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Cheap Nutes/Good Books/sites/forums?
- Thread starter billgee
- Start date
Hi, billgee
I've used the Lucas ratio with GH Flora nutes for several years, tweaking it along the way, as I learn. Works great with most strains, and fairly inexpensive.
As for learning, all you can do is spend time reading.
I've read all the major forums, for countless hours, and they all contain most of what you need to know. It's just a matter of filtering out the BS, and taking the good.
IC Mag is my favorite, as there seems to be a more mature crowd here, and the pissing contests are kept to a minimum.
If some dude with with a post count of 3, who types "Lawlz" and "yo wut up ic maggers" posts about how he can grow a pound under his Mom's dresser with LED's he jacked out of his Uncle's computer case, you might be well advised to ignore it.
Look for rep, and high post count. Look for results, and logical statements.
You will find all the answers on IC mag. Just gotta do a little detective work.
OK, gotta go check Mom's dresser now! (Lawlz)
I've used the Lucas ratio with GH Flora nutes for several years, tweaking it along the way, as I learn. Works great with most strains, and fairly inexpensive.
As for learning, all you can do is spend time reading.
I've read all the major forums, for countless hours, and they all contain most of what you need to know. It's just a matter of filtering out the BS, and taking the good.
IC Mag is my favorite, as there seems to be a more mature crowd here, and the pissing contests are kept to a minimum.
If some dude with with a post count of 3, who types "Lawlz" and "yo wut up ic maggers" posts about how he can grow a pound under his Mom's dresser with LED's he jacked out of his Uncle's computer case, you might be well advised to ignore it.
Look for rep, and high post count. Look for results, and logical statements.
You will find all the answers on IC mag. Just gotta do a little detective work.
OK, gotta go check Mom's dresser now! (Lawlz)
As I understand it Jack's Classic/Hydro and Cal-Nitrate are the cheapest way possible, but it requires at least a basic understanding of how to mix nutrients.
GH MaxiGro and MaxiBloom are going to be among the lowest costing "traditional" hydroponic nutrients available. Typically you'll spend $0.04 to $0.10 per gallon depending on the bulk purchased and the nutrient solution strength. Botanicare CNS17 is about as inexpensive as the FloraSeries Lucas Formula and I think it's better suited and more effective in my experience.
Honestly though... A $25 set of Canna Coco A+B lasts me 2-3 vegetative periods, plus as the base for the first 3-4 weeks of flowering. I'll turn over more than 1000g of harvest before repurchasing, and I just cannot call a $0.025 per gram as a major cost. Or that saving $0.0125 per gram is going to make some kind of major difference. I think that programs which utilize amino acids, silicic acid, chelates, and pH stabilizers tend to provide better uptake and grow larger plants more quickly. When it comes down to it, I think you have to weigh out the effect versus the cost. While one nutrient program will have a nominal price difference over a simple salt mixture better growth rates could justify a higher cost. I'm not saying the most expensive nutrient is the best... Far from it. But unless you're a large scale commercial grower the cost of a single grows worth of nutrients should not be breaking the bank.
As far as the rest of it all goes. The west coast online hydro retailer I prefer is ehydroponics.com (price beat guarantee). For the mid-west and east coast I prefer Plantlightinghydroponics.com. Somewhere between these two retailers you can find the cheapest offers out there. Shipping can be a pain though, so if you're in Maine or Alaska or something prepare to have to cover that service on these low-margin sites. Aside from ICMag a forum I found to have a lot of good info is hydrocanna.com. They have a little "hacker" problem recently (some bitch who thinks she's helping them by fucking with their servers), but I think that's all settled. The info there is unparalleled online.
GH MaxiGro and MaxiBloom are going to be among the lowest costing "traditional" hydroponic nutrients available. Typically you'll spend $0.04 to $0.10 per gallon depending on the bulk purchased and the nutrient solution strength. Botanicare CNS17 is about as inexpensive as the FloraSeries Lucas Formula and I think it's better suited and more effective in my experience.
Honestly though... A $25 set of Canna Coco A+B lasts me 2-3 vegetative periods, plus as the base for the first 3-4 weeks of flowering. I'll turn over more than 1000g of harvest before repurchasing, and I just cannot call a $0.025 per gram as a major cost. Or that saving $0.0125 per gram is going to make some kind of major difference. I think that programs which utilize amino acids, silicic acid, chelates, and pH stabilizers tend to provide better uptake and grow larger plants more quickly. When it comes down to it, I think you have to weigh out the effect versus the cost. While one nutrient program will have a nominal price difference over a simple salt mixture better growth rates could justify a higher cost. I'm not saying the most expensive nutrient is the best... Far from it. But unless you're a large scale commercial grower the cost of a single grows worth of nutrients should not be breaking the bank.
As far as the rest of it all goes. The west coast online hydro retailer I prefer is ehydroponics.com (price beat guarantee). For the mid-west and east coast I prefer Plantlightinghydroponics.com. Somewhere between these two retailers you can find the cheapest offers out there. Shipping can be a pain though, so if you're in Maine or Alaska or something prepare to have to cover that service on these low-margin sites. Aside from ICMag a forum I found to have a lot of good info is hydrocanna.com. They have a little "hacker" problem recently (some bitch who thinks she's helping them by fucking with their servers), but I think that's all settled. The info there is unparalleled online.
when your asking about hydro, i'm assuming you mean CoCo, not water. I'v e used botanicare CNS in veg, w great results. keep the ppm's/EC down. less is more. I was never more the 1.5EC. pH5.8. R/O water with cal-mag. Just read the leaves, if it starts to look off, get it a little more water to flush it .
I switched to GH using the H3AD formula. for flower. really rocking it and its cheap.
I switched to GH using the H3AD formula. for flower. really rocking it and its cheap.
GH Maxibloom (KISS Method) and/or Dynagro.
Books on plant biology at library. Good info can be found on web just dont look for cannabis specific stuff, look up basic plant biology, photosynthesis and nutrition.
Stay away from marijuana specific books. And beware of books with advertisements.
Books on plant biology at library. Good info can be found on web just dont look for cannabis specific stuff, look up basic plant biology, photosynthesis and nutrition.
Stay away from marijuana specific books. And beware of books with advertisements.
billgee
Member
wad - without a doubt
billgee
Member
How many plants. How many pots or reservoirs and how big.
I generally use Canna but it does seem to be going fast as these monsters grow. Im putting more than a gallon and a half of water in a 5 Gallon pot every day and every one must have A+B because its Coco
What do you mean 1000g - is that wet or dry. Im getting about 15-20% after its cut, dried and cured.
My RO water cost far exceed nutes but when you cut down you gotta examine it all. Nutes get down to 15-20% of total costs but they could get down to 8% and thats in my pocket. Im just afraid to leave Canna
12 plants. 1 gallon smart pots. Pure Botanicare Cocogro. 2-3 gallons of nutrient solution per day with 20-30% collected as runoff. 3x3 grow tent with 400 watts. Topped and trained for 3-4 tops per plant.
5 gallon pots are an interesting choice for coco. I use A+B at a rate of somewhere between 5ml to 8ml per gallon. Even at $23 a liter for the pair, and at 10ml per gallon, that's only $0.23 per gallon. Being that you really only feed full strength like that for 8 weeks or so... It's still only about $20 per plant. If I harvested just 4 grams off of that plant it would already be less expensive than buying bud from a dealer. And that's on their strong feeding program, buying by the quart, with your large planters and (probably) very large plants which should be yielding a smidgen more than 4 grams.
1000g dry. If I grow with a 400w lamp and harvest about 330g per grow (my most recent grow is still drying but I am pretty sure I broke 350g this time based on past experience) then hitting 1000g out of 3 grows from the same $23 bottles is not expensive for myself. I didn't think anyone still bothered with wet weight in this day and age.
400w of light for me, plus fans and whatnot, I'm at an easy 0.55kwh, probably closer to 0.6kwh for 12 hours a day, and 0.2kwh for 12 more hours. A total of 9.6kwh per day, for 70 days, and at an average cost of about $0.14 per kwh... I'll spend a solid $90 to $100 for power in a given grow. Another $100 on nutrients (which I use about 1/2 of). And those are the only "recurring" costs (outside of equipment additions and replacements) for myself. So, while nutrients are about 1/3 of my cost, the actual cost is rather low. About $50. And with even a light harvest of 300g the cost per gram is just $0.17 in nutes. Cutting the cost of my nutrients in half, and pulling just three 300g harvests a year, would only save me about $75 a year.
Honestly, I think my Taco Bell budget is bigger than $75 a year.
I get frugality. And you should feel free to experiment with bargain nutes. If you're working on a huge scale and processing like 1,000lbs per year, then it does make sense to save whatever pennies you can. But on a small scale I think tripping out over the cost of a base nutrient is a little unnecessary. Additives, sure, cut that shit out. But the base is the base and if it works then don't go trying to fix it. That's all I'm trying to say.
Cheap is relative. Hydroponic Research VEG+BLOOM is a complete powdered nutrient (so not paying for shipping water)
I have been growing hydro exclusively now for 3+ years of constant growing. Periodically, I check out the available mj growing books, alas, most are sorely lacking when it comes to hydro
Check out my threads, I think you will learn a lot
I have been growing hydro exclusively now for 3+ years of constant growing. Periodically, I check out the available mj growing books, alas, most are sorely lacking when it comes to hydro
Check out my threads, I think you will learn a lot
Try out this one, it'll be the best $20 you put into the grow room.
I've been having great success with H3ad's formula.
General Hydroponics FloraMicro (hard water for me), FloraBloom and some Epsom Salts.
6ml/gal, 9ml/gal, 1g/gal. PH down to 5.8-6.0
Cheap, easy to mix and the plants love it!
EDIT: corrected pH range!
General Hydroponics FloraMicro (hard water for me), FloraBloom and some Epsom Salts.
6ml/gal, 9ml/gal, 1g/gal. PH down to 5.8-6.0
Cheap, easy to mix and the plants love it!
EDIT: corrected pH range!
interesting,
