equipment reviews???

[Cameltom]

i often get the high dollar stuff lumatek,Quantum, canfan, vortex, gorilla tent....
do we have a forum for reviewing grow room equipment...
basically i wanna know if its high end or house fire.... warning dont get that cuz....
ill never turn lumatek down i give them five stars
growbright 6in fan i give 2 stars
can fan max 6 i give 5 stars
stanly blowermod i give 2.5 stars

 

[Crooked8]

Digi 1k non dimmable ran okay and never blew. But it always ran dimmer than the global greenhouse ones. So swapped it out and all the lights were even brightness. Not sure why the lumatek was weak but it was obvious.

 

[avant gardener®]

if there wasn't a thread for it, looks like there is now.
i give house and garden 4 stars (apart from the price).
anything hydrofarm makes gets less than one star.
your sister gets 5 stars though

 

[Crooked8]

I second his h&g rating. A 5. Also, if we're talking nutes too, advanced nirvana gets a 5, the guano co budswel gets a 5 and so does strata super organic stimulator(microbes on crack).

 

[Crooked8]

Oh and your mom gets 2stars. Maybe 2.5

 

[Crooked8]

He didn't give h&g a 5. My bad, i still do though.

 

[avant gardener®]

5 stars: earth juice's bennie supplements (which are also ridiculously cheap). biozeus (bacterial) is about $20 a dry lb. rooters (mycorhizzae) is less than $10.

by extension, great white, roots excel and any bennie supplement that costs $100+ per pound/pint gets 2 stars tops no matter how good they are. fuck thievery. same goes for mighty and pm wash. they tell you the shit is 99.9999% water on the label adn you still buy it.

5 stars: the 36 watt uv pond sterilizers i bought from china for $30 a piece. they cured my root rot in the buckets.

no stars for monsignor sharkey and the 'special penance' i had to make on my kness in the rectory when i was an altar boy.

 

[avant gardener®]

50 posts and 5 days.
where's my mailbox yo?
1 star for that.

 

[watts]

so you don't like hydrofarm. What did you not like?

 

[avant gardener®]

their gear is for shit.

i ran through 5 of their analog dehumidifiers. none lasted more than 90 days if they ever worked properly at all. never did get it right, but they finally issued me a credit for the damn thing. now i'm sure not saying that sunlight supply builds tank-made heirloom quality products either, but the ideal air i got has lasted for 2 years now.

then there were their hangers that were rated for 22 lbs but failed under a 19 lb load leading to all my lights in the line falling on my plants. bulbs and reflectors broke. plants were crushed. a couple of the power cords never pulled out of the ballasts either, so if i hadn't been there at the time, i damn may well have had a fire. never mind all the substatntial expense and inconvenience this episode cost me. 6 months later i am trying to get them to cover at least the gear that got broken. they keep slow playing me though.

then there was the t5 rack that was cooked out of the box. and the 110 lpm air pump that sounded like a chainsaw and crapped out in a week.

i could go on, but i'm just going to upset myself. bottom line is their shit is built to break. and it's just that—shit. they operate under a business model where they know that most of the folks who buy their gear are not going to return the garbage when it breaks—whether out of fear or because it's cheaper just to buy a new item than to be without a key piece of equipment mid-grow. it's a predatory practice.

what's more, in spite of who their actual client base is, they remain staunchly anti-mj, whether medical or recreational. i actually contacted them about the possibiltiy of establishing a wholesale account a couple years ago. the very first question they asked me was whether i was involved in the medical marijuana business. i asked them what would happen if i said i was. they responded that that would be the end of the conversation. i told them that i'd rather not answer then. that was the last time they called me back. that sort of prohibitionist-appeasing rhetoric is insulting to the very people who pay their bills. fuck them for that, seriously. a hydroponics wholesaler headquartered in sonoma county california that doesn't want to talk to anyone who grows herb... you gotta be fucking kidding me.

on balance, hydrofarm cracks my short list of least favorite people and organizations right along side of snitches, meter maids, cops, pedarests, judges, lawyers, and the westboro baptist church.

 

[Granger2]

Hydrofarm 2 plug digital timers have an amazingly short life span. Won't buy anymore of those. -granger

 

[avant gardener®]

in fairness, that same timer gets at least 4 different brand stickers slapped on it. hydrofarm, titan, and a couple store brands. it's funy to look at them side by side on the shelf with different prices on them. they keep miserable time too.

