Hey guys, you know what I like about the organics forum? One starts with a very simple question and then very knowledgeable people get in, answer the question, and move it to the next level. We started from aminoacids in organics and went to bottled products, humic acid, "you wouldn't talk of kelp and blood meal as hormones and aminoacids", multiplication of wholesale prices through "cutting" and marketing, we even talked about Tea Brewers and Martha Stewart, ha!
Lately I've been reading a lot of stuff on the forum and elsewhere and I'm starting to put in doubt the "Lucas formula" as the holy grail of cannabis growing in hydroponic systems.
The point is, I can really see for instance that when I add humic acid, plants are happy and their leafs shoot to the sky. I see as well that when I add silica, stems get thicker then usual. And when i add kelp extract, the giberrelins and kitin enter into play and I see less vertical growth and more lateral branching. And same thing we can say about mycorrizae in medium-based growing.
And you know to what conclusion I have gotten?
ADVANCE NUTRIENTS IS THE ANSWER, THEY HAVE IT ALL!!!
I do really believe this... I only question the need to spend 700+ USD to start a grow, when probably you can get to the same point just by using molasses, kelp, lactobacilli, etc.
The point though is that AN product line could help us pinpoint the useful elements which help plants grow better than usual and understand how we could get the same stuff at a fraction of that price.
I will make an example. Advanced sells products like Piranha, Carboload, Sensizym, B-52, Barricade, F1 (Fulvic), H2 (Humic), Scorpion Juice, Big Bud, Nirvana. The key elements in these products are:
- Piranha: myco and trichodermas
- Carboload: carbohydrates
- Sensizym: enzymes and bacterias (among which, lacto-b)
- B-52: B-vitamin complex
- Barricade: Silica
- F1: Fulvic
- H2: Humic
- Scorpion Juice: Salycilic acid
- Big Bud: amino acids
- Nirvana: let's say hormones (it is a Liquid Karma equivalent, which means kelp meal, etc)
They of course put a lot of other stuff in the bottles, but I believe most of the rest is water and snake oil which they call "the secret ingredient".
The point is, we should want not to lose any key ingredient of the above by using less-pricy equivalents. I will make an example:
- Myco and Tricho: Mycorrhizal Applications was mentioned, does it sell retail as well or is it just wholesale? What is the cheapest organic and non-organic product which can give us the same good strains of fungi?
- Carbohydrates: Blackstrap molasses
- Enzymes and bacterias: homemade lactobacilli culture, EM-1, Bokashi
- B-vitamin complex: what can we use in this case? Do we find it in kelp? Or if we want B-complex, B-52 or Organic-B could be valid, reasonably-priced additives?
- Silica: is it already sufficient in soil or is it good to supplement it? In this case, is there a natural substitute to Barricade, Pro-Tekt, Silica Blast?
- Fulvic and Humic: Is there enough in soil? Is there a natural substitute or do we have to supplement with Rare Earth, Miner Magic and equivalent products?
- Salycilic acid: We can use aspirin or willow teas... how much aspirin in how many gallons of water?
- Amino acids: we can use Blood Meal, but blood meal is, if I'm not wrong, slow-release N, so for instance we don't want it in medium to late flowering, what can we use instead
- Hormones: is kelp sufficient? Is it better to use cold-pressed or "chemically-extracted"? Or alternate both?
I believe you have more than enough knowledge to expand this list and make it more complete and precise. You add nice descriptions of the effect of the basic element, what product is fairly priced to use in your grow, in what concentration, you put it nicely and in a nice format and we might have a sticky with some best practices to make one's grow better and cost-effective.
What do you think of this? In case you like it, I would be glad to help, but I believe I could work better as a supporter rather than a thread starter, here we have more acknowledged people which, moreover, are in a better position from a legal standpoint to write on this forum (as you know, if you are not a Medical Marijuana Patient, in some states even just talking of growing in a Marijuana-related forum can put you at risk, I'd prefer then to keep a low-profile, even though I'm here more for the knowledge than for the produce itself)
Lately I've been reading a lot of stuff on the forum and elsewhere and I'm starting to put in doubt the "Lucas formula" as the holy grail of cannabis growing in hydroponic systems.
The point is, I can really see for instance that when I add humic acid, plants are happy and their leafs shoot to the sky. I see as well that when I add silica, stems get thicker then usual. And when i add kelp extract, the giberrelins and kitin enter into play and I see less vertical growth and more lateral branching. And same thing we can say about mycorrizae in medium-based growing.
And you know to what conclusion I have gotten?
ADVANCE NUTRIENTS IS THE ANSWER, THEY HAVE IT ALL!!!
I do really believe this... I only question the need to spend 700+ USD to start a grow, when probably you can get to the same point just by using molasses, kelp, lactobacilli, etc.
The point though is that AN product line could help us pinpoint the useful elements which help plants grow better than usual and understand how we could get the same stuff at a fraction of that price.
I will make an example. Advanced sells products like Piranha, Carboload, Sensizym, B-52, Barricade, F1 (Fulvic), H2 (Humic), Scorpion Juice, Big Bud, Nirvana. The key elements in these products are:
- Piranha: myco and trichodermas
- Carboload: carbohydrates
- Sensizym: enzymes and bacterias (among which, lacto-b)
- B-52: B-vitamin complex
- Barricade: Silica
- F1: Fulvic
- H2: Humic
- Scorpion Juice: Salycilic acid
- Big Bud: amino acids
- Nirvana: let's say hormones (it is a Liquid Karma equivalent, which means kelp meal, etc)
They of course put a lot of other stuff in the bottles, but I believe most of the rest is water and snake oil which they call "the secret ingredient".
The point is, we should want not to lose any key ingredient of the above by using less-pricy equivalents. I will make an example:
- Myco and Tricho: Mycorrhizal Applications was mentioned, does it sell retail as well or is it just wholesale? What is the cheapest organic and non-organic product which can give us the same good strains of fungi?
- Carbohydrates: Blackstrap molasses
- Enzymes and bacterias: homemade lactobacilli culture, EM-1, Bokashi
- B-vitamin complex: what can we use in this case? Do we find it in kelp? Or if we want B-complex, B-52 or Organic-B could be valid, reasonably-priced additives?
- Silica: is it already sufficient in soil or is it good to supplement it? In this case, is there a natural substitute to Barricade, Pro-Tekt, Silica Blast?
- Fulvic and Humic: Is there enough in soil? Is there a natural substitute or do we have to supplement with Rare Earth, Miner Magic and equivalent products?
- Salycilic acid: We can use aspirin or willow teas... how much aspirin in how many gallons of water?
- Amino acids: we can use Blood Meal, but blood meal is, if I'm not wrong, slow-release N, so for instance we don't want it in medium to late flowering, what can we use instead
- Hormones: is kelp sufficient? Is it better to use cold-pressed or "chemically-extracted"? Or alternate both?
I believe you have more than enough knowledge to expand this list and make it more complete and precise. You add nice descriptions of the effect of the basic element, what product is fairly priced to use in your grow, in what concentration, you put it nicely and in a nice format and we might have a sticky with some best practices to make one's grow better and cost-effective.
What do you think of this? In case you like it, I would be glad to help, but I believe I could work better as a supporter rather than a thread starter, here we have more acknowledged people which, moreover, are in a better position from a legal standpoint to write on this forum (as you know, if you are not a Medical Marijuana Patient, in some states even just talking of growing in a Marijuana-related forum can put you at risk, I'd prefer then to keep a low-profile, even though I'm here more for the knowledge than for the produce itself)