Additives- Worth it or not?

[SmokinJarhead]

I'm starting to wonder if using additives like Monsta Bud and Ozi Tonic are really worth the time, effort and especially the extra $'s :scratchin

Anybody out there done a comparison grow with and without? I've used Monsta Bud on my past two grows and I'm wondering if I would be better off using a different nute to get the same result.

This shot shows my current grow and a bud at 5 weeks that's had the recommended dosage of Monsta Bud and I'm not all that impressed.

I'm using the Hydrobotanics Bloom/Monsta Bud combination in the flower stage and they were vegged using Bud Pounder. I flowered my last grow (Bubbleberry) with the Bud Pounder Bloom nute and a bit of Monsta Bud as well and while they were OK they were not great or good enough to me to justify $20 per litre.

Any thoughts or snippets of wisdom?

[Pure]

I use additives but it really depends on what your using them for and what your choices are , it is for sure some of the stuff out there is just over priced crap , but there are also products out thier that can trememndously assist you

 

You don't NEED any additives the plants will grow and bud ect without them but adding certain additvies definatly improves your results , at least this has been my finding

[quizywig]

depends which additives, there's lots too choose from, Im suss on anything that claims to improve the overall quality or potency, after my last grow nothing but very good quality seed AK47 400w hps DM nutes, only because they were cheap and id used them b4 but nutes are nutes in most cases, i have used silica b4 suposed to be good for plant structure and keeping mould at bay, never had mould b4,this time i did but it was found late in the dry/cure, so it could of been a lot more my fault than plant structure,

[jackfrost]

Hey bro,

 

The right use of additives make's a huge differance. But I would reccommend only ever using the same brand right through out your grow.

 

Having said that - if you have not fully dialed in your system dont go 2 overboard with additives, as it wont make a big differance unless everything else is running 100%.

 

Peronally I would only ever use two brands Canna or Gen Hyro (really,really interested in Advanced Nutes when there total line comes 2 australia).

 

But for now additives I reccommend are :- Canna---Zym and PK 13-14 for the Canna camp and Gen Hydro --- KaBloom,Floralicious,Diamond Nector.

 

I also like to Silicon to both groups (which is not of the same brand)

 

After much experiment/research with different additives ive come 2 the conclusion that they do work - but you really got 2 understand the dymanics of using each additive to get the full benefit.

 

The reason im so interested in using the Advanced Nutrients range is there total complete coverage of all forms of additives under one unbrella - but like I said if ya system is not fully dialed in dont bother 2 much with heaps of extra additives.

 

I think for ease of use - most people should use Canna A/B - Zym every second week and PK13/14 at week 5 of flore, this is a failsafe good result.

 

Im going to write a tutorial soon about different types of additives and the pros and cons.

 

Jack

[everest]

well said jack .

 

i used that superbud on a grow .... jesus the buds doubled in size ::

[SmokinJarhead]

I look forward to reading that tutorial Jack.

My next grow is going to be Shiva Shanti 1/2 from Sensi Seeds that I got from Xpat this week Arrived in 7 days, and more than happy with the service. I'm interested to see the difference growing from quality seed makes as well.

Thanks for the advice.

[F420]

This is from Hydrocentres website, It expalins a fair bit. It also sounds abit like a sales pitch as it has their prices etc.

 

Nutrients, Additives, Hormones and Growth Regulators

 

The Top 11 ways to help you plants

 

I often get asked about what additives to recommend.

 

Here is a basic guide to producing better plants and understanding additives in order of priority.

 

1. Nutrients

 

You must use nutrients for Hydroponics.

 

Nutrients are the basis of Hydroponics and without basic nutrition, plants will not thrive.

 

Nutrients come in a grow solution with higher nitrates for leafy vegetative growth

 

Bloom/Flowering solutions have higher phosphorus and potassium which are for the flowering and fruiting stage of your plants.

 

Many nutrients have some simple additives in them to improve nutrient uptake, such as Powergro Grow and Powergro Bloom (2ltr $25 8L $60) which have seaweed extracts to assist the speed and availability of the minerals plants require for nutrition. We recommend this nutrient because it is concentrated, and it performs very well.

 

2. Vitamins

 

Vitamins are our Number 2 most effective way to help a plant do well.

 

Vitamins for plants help a plant feel better when stressed, and keep a plant healthy.

 

Vitamins will help with resistance to fungal rots and insect attacks for instance.

 

While plants manufacture vitamins for themselves, if they have a supply of them, they can turn their energy to producing other elements they need, and thereby speed up growth.