 

[gratefulart]

I could talk about how baller the Phantom ballast are, or how CAN fans stomp allmost all other fans, but most people already know this. Perhaps I will leave a pos and neg review.

My positive review is on BOTANIGUARD

I havent had the need to use a bunch of incesticides, but for anybody with pest in their medium, Botaniguard is the way to go. Especially for people trying to stay organic.
I know, Mallet this and Mallet that, but why use all those chems if you dont have too.
I do a custome soil/soilless mix and after about a year in, I started to get some root aphids and some fungal gnats. Being one to stay organic, the Botaniguard gave me results I could see on my plants with in 10 days. Killed everything in my medium. Now I use it once in veg and once at the beginning of bloom as a preventitiive measure. My plants def look healthier since.

My negitive review is on the ROOTS ORGANIC line

Now I am not super exoeirenced nor do I think im an authority on diff nute lines. But I know garbage when I see it. Especially after I use it for a harvest.
The main thing that comes to mind when i think of the RO line is SLUDGE. Stupid thick mud. The entire line doesnt suck, but the main parts definitely do.
My main issue at first was extreme salt build up. As a complete nube grower at the time, this salt issue turned into a domino effect of other issues due to lockout. I switched very next harvest to some nutes that were a normal liquid consistancy and yeilded gold.

ROOTS ORGANICS BLOWS!!! STAY AWAY

 

[Crooked8]

Botaniguard sounds like what i need. My only problems i ever encounter are root aphids, root gnats and powdery mildew. Eagle 20 knocked the pm out. Botaniguard for medium maintenance sounds great. Is it systemic? How long is it in the plant? Whats the dosage and the cost? Does it work in a hydro medium?

 

[Stonefree69]

Hydrofarm 2 plug digital timers have an amazingly short life span. Won't buy anymore of those. -granger

If you use them for low power stuff besides lights they should last. Digital timers and high power lights do not mix at all, unless you use a relay that's tripped by the digital timer.

 

[gratefulart]

Botaniguard sounds like what i need. My only problems i ever encounter are root aphids, root gnats and powdery mildew. Eagle 20 knocked the pm out. Botaniguard for medium maintenance sounds great. Is it systemic? How long is it in the plant? Whats the dosage and the cost? Does it work in a hydro medium?

Botaniguard is systemic

I cant recall how long it stays in the plant. Not too long. depends on how much runoff u have wghen you water I imagine. Tho I was told by the people at my grow store that you can use it safely up until a week before harvest. i wouldnt do that though. If you got bugs in your medium a week or 2 before harvest, id let em go on livin rather than drench my medium during flush. But I will say that if you eat any type of organic produce, there is a good chance that botaniguard was used.

The dossage I give, (less than reccommended) is 5-15 ml/gal every 5-10 days until problem is gone. Then like I said, I introduce it as a preventative measure once in veg, and once in early bloom. Lightly water after those introductions as to not run it all out in your runoff the next time you water.

Runs about $85 a bottle for the standard size.

Not familiar w hydro medium at all to give you a answer on that question. Sorry.

Here is there link
www.bioworksinc.com/products/botanigard-es.php

 

[Granger2]

Gratefulart,
Can you site any reference about systemic activity of Botanigard? I don't believe it is. I have read everything I can find about it and have seen no mention of it being a systemic. I believe it is possible that it stimulates the plants' immune response.

Crooked8,
I have used it and Nematodes in my organic grow, and have kept Root Aphids controlled to the point that my plants were healthy, vigorous, and productive, producing tasty, potent, large, dense buds. Good luck. -granger

 

[gratefulart]

Granger,

Thank you for making me clarify for myself the answer to your question.

A person at the locay hydro store told me he thought it was systemic for a short period of time. Like a week or so.....BUT....
I decided to do more research bc of your question.

Botanigard ES is NOT systemic. My bad

Perhaps I should not believe everything the guy behind the counter tells me.

 

[Crooked8]

Wow! A non systemic, organic medium drench pesticide? Sounds freaking wonderful. I run flood tables and root gnats and aphids are my only pest issue i ever encounter. I know those bitches are robbing my plants too. It never gets too out of control but its always like theres at least a "presence" of them. Thanks for the info. If i can run it on a rockwool flood table im going to be so thankful.

 

[guyyug]

crooked8, Bacillus thuringiensis might be a safer option. Used "mosquito dunks" for a while in the res, but have switched to the granules and they will wipe them out. Plus you don't have to worry about anything not being "organic". You can put them in pantyhose to keep junk out of pumps and lines.