Who's Using the pH Perfect Technology?

[knowboddy]

I know there are other posts about the pH Perfect nutrients that Advanced Nutrients has come out with but I really want to limit the scope here to people that have or are actually using these new nutes and what their experiences have been. I'm sure there's a lot more opinions about these nutes but I would appreciate it if those who have opinions but haven't actually used the nutrients would just refrain from posting.

So please, no "my buddy's cousin grows with it" or similar stuff. First-hand knowledge.

Also, please make sure you're actually using the pH Perfect version of the nutes. There's the regular stuff and the new stuff, and the labels are different. (The pH Perfect nutes say "pH Perfect Technology" on the label.)

I've been really impressed by how rock-solid it holds the pH and my plants are the happiest I've ever seen them. I just started my second grow with these nutes.


How is everyone else doing with them?

 

[Trunk5]

Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Demonstration - YouTube

and they work just like there regular line except it has the ph buffers in it. everything else is still the same since they switched the labels and bottle caps. hope this helps.

 

[HydroManster]

We tested it extensively, the Sensi 2 part PH Perfect. There were several issues. It is probably ok to use in soil or soiless gardens but in RDWC systems like the UC for example it is not an ideal choice to use.

One problem is the water pump filter which protects a VERY expensive water pump filters out all the "stuff" in the nutrients. PH Perfect sensi 2 part is a combination of 5 products in one. After first mixing it up, the water will appear slightly cloudy looking, and by the next day it is crystal clear with a very slight red tint to it depending how strong you mixed it.

If it is 5 products in 1, then why do you still need all these other products and additives with it? Why are all these "kits" needed with all these bottles? These are rhetorical questions BTW and do not require an answer...lol

Upon inspecting the water pump filter we found that it has collected what was in the water making it look a bit cloudy. I am sure this is needed at the plant roots and not in the water pump filter.

Another problem is that you can not use any other brand nutrients or additives or AN states that it will mess up the PH perfectness. This sucks as most people have there "favorite" pk booster or additive that they use. Not with PH perfect Sensi line, you are now roped into using all the additives from Advanced Nutrients ONLY that are extremely costly and watered down.


After testing we saw no notice in size or yield increase and the ratio of NPK concentrations seem to be off in our opinion and according to tissue samples we take during testing. If PHD's really did make this stuff, they must have been on crack or something. This formula does not seem like it was made by doctors at all and by looking at the cartoon labels on the bottles it is more like 3 year olds made it or that is the audience it is marketed for. For medicinal medication you would think the company making the nutrients for it would take a more serious adult like approach.

AN uses things like UREA for a nitrogen source which is mammal urine. Not exactly the "Finest" source materials as claimed by AN.

The PH perfect secret ingredient that is really a slow release ph buffer is made by a company for Advanced Nutrients, AN does not make it themselves.

The PH Perfect Sensi line held the PH no longer than when using tap or RO water and several other brand nutrients like Aqua Flakes from H&G, Heavy 16, Ionic and several others that were tested.

Not worth the time or money according to testing results and they perform no better and the cons like being restricted to using AN products only with them is a giant buzz killer as well as a wallet killer!

Cheers!

PS- we have a entire database on the testing we did over a 2 year period. If you have any specific information you would like please let me know.

 

[TorturedSoul]

One problem is the water pump filter which protects a VERY expensive water pump filters out all the "stuff" in the nutrients.

To be fair, not everyone uses a "VERY expensive" water pump in their setup, and may not have micron-sized pores in their filter. For them, that point might be moot.

Another problem is that you can not use any other brand nutrients or additives or AN states that it will mess up the PH perfectness.

Does it? Or is that just what they say? Do they state it will cause problems, or do they stick a big red warning on the label... which says using other manufacturers' products may cause problems? (Think the owners' manual to my old 1972 Dodge said that... because they wanted you to buy your parts/supplies at the local Dodge stealership. I never did. Car had almost 300,000 miles on it when I rolled the thing.)

IOW, that one might only be a marketing ploy. I've read that... some companies... use marketing ploys (believe it or not, lol). Or it might even be one of those product-liability things, you know, to stop people from dumping something really nasty into the mix and then complaining & bad-mouthing AN because "AN's products caused their grow to tank."

This sucks as most people have there "favorite" pk booster or additive that they use. Not with PH perfect Sensi line, you are now roped into using all the additives from Advanced Nutrients ONLY that are extremely costly and watered down.

