Stop getting ripped off with nutrients

[GIY]

Ever walked through a tomato hydroponic greenhouse?, do and you will find massive dark green tomatoe plants growing so vigorously that if you stand still long enough they will grow over you and kill you. Ever wondered about the nutes these plants grow in it must be tricked out stuff right, well no. A typical nutrient used in commercial hydro costs no more then 90c a L for the concentrate which is 200EC and can be diluted at 15:1 more then your typical nute from a weed hydro store.

 

So why do stoners pay $15 - $40 for nutrients - well i dont know really.

 

Typically a 2 part bottle of nutes available at your local will contain about 50c worth of raw ingredients. Add in a margin, some petrol, packaging, service, and shop running cost and your up to about $8. The rest of your money is tied up in marketing. This is the stupid bit because last time i checked your plants cant read, hear or see adds.

 

So to cut a long story short stop wasting your coin on heavily advertised and strongly branded nutrients like CANNA and COCO.

I hate to give an example of a nute with quality ingrediants that does not invest heavily in marketing because it may reduce the objectivity of my opinion but i will. Plantastic nutes are a great example. Save up and buy a 20 lt drum and you are finally getting to a point where you are not getting ripped off. I have looked at the cost of the ingredients in a 20lt drum of this stuff and for the price it wouldnt be worth mixing it up yourself. Plantasic is actually used in commercial horticulture also.

 

So to any new growers out there remember your plants dont give a fuck about marketing SAVE YOUR MONEY AND avoid anything that you saw in an add.

 

After all nutrients are only a very small part of the picture. I think people over emphasize the importance of nutes. To keep nutrients in perspective even nitrogen only makes up 3% of a plants dry matter. P even less and K less then 1% the rest of the plants mass is largely structural carbohydrates which are made from photosynthesis and only need water and good old carbondioxide. Getting the plants water, temp, and air, just right, is way more important then your nutes. SO save money of nutes and spend it on thermostate controlled fans, humidity control, and time on getting your watering just right.

 

To back up what i am saying with some experiance back when i was doing botany at uni we had to grow plants in a number of diff hydro nute formulations, each formulation has purposely been mixed to exclude one nutrient. the idea was that we would get to see nutrient disorders develop. The plants were grown for two weeks in a complete nutrient and then changed to a deficient one for four weeks. What surprised me was how hard it was to get the disorders to show up. Only N P and K were easy and even these plants didnt look that bad and still grew like crazy. To get micro deficiencies to show up was really hard because often even trace elements in dust is enough.

 

Hope this all helps some people. it is a bit of a waffle, but i was sick of reading post about the latest nutes.

Edited September 1, 2009 by GIY

[Radic]

seen bro

when i when tru agricultural collage ther was only a few comercialy available

but they were all the same

since Aquaponics proved organic hydroponics was possible

i have been tring to marry worm farming and hydropoinc systems the same way

i call it --->Vormaponics

hehe

free cannabis nutrients desidned by mother nature specially for cannabis

i make all my own nutrients and fertz that way

 

irey guidance

[SukonmiSkunk]

very well said.. and youre so right... most nutrient blends are pretty much the same.. slight tweeks here and there.. but i doubt very much if it makes any difference at all..

 

i used to make up my own nutrients from powders years ago.. mainly because of the amount of nutrients i was going through... but these days i just get a regular premix nute because its just a lot easier to not have to bother about it for such a small amount...

 

for newer growers things can be a little daunting to get started.. so much info.. what works what doesnt.. it can get way over whelming.. the KISS method is best id reckon..

 

i like radics approach with the worms.. .. i too use a lot of worm water... its great for just about everything.. add some molasses for the flowering.. and its seems to be doing very well.. althoo with this grow... i still used a small amount of hydro nutes as a base...

Edited September 1, 2009 by SukonmiSkunk

[Frazz]

yea i hear what ya saying GIY .. but there are canna growing enthuisiasts here man and you know enthusiasts can go a little overboard ... besides its fun ... like, i got better nutes than you dude nah-nah ...

thanks for pointing out that, yes we are really only growing weeds and not to get too carried away ...

 

reminds of a mate who is a car enthusiast .. he reckons putting a chrome air cleaner on his carby makes his car go faster too .. reckons he has done everthing he can to his car so now he is gunna hot-up his lawnmower... different strokes for diff..... ahh you know

 

[BaronS]

an old fallback, I know.

 

FFS guys, it ain't called 'weed' for nuthin'. It ain't exactly hard to kill but a little love, dirt (or equivalent), light and water...

[ilegalalien]

hope so...cos i'm cheap

[mull]

Good work there GIY well said mate.

[Innocent criminal]

Ever walked through a tomato hydroponic greenhouse?, do and you will find massive dark green tomatoe plants growing so vigorously that if you stand still long enough they will grow over you and kill you.

 

Fair point mate, but one thing.... Have you ever tasted the tomatoes they grow in those commercial greenhouses???

The taste is a bi-product of the nutrients the plant receives, as I am not a commercial grower and consume my own product I would rather pay the extra for a decent nutrient and have an end product that actually tastes like something.

 

Not saying that the prices charged for hydro nutes are not exorbitant, just that cheaper is not necessarily good, in a grow where the nutrients is maybe 10% of the outlay it is not worth being stingy over a few dollars when it could have a huge effect on final yield and quality.

 

[Wrangler556]

I would have thought people would go off experience and what works best for them and yields the result they are happy with, I've never seen an advertisement for Nutrients myself...

 

If people are happy to fork out the extra bucks for the well known brands, well, thats their choice...

 

Being a noob grower is a different story I guess... I had no idea what to use when I first started growing, and simply went for what most people recommend on here, which happended to be the Canna stuff. It worked and yielded good results.

 

Do you think people just blindly keep buying the more expensive nutes out of habit and advertising, or because they are happy with the results they achieve? Reputation plays a part aswell, if growers keep recommending a certain brand, it might be for a reason? Its easy to convince someone with results too... you look at a grow diary, see what their using and see the results, then wish to replicate those results...especially noobies.

 

I totally agree with the emphasis on getting everything else right though, enviroment can make or break a grow, and also effect uptake of said nutrients.

 

Wrangler

[chuffer]

I did a bit of a quick surf on prices and "Plantastic" seems to be around the same price range as the other ready-mixed nutes. Forgive me for saying this GIY but your post looks to me like a promo, do you have an interest in promoting Plantastic?