 

Nutriboost is a concentrate that you add to nutrients, or spray onto the plants. 1ml per 10 litres whilst growing and for high performance, increase to 10ml per 10 litres for flowering/fruiting. 50ml $10, 100ml $15, 200ml $20 500ml $40 1litre $70 and 5litre $315.

 

Another vitamin additive is Superthrive, but is recommended for soil as it contains a glue to make it stick to soil, and in Hydroponics it just sticks to media and makes everything go green with super vitaminised algae!

 

3. Cleansing

 

Cleaning the water that comes through the tap and the water which is recycled from any pathogen helps keep the plants strength in growing not fighting.

 

Have you ever been fighting a cold, not really got sick, but just been a little slowed down. If you keep your system and root zone really clean you will see an improvement in the plants vigour.

 

Hydroshield cleans the water with two highly effective cleansers, Hydrogen peroxide, bonded with silver. The silver builds immunity while activates the Hydrogen peroxide to react and keep reacting with any single celled organism, such as green algae, fungal root rots, viruses, bacteria, and also removes chlorine from the water. Dose at 2ml per litre to prevent problems, or dose every 1-3 days to kill any fungal outbreak until plants are healthy again.

 

Hydroshield comes in 250ml $10 1litre $20 5litre $80 25litre $350

 

As an alternative to cleaning by sterilising, you can use a high dose of beneficial bacteria to keep nasties away. Power active and Stop wilt from Nulife are great for those not using sterlising agents like Hydroshield or Pythoff. They act like a plant tonic helping the plant by creating a biological barrier for plants root system.

 

4. Silica

 

Silica is not silicon, it is an element that cannot be put into the nutrient formula, due to instability, but it should be part of any plants nutrition.

 

Consider silica like a missing link between plant vitality, strength, resistance to infection, and increased harvests.

 

The silica helps strengthen cells, and plants are much healthier from the continual addition of silica.

 

Ensure you have a highly soluble form and you will begin to see effect from around 2 weeks onwards. Budlink, Silica magic or Dutch Master silica are very good forms of silica.

 

5. Foliar spraying

 

Have you looked at the way fertilisers are added in commercial operations. Usually by injection of liquid fertilisers into the overhead sprinklers.

 

This is partly because it is quick and easy, however, you can find research that the same liquid added to the leaves (which them runs off into the soil), instead of just the soil is around 25% more in harvest yields.

 

Also things such as amino acids are more difficult to absorb through the roots than through the leaves.

 

We have made up Amino Sprays containing high quality mineral nutrients, vitamins, organic additives such as amino acids, as well a wetting agent to assist uptake and spreading.

 

Ready to use, just pour into a spray bottle and spray, preferably towards the end of the day, or when artificial lighting sources are about to switch off for the night.

 

Amino Acid Sprays come in Grow, Flowering and Harvest formulas to ensure nutrition is improved for the particular stage of the plants life.

 

A 1litre is $8, and 5litres is $24.

 

Its an inexpensive way to increase crops without increasing your system size.

 

Remember that spraying should be done around twice a week in cooler months, and once per week during humid hotter months. Discontinue if any chance of mould or fungus on leaves (e.g. poorly ventilated greenhouses/ grow rooms)

 

6. Cell dividers

 

Some additves help the plants grow quicker by making their cells divide quicker.

 

Organic additives such as monsta bud, psychobud and megabud cause plants to grow faster in this way

 

Monstabud and Psychobud are the same except Psychobud is more concentrated.

 

Both are available in an additive to nutrient in separate formulas for grow, flower and harvest/final stages.

 

Megabud is used only in the fist and third week of flowering and is very high performance.

 

Bio Earth Sea Acids are a unique product that can be used alongside the other products for very fast plant meatabolism, meaning faster growth and flowering

 

7. Weight Adders

 

Potassium is stored in the flower/fruit during the flowering process.

 

To add weight, products like weight plus use potassium to add weight

 

Weight plus 1ltr is $20 and is added at 1ml per litre

 

Other potassium products are Potash plus and Canna PK1314 but are not as pH stable as weight plus which is fully balanced and should not affect your pH

 

8. Harvest activator

 

Superbud is a hobby derivitive similar to products used in stonefruit commercial farming.

 

It causes extremely rapid fruiting and flowering and makes fruit very firm immediately.

 

It stops ALL Growth, and plants will NOT grow more than 1 inch once added.

 

Do not add until the final height and size required.

 

Recirculating use 3ml of each part per litre, if hand watering or run to waste use 5ml per litre of each

 

Use for 7-9 days no more and no less.

 

It is $165 for a litre.

