Stop getting ripped off with nutrients

[smokinjoe]

I agree GIY about the overpicing of canna and coco and similar brands: just putting less than a bucks worth of chemicals into a plastic bottle with water and selling it for a packet. What they are doing though is selling a convenience, and it doesn't help much that hydro shops don't seem to want stock anything else.

It would be a lot of work for comaparitively small savings to mix your own nutes from individual ingredients, but I'd like to find a shop that sells the nutes all mixed up and in dry form, so that I could add my own water.

Sometimes I daydream about making up my own hydro nutes mix by starting with a cheap ready-mixed all-round fertiliser, and then adding other stuff to change the proportions of the ingredients to suit hydro growing, what I would save would buy me a night on the town, or perhaps some packets of quality seed; but so far its just remained a dream. Anyway if anybody has tried this I'd be interested to hear how they went

 

I've not seen it for a while but you used to be able to purchase a product called Zennax Grow & Bloom, which is very economical. I think I paid $25 for a two part product that would make 1000l of full strength nutes.

[bufo marinus]

NO, but u just have to take my word for it i cant prove. Im actually an agronomist by trade. As for the price remark my local store sells plantastic really cheap so the price is cheaper. Plantastic really was just an example, i was tossing up whether or not to make an example because i thought it may erode my credibility. I really dont know off the top of my head of anyother. But any two part with chelated micro's is the way to go. and make sure u choose nutes with solid plastic containers, clear packaging is no good as light can cause some ingrediants to full out of solution.

 

I do agree with the majority of your original post GIY having had good success with basic nutrients, although I must say you can taste and smell the difference between certain nutes.

The hydro shop guy I go to when asked what nutes he recommends always points to the bargain basement nutes, 2 part, commercial stuff. Thanks smokinjoe yes Zenax

I like the 1part Green Dream from Flairform, it has 2 different chelates for nutrient uptake, the slurry technology means the bottle only needs to be shaken to add the nutes, it's cheap enough, not dirt cheap but not anywhere near as dear as Canna, it doesn't break down quickly and I have had the best results using it at lower EC levels with no other additives other than a lil pH down. No nasty tastes or smells either.

I don't bother buying veg nutes anymore either, their flower nutes still have plenty of Nitrogen available and like you said man, the plants can't read but still have more than enough nutes available

Iron is the easiest micro nute to loose out of a hydro mix too imo

[psychoresin]

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.

 

 

 

so true most of us dont want to pump our plants full of fuckin steriods and give a bunch of college chicks a fuckin headache go on be brutally honest who is it that really is greedy mate....

[psychoresin]

they sell worm tea at the botanical gardens ahahah

[mull-ray]

http://www.integralhydro.com/PDFsamples/ab...20nutrients.pdf

 

http://www.integralhydro.com/plantgrowthregulators.html

 

I think these forums are often used by industry mob anyway to advertise their nutrients and am always careful about reading what is being said. I used to go to Overgrow and it was obvious that the place was full of spam merchants. These 2 links are from Glows site. I love forums (especially this one) for learning but I learned a lot from this bloke also. He says in his book not to be sucked in by overpriced nutrients and that most nutrients perform about the same. Read the top link and he gives lab analysis examples - it surprised me and he proves what he's saying because the nutrient samples he uses are all over the place. The second link is where he gives out PGR formulas (I posted a thread cause I thought some people may be interested in seeing how much they cost to make and how to make them). This is starting to sound like spam but he is one industry guy who seems like he's not out to hype up stuff and rip off growers.

 

MR

[bufo marinus]

Hey mull-ray those links were good reading, especially the pgr one, good stuff

[mull-ray]

BM good to be back and hi again. I thought so too (great reading). It's good to see a hydroponics industry member blowing the lid on things. I'm sick of being fed BS by hydro store owners who clearly know very little when you start asking questions about things (try this - "explain NPK ratios to me?" or "how do they work out %w/v and how does this converts to g/L ----- it's the most basic chemistry there is). Can't wait for Glows new book.

 

MR

[ADLpotter]

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.

 

Ok so I'm confused. If it costs $8 then when I buy DM Advance A + B for $10 doesn't that mean I'm getting one hell of a deal? Why would I bother with anything else if their profit margin is about $2 and that has to be split between the wholesaler and the retailer...