Best Hydroponic Nutrients and Supplements

[Revanche21]

List your favorite blend of nutrients!

Price would be nice too

Revanche21 Reviewed by Revanche21 on 05-24-2008. Best Hydroponic Nutrients and Supplements List your favorite blend of nutrients! Price would be nice too :) Rating: 5

[HighTy]

1-COMPONENT AARDE basic nutrient. A local hydroponics store swears by it so I bought a bottle of it yesterday for my jalepenos I got growin.

$32

[the image reaper]

my first couple hydro grows, I used the highly-respected 'General Hydroponics' 3-part liquid formulas ... it was good stuff ... last couple grows, I switched to 100% Fox Farms nutrients, despite so-so reviews by others :wtf: ... I use the 'Grow Big Hydro', the 'Tiger Bloom', the 'Big Bloom' and 'Open Sesame' ... will be adding their 'Cha-Ching' tomorrow ... simply put: I love the Fox Farms stuff, and don't see me changing anytime soon, as I've been growing my best plants, ever, with it ... it's also cheaper than most nutrients, but I'd still use it if it cost twice as much ... (just kidding, Fox Farm, don't raise your prices ) ... depending on the exact product, quarts run about $12-$15, they last quite awhile, you usually only use a teaspoon or tablespoon, per gallon ... the 'Big Bloom' is their 'live bacteria' additive, mostly earthworm castings tea, I suspect, and costs about $11 a quart, but ya use more, a couple tablespoons per gallon ... the 'Open Sesame' and 'Cha Ching' are powdered, go a real long way, and cost about $18 for one pound can ... :smokin:

[Revanche21]

basically I just want

1 for veg
1 for flower
1 catalyst (such as liquid karma?)

and im set right?

if ya got the time, mind explaining the dynamics of why the different amounts of different nutes?

[the image reaper]

if you want to go with Fox Farm, get the following ... 'Grow Big' (2 versions, one for soil, one for hydro, be sure to get the hydro version (3-2-6) for vegging ... get their 'Tiger Bloom' (2-8-4) for blooming, and get their 'Big Bloom', it's a live, active, bacterial fertilizer, used throughout the grow ... wherever they sell Fox Farm, you can get their little pamphlet, which fully explains their dosages, and when (there are times you will be using 2 or all 3, at once) ... they also include the ppm, etc. you want to be ... easy to understand guide (also can be seen on their website) ... following Fox Farms' ratios, my grows have been my best ... just throw in a teaspoon of blackstrap un-sulphured molasses per gallon, the last several weeks, and you're good to go :thumbsup:

[herbie the love bud]

tir loves his foxfarm. I've never tried it but I've used Advanced, it's ok but now I use technaflora recipe for success. I think that gives me the same results as advanced for less money with an easier formula. In the end I think they all perform the same.

[rhizome]

In the end I think they all perform the same.

Umm,yeah...to a point...
Yer bumping up against limiting factors. We'll go to the U of Wisconsin for a definition.


In most of the small rooms that I've seen, the limiting factors are, in order, ventilation and then lighting. You can throw a bazillion $ worth of chemistry @ a plant, but if it doesn't have sufficent C02, the vapor pressure deficit is too low, or it doesn't have enough light, and it can't grow well. As the manufacturers of purpose specific nutrients formulate assuming that, if you're spending this ind of $ on consumeables, you've spent the $ for sufficent ventilation and lighting, they formulate assuming that the plants will be able to use the nutes @ the rate applied.

I dunno- I find vast differances in the response of plants to differant nute regimens (...mmm...COGr...), but only when they're allowed to fully express- there aren't factors limiting growth that will show up before the nutes do. If you don't have enough light, or your plants are running too warm, yer gonna see that way before anything nutrient mediated.

Once you get a space really dialed in, feeding has a pretty marked effect on expression of pheno- but if yer not into that whole thing first, then yeah, they all pretty much work the same.

Spend $500 bucks on enviornmental control and run cheap nutes for a couple rounds until you're sure that the space is all that- by now you've broken even with the $ you didn't spend on 2+.

Buy the expensive stuff now that yer broken even- you'll be much happier, and the pricey stuff will be worth it for you.

My $.02 US ( not worth much, and dropping every day...)

[rhizome]

You using the Sledgehammer? Or the tri-pack dry stuff?

[justanotherbozo]

Umm,yeah...to a point...
Yer bumping up against limiting factors. We'll go to the U of Wisconsin for a definition.


In most of the small rooms that I've seen, the limiting factors are, in order, ventilation and then lighting. You can throw a bazillion $ worth of chemistry @ a plant, but if it doesn't have sufficent C02, the vapor pressure deficit is too low, or it doesn't have enough light, and it can't grow well. As the manufacturers of purpose specific nutrients formulate assuming that, if you're spending this ind of $ on consumeables, you've spent the $ for sufficent ventilation and lighting, they formulate assuming that the plants will be able to use the nutes @ the rate applied.

I dunno- I find vast differances in the response of plants to differant nute regimens (...mmm...COGr...), but only when they're allowed to fully express- there aren't factors limiting growth that will show up before the nutes do. If you don't have enough light, or your plants are running too warm, yer gonna see that way before anything nutrient mediated.

Once you get a space really dialed in, feeding has a pretty marked effect on expression of pheno- but if yer not into that whole thing first, then yeah, they all pretty much work the same.

Spend $500 bucks on enviornmental control and run cheap nutes for a couple rounds until you're sure that the space is all that- by now you've broken even with the $ you didn't spend on 2+.

Buy the expensive stuff now that yer broken even- you'll be much happier, and the pricey stuff will be worth it for you.

My $.02 US ( not worth much, and dropping every day...)

very good points man!
kinda like having a brand new Corvette and adding nitrous oxide while driving on bald tires.

[the image reaper]

You using the Sledgehammer? Or the tri-pack dry stuff?

I'm not familiar with 'Sledgehammer' ... I have seen the tri-packs online, but my local just carries the individual granulated solubles ... I have used the 'Open Sesame', and am adding the 'Cha-Ching' today, for the first time ... :smokin: