House and Garden 2013 MEGATHREAD

My last two runs ive run aquaflakes only from small clone to harvest never changing anything. 10 ml per galloin from start to finish of A & B.. Ive done a comparison of just aquaflakes and others with bud xl, moab and roots ex. All I can say is my plants have never been so healthy and the quality is unreal with just aquaflakes. The only thing ive added this run is some Epson salt for some extra mag but once I'm into the 2nd week of flower its just clock work with AF at 10ml per gallon. The bud xl seems to work it turns my plant yellow sucking everything out of those leaves but again my results are better and more consistent with zero issues now.
Keep it simple

Kit Kat said:

[SIZE=+1]Additives[/SIZE]

Always

Drip Clean - Use at 0.4ml/g from beginning to end to prevent salt build up in drip lines. Use at 1ml/g to prevent build up in your lines, as well as the medium.

• Guaranteed Analysis: Phosphate: 24%, Soluble Potash: 8%
• Alternative: PeKacid at 400g to 1 liter is an exact equivalent to Drip Clean and only costs $10. Thanks, Avenger! Or feed your plants less over all.
• Notes: Use from beginning to end of the grow, DO NOT add this in part way through, any salt build up in your medium or lines will be broken down rapidly and will cause issues.
• krunchbubble's thread on drip clean

Click to expand...

Drip Clean Late or Mid Cycle does not cause any issues that's a huge myth. I just tried this past grow added drip clean after 4-6 weeks without. Plants looked better because salt leeching properties of drip clean just allowed plants to uptake nutrients better.

Another huge myth: PeKacid at the dilution rate you mentioned is equivalent and cheaper than drip clean. "Just wanted to clear up some confusion about Drip clean and the "DIY Drip Clean". These products are not the same. PeKacid is a commercial PK fertilizer that is supposed to be used as an alternative PK nutrient source when farmers have alkaline source water or soil. It is used to replace the need for Phosphoric or Sulfuric acid additions in order to lower the PH, as the fertilizer itself is acidic. The lower PH of the water is what dissolves nutrient precipitates (mainly Ca reacting with Sulfates and Phosphates), which makes it sound like its doing the same thing that House and Garden Drip Clean is.

Many people have posted that adding 400g Pekacid and distilled water in a 1L bottle will get you the same thing as Drip Clean. This is bad advice, as you will be adding a lot of P and K to your nutrient reservoir if you do this and screw up your nutrient ratios.

People add 1ml per gal Drip clean with great results. That means a 1L bottle at 1ml/gal will make 1000 gals. 400g PeKacid in a 1L bottle at the same 1ml/gal ratio equates to .4g PeKacid per gal (.4 x 1000 = 400). If you go on Hydrobuddy and add PeKacid to the substance selection section using its 0-60-20 N-P205-K20 ratio and then add .4g in 1 gal water you get 27.67ppm P and 17.54ppm K. Thats a lot of P, over half of what I normally use. I added 8ml of genuine Drip Clean to 1 gal RO water and it didn't even register on my EC meter. 8ml of the DIY PeKacid drip clean registered 0.7 EC.

The confusion comes from an old European MSDS of House and Garden Drip Clean that claims 24% P205 and 8% K20 with a density of 1.3g/ml. Below is a link to it.

https://secure.megawatthydro.com/img/product/.../MSDS-DripClean.pdf

The actual bottle of Drip Clean I bought off the store shelf has a much different Guaranteed Analysis (You can also find it on the Washington State Fertilizer Database). It states an N-P205-K20 ratio of 0-0.18-0.6 and a density of 1.1g/ml. Adding 1ml per gal Drip clean raises your P by 0.2ppm and K by 1.3ppm. Drip Clean is not supposed to be a PK booster. It contains Phosphoric acid and Potassium Oxide in small amounts, hence the reason it doesn't change the PH or EC of your nutrient reservoir. Its is a polyphosphate solution and is different then orthophosphate acid found in PeKacid.

If you read the info carefully at the link below on PeKacid, you will understand it is only beneficial if you have highly alkaline irrigation water or soil.

http://www.iclfertilizers.com/Fertilizers/Knowledge Center/Pekacid_-_water_and_irrigation.pdf

Most of us, especially the hydro growers don't have that problem as our water is filtered and our growing medium is buffered. If you grow in calcareous soil and have high bicarbonate in your water, then maybe using a little PeKacid would be beneficial, but probably not the 400g/L concentrate. If you used 0.014g per gal, it would equal the same 1.5ppm nutrient addition as adding 1ml/gal Drip Clean (although a higher amount of P then K).

Anyways, sorry for the ramble, but I just wanted to save someone the time, money, and hassle of buying PeKacid as a substitute for H&G Drip Clean. I'm not sure if Drip Clean actually works, I have used it @.4ml/gal and not noticed a difference in plant growth. Never had a clogged dripper in my DTW set up with or without Drip Clean. But if you use it, and are happy with it, then just keep buying it, as there doesn't seem to be a similar product on the market for any cheaper. $.02-.05 per gal for piece of mind isn't too bad."


^ This guy explains it better than I am interested in going into. Long story short do not use PeKacid thinking it's a drip clean replacement if anything it will build up salts of P and K and cause problems. It is not even close to the chemistry of drip clean. Drip clean is not even expensive when you look at it's dilution rate.



H&G is beautiful in that it's perfectly tailored to cannabis, don't sub out anything unless you're trying to save money on Top Booster+Bud XL+Shooting Powder/Top Shooter. In that case you can use a cheaper PK Rock Phosphate based supplement start at quarter strength and build up on similar pattern to the H&G feed charts introduction of Shooting Powder/Top Shooter. You'd still get better results from just H&G but if you want to save money I can understand cutting out their phosphates. Grow won't turn out as good but that's the only sub I would make. Aside from that to save money on H&G just don't use the entire line. I find a combo of Base Nutrients + Algae (Any Source, but preferably the H&G Algen Concentrate) + Rock Phosphate based bloom booster in flower is an effective way to use house and garden cheaply while still getting some of the benefits to resin production and overall quality of end product H&G provides.


ICMag.com generally has some of the best information in many areas of cannabis. Let's make sure the Drip Clean myths are debunked and no one else causes harm to their grow using PeKacid thinking it's a Drip Clean equivalent instead lessening the overall quality of their grow, unless of course they are in that very specific need situation that PeKacid was designed for. Long story short Drip Clean mid cycle without early introduction causes no adverse effects it helps the plants uptake nutrients better by leeching existing salts from medium/drip lines and PeKacid is not a drip clean replacement not even close in chemical composition.


-Nor Cal and Loving it