I'm not a fan of AN (people probably know that already). But... You can't really knock points off a company for the fact that a certain percentage of their customers might wish to use other companies' additives and the nutrient company would rather you get your additives from them. I mean... You could probably call every nutrient company (that also has a line of additives), ask them about using Brand X's additives, and regardless of their official stance on whether it can be done, nine out of ten of them will probably manage to mention two or three times during the conversation that, "We happen to make an additive that does just what you're wanting to accomplish with that other company's product. And we can guarantee that our additive works very well with our product."

They're all in the business of making money, after all.

As for being watered down... It might not be as concentrated as another brand's product, but aren't they all pretty watered down? Most of the brands I've used looked to be on the thin side of "concrete." Except for BPN, the stuff of Corey's that I've got I can shake until my arm hurts and I can still see stuff in it when I pour it into the cup I use to draw it into the measuring device. And someone told me that GH's two-part stuff is kind of thick, IDK.

Hey... Can you gripe about a product being too watered down right after you griped about it clogging your filter, lol? Isn't that like complaining that the meal you got at the diner was completely inedible - and in the next breath, complaining that the portions they gave you were too small?

After testing we saw no notice in size or yield increase and the ratio of NPK concentrations seem to be off in our opinion and according to tissue samples we take during testing.

Now that's significant. If you've got the data to back it up (and don't mind sharing).

If PHD's really did make this stuff, they must have been on crack or something.

Lest anyone forget that I'm not a fanboy of AN - and because you handed me such a wonderful opening line, lol - I'll mention that they do offer doctorates in marketing. Do any of the ads actually state what fields those PHDs are in?

This formula does not seem like it was made by doctors at all

If not marketing, a doctor of philosophy would be enough to... cover their legal ass on that one.

and by looking at the cartoon labels on the bottles it is more like 3 year olds made it or that is the audience it is marketed for. For medicinal medication you would think the company making the nutrients for it would take a more serious adult like approach.

I opened my virtual mouth to agree with you wholeheartedly here... but had to stop and remove my foot from it. Why? Because I was in the middle of moving things around when I took a break to hit my favorite site. And I just glanced over at what I had in my hand before I sit down at the computer... to see the two cartoon(?) frogs, complete with very red eyes, lol, hanging out in front of a garden of cannabis in full bloom on the label of my BlueMax Boom jug (by one of our sponsors, Blue Planet Nutrients). I've got to say that when I first saw the labels, I did some serious eye rolling. But it turns out to be a nice product that has already gained a following. It's also cheap - or should I say quite a value, since the only thing that appears to be cheap is the price.

Every brand wants the wandering customer to notice their product from amongst the many others that it's stocked with on the shelves. Cartoon characters, scantily-clad women, maybe some inference that if I use someone's product my penis will grow, everyone will love me, and I'll have happy days & wild nights. <SHRUGS> I try not to pay any attention to anything that comes out of anyone's marketing department. But it's hard to get too bent about one particular company when so many do it. Giant pepper plants on a label? Giant cannabis plants surrounded by cartoon characters on the one beside it? Regardless of which one people end up buying, I've got a pretty fair guess as to which one catches cannabis growers' eyes first upon walking down that aisle. (Especially if they smoked a bowl on the way to the store.) Yeah, they sell to people who grow cannabis for medicinal use. But I'm thinking that there are a lot of people buying cannabis-related products who don't actually dedicate their harvests to "legal" medicinal use.

AN uses things like UREA for a nitrogen source which is mammal urine. Not exactly the "Finest" source materials as claimed by AN.

<DING> You should have started your post with that one - I'd have agreed and skimmed the rest. I thought only Miracle Grow used (chiefly) urea for their nitrogen component.

The PH perfect secret ingredient that is really a slow release ph buffer is made by a company for Advanced Nutrients, AN does not make it themselves.

Which company? Do they retail their product, just wholesale, or is it only sold to AN?

The PH Perfect Sensi line held the PH no longer than when using tap or RO water and several other brand nutrients like Aqua Flakes from H&G, Heavy 16, Ionic and several others that were tested.

Another significant point.

PS- we have a entire database on the testing we did over a 2 year period. If you have any specific information you would like please let me know.

I'd like to know specifically which brand/line you found to be (a) the best for growing plants and (b) closest to achieving the things they rant about in their ads. I'm also interested in whether or not you happened to include testing for radiation above the background level in the products you tested. After learning that long-term cigarette smokers have been found to have higher levels of radioactivity in their lung tissue due to the fertilizers used on the tobacco plants, I do have some concern about what I use to grow cannabis.