 

9. Height Controllers

 

Bonza bud creates the same effect as ‘tipping’ a plant without removing the top growth, which would eventually produce much more branches and flower/fruit points

 

It blocks the hormone that causes a plant to grow taller, and instead of growing , say 5cm and producing a branch it will produce less, maybe 2-3 cm thus making a plant shorter

 

A shorter plant has more even light from top to bottom and thus increases yield on lower branches

 

Bonza Bud encourages more side growth and these branches will produce extra fruiting/flowering points per plant also increasing yeilds

 

50ml $25 use at 2ml/litre for extremely stetched out plants, or 1ml/litre for normal plants to be sortened slightly

 

Respray to improve effect as desired or every 4 weeks.

 

Spray over plants until liquid runs off.

 

10. Rootzone accelerant

 

A large root zone creates a healthier plant and helps uptake

 

Rootzone accelerant helps roots, especially for new plants/clones to get them established

 

11. Feminising products

 

Female products come in two varieties

 

Male supressants such as la femme and feminiser, used to reduce the chances of a male as a seedling is raised

 

Hermaphrodite treatments such as Budwise, which make male flowers shrivel up and drop off.

 

If you need these products, ask staff for assistance

 

Clone Products

 

Clone products include

 

clone gel to dip cuttings into to make stem cells begin to produce roots

 

Hydroshield to sterlise cubes, cutting blades, and the stem to stop stem rot

 

Scalpels which are very sharp and sterile to make cuts without damaging the areas roots come out of.

 

FX clone nutrient, contains rooting hormones, root development hormones, stress releving vitamins, a gelatine base to coat the leaves and stop clones drying out as well as organic growth stimulants. You can use by soaking cubes in FX at 10ml per litre, as well as spraying clones daily with 10ml per litre 250ml is $8 and 1litre is $20

 

Mini greenhouses are $20 with a solid base netted tray and clear 3 vent lids.

 

Heatmats are $55 extra

 

Small clone light and stand are $45 or flurobays start at $50

 

Notes for Sick Plants

 

Use additives carefully when plants are sick.

 

If any root rot, spray vitamins onto plant. Vitamins around roots will strengthen the fungus that is attacking your plant.

 

If mould or fungal attacks on leaves discontinue sprays

 

For any advice go to www.hydrocentre.com.au

[SmokinJarhead]

OK, fair enough. But what did YOU see lacking in your plants that made you use an additive in the first place? :scratchin

I'd love to have those outrageous donkey dick buds we all dream about but maybe I just need to look at my system a bit harder like Jack has suggested. Honestly, I thought I was doing pretty good but the nutes may be the answer.

What say ye? Canna nutes? Yeah, I know the name should be frigging obvious but reading about strains, nutes,etc is like reading wine bottle labels.

Hey Ferengi, I got most of my setup from HydroCentre @ Nerang including the BudPounder I've used on my previous grows. Good shit, probably a bit pricey, but good info nonetheless.

So, I guess to answer my own question, what do I want an additive to do? :scratchin

Ideally, if I'm using good seed (which I now have from Xpat-ie Shiva Shanti) I would hope that any additive I put in my nute tank is going to help produce some friggin nice buds.

Scatching the old gourd has made me wonder, if you had bought clones, would you use an additive or go for it based on the gentics of the strain?

[Buddy]

I've been growing hydro now for 5 years and have tried a lot of different nutes, additives and a lot of suggested tricks of the trade.

 

More expensive does not mean a better product....I have settled on the combination of "mix your own" nutrients in powder form from Ozi Magic and Superbud additive in the flowering stage. I also use Superthrive for added vitamin B in the vegging stage.

 

The results are just as good if not better than the high priced "General Hydroponics" 3 part nutrients.

 

I'm yet to find anyone who says that Superbud doesnt perform the way it claims, soon after I add it to the bloom nutrients, it stops vertical growth and you can see the buds starting to form within a few says.

 

The only drawback I have found with superbud is it will cause "rams horn" and "yuckface" but this goes away soon after the next nute change and the buds will then gradually become extra large and solid.

 

Superbud has been hard to get lately..I'm starting to run low, hopefully it will be back on the market soon.

[Luke Skywalker]

It's off the market for a reason mate.

 

The only paclobutrazol and cycocel product that is registered for use by the Pesticides and Veterinary Authority is one made by Nulife, and even then only in 1L sizes, which is enough to treat a thousand litres of working solution.

 

Oh, and ferengi, you should tell the guy who said that superthrive shouldn't be used in hydroponics that he doesn't know what he's talking about. A few million hydroponic users can't be wrong, neh?

 

In the end, additives are only that, additives. You can grow fantastic buds with simply nutrients of the basic kind and good practices and environment in the growroom.