been a rant caused by looking at hydroponics store website's nutrient pages that each seem to contain 792 different items that all read the same.

I'm going to take some of my meds and try to find something to eat with 'em and then I'll just lay down for a bit shall I?

 

[fineas]

This is what I am using and why..
My first HP grow was FloraNova grow and bloom.Was given to me by another grower who changed to pureblend series... I thought that it gave me beautiful results and it was easy.. Then my next was sweet and liq karma and was added to FloraNova on advice from a friend. + I continued FloraNova because it came with my Hardware. Subsequently I decided to use Pure blend pro the whole series. Cost a lot, good results but I'm not done yet... (inconceivable!) Got a box of BC products (their whole line ) to help the HP to underdeveloped countries program and will use it for the next time I grow. For now using the pure blend which is alot of additives. (like karma,calmag, hydroplex, grow and bloom, gee thats a complicated mess. After I test the BC products them I may decide what to use permanently. But I change brands of shampoo every 6 months for variety. I'm a little ADD
All of these I have had good results with. Somehow I feel that maybe the karma and sweet aren't necessary but the end product was nice using them. so before using the BC products I vote FloraNova grow and bloom with added karma and sweet. For now...