BtW... A pH shift is not necessarily a bad thing. Not everyone seems to realize that. I like to see mine mix at around 5.8 and slowly drift upwards over the course of several days to 6.1, 6.2, thereabouts - and then to fall back to 5.8 when I top the reservoir off and slowly repeat ad infinitum. Way I always heard it, not every element is equally usable by the plants at any given pH. Not to mention that the drift can tell you when it's time to feed (during reservoir top-up) because they've consumed certain things from the nutrient solution.

I guess I just don't see the existence of a product which keeps a rock-solid ph (or claims to, IDK) as being anything special - or all that useful.

Am I missing something important here, folks?

 

[HydroManster]

We let our PH drift from 5.2 to 6.3. The rule we use is we do not adjust PH unless it goes out of that range.

Advanced Nutrients would not release the name of the company that makes the PH stable component.

We also tested Blue Planet Nutrients when it very first came out. Worked with the owner for a few months with the nutrients. Very solid product.

As far as what we used that was better and just as pH stable, Heavy 16 and Aqua Flakes with Cal/Mag (Aqua Flakes has ZERO Calcium in it).

Heavy 16 was the most stable as far as Ph goes.

We had a issue with ammonium based materials used for nitrogen (amoniacal nitrogen) in some formulas (actually almost ALL formulas use up to 25% percent of there total nitrogen content from ammoniacal nitrogen) that caused a low ph issue. We thought it was micro-biology problems at first but it was not.

So in the process we found a formula that has NO ammonia based materials in it at all. This formula is called Shiva made by Crop nutrients. Nothing we have ever used or tested is as good as this stuff is! Pharmacy grade materials only are used. It is a 2 part (A&B) that you use for both veg and flower. Both parts look like water it is so clear. It is also so pure you run super low EC levels, like you max out around 400 or 500PPM (.5 x500). The stuff is UNREAL! If you ever try it you will NEVER use anything else again.

If you want to know about a specific product please ask as we did extensive testing on most popular brands out there over a 6 year period.

Cheers!

 

[TorturedSoul]

If you want to know about a specific product please ask as we did extensive testing on most popular brands out there over a 6 year period.

That would make a worthy stand-alone thread, IMHO. If you do decide to start one, please send me a link or post it in this thread. (Probably should try to keep this one on-topic and with the other points at least somewhat connected to AN's pH-Perfect line, lol.)

A friend wrote to the people that produce DNF nutrients and they sent him five little bottles (A & B Grow, A & B Flower, and DNF Gold which I believe might be fulvic acid) to try out. He asked me about the line and I didn't really have much to say one way or the other. If you know anything - good or bad - about the line, I'd appreciate reading about it. Also if the above is complete enough that he could use it without supplements (other than a little Mg and possibly Ca depending on his water's content).

Also Neptune's Harvest products. I've used them in the past but am not currently using them for cannabis (and don't see doing so in the near future, as I will be using the BPN two-part for a while). I only thought to ask about them because I was doing random web searches a while back and read that someone contacted them for advice using their products to grow "legal medicinal cannabis" - and someone from the company responded in a positive manner and gave them suggested recipes for doing so with their products, iIRC. <SHRUGS> And, while that's not as uncommon as it was in years past, it's still not so common a response that I don't give them a point or so for doing it, lol.

That's also probably a good topic for a potential thread: Which nutrient companies respond positively when asked for advice about growing cannabis (legally) and which ones do not.

 

[decrimCA]

Well, to go back to the original question...

(Not that I'm not enjoying the responses - very informative stuff)

I can only speak to my personal experience with the pH Perfect technology - and I love it. My plants are loving it, growing big and strong, so really, that's all that matters to me. I mean, yeah, I should probably learn the science of everything someday, but I just haven't needed to.

When your nutes are good, you can afford to be lazy. LOL

AN continues to impress me, but I appreciate the (actually) smart discussion on this thread. Much better than the whiners that show up everywhere else.

 

[SpaceGhost]

Well, to go back to the original question...

(Not that I'm not enjoying the responses - very informative stuff)

I can only speak to my personal experience with the pH Perfect technology - and I love it. My plants are loving it, growing big and strong, so really, that's all that matters to me. I mean, yeah, I should probably learn the science of everything someday, but I just haven't needed to.

When your nutes are good, you can afford to be lazy. LOL

AN continues to impress me, but I appreciate the (actually) smart discussion on this thread. Much better than the whiners that show up everywhere else.

What kind of water you using? Does the PH perfect keep the ph stable until the next reservoir change/cleaning?
I would like to test PHP but I just bought a gal of sensi grow/bloom after reading Masterbaters comments, when I 1st joined 420 a few months ago.
I happen to like AN and until proven other wise I'm sticking with them, they have made my 1st grow easy.