bennies 'v' sterile 'v' nothing

[AlphaPhase]

I used to only use tap water for everything as well. When I moved to cali things changed and I got root rot in my cloner for the first time ever. Different climate maybe? So, for precautions, I now use the pool shock mix because I will burn my house down if I ever get a root rot problem again the solution keeps the roots nice and happy.

 

[Tone5500]

For my aerocloner I mix 0.5g into a 1/2 gallon of water and then I add 30ml per 5gallons of cloner water, I can run the cloner at 80 degrees for 3 weeks straight without changing out the water and the cuts root in a week or less. The stuff is freaking amazing.

Intersting you say 80 degrees what about for vegg and flower??

 

[Jeeyah]

That's awesome. The reason why I'm curious is, I added bleach instead of Zone this time to douche things after harvest. There was some residual chlorine smell. The clones seem to to love it. All white and sparkly. Haven't added any extra right now. Just letting things pump and bubble. I am very curious to know what other passionate nugget growers are doing.

 

[AlphaPhase]

For veg and flower I try to keep res temps below 70 even though I'm sure it would be fine at higher temps, the plants grow much better at 65ish.

 

[mainliner]

the problem people have useing chlorine is the ppm is about 0.5-1
that's difficult to get accurate with a pen .

 

[AlphaPhase]

Honestly I don't test the chlorine levels, but I've never had an unhealthy plant since I've started using it (over a year now) so I think the amount I'm using is in that threshold some where. I go 4 weeks before res changes for my veg/flower rooms and adding back the shock every 3 or 4 days has never built up a intolerable level of chlorine so I think it is really safe for plants but still enough to keep bad things from brewing. I can't remember when the last time I changed this res was, over a month now though.

 

[mainliner]

I heard somewhere that hydroponics was invented to be sterile and the old Dutch growers use nothing but chlorine etc ........ Apparently they think people who use bennies are mad

 

[AlphaPhase]

I've heard similar as well. I've never tried bennies, but I hear it does work well in cloners. Ewc teas. I was going to use them in my hydro systems right before I found the pool shock, but never did. I just can't wrap my head around starting a war of good and bad bacteria in my rez, I can kill everything myself and don't have to worry about if I get a wussy army of bennies that get their ass kicked by big bad bacteria

 

[Tone5500]

I've heard similar as well. I've never tried bennies, but I hear it does work well in cloners. Ewc teas. I was going to use them in my hydro systems right before I found the pool shock, but never did. I just can't wrap my head around starting a war of good and bad bacteria in my rez, I can kill everything myself and don't have to worry about if I get a wussy army of bennies that get their ass kicked by big bad bacteria

What nute line do you run in your rez ??

 

[AlphaPhase]

I currently use veg+bloom, it's a complete 1 part nute that's used for veg and flower. It works great but is kind of expensive. I may be switching to maxi grow and maxibloom because it's 1/3 of the cost. But, for simplicity and effectiveness, veg+bloom does kick ass. I wish it was cheaper. It's like $25 for a pound (dry nutes) including shipping. It's not alot for me per grow, maybe 50$ of nutes per grow, but maxi series would cost me like 20$ a grow so I might switch since I'm a penny pincher.

 

[AlphaPhase]

The thing I like about veg+bloom is it has fulvic acid and silica in it. So I still have to crunch numbers because I'd use those two products anyway and it might equal out to the same cost as maxi and also having to buy silica and acids. Not sure yet. I do know it works good so I'll see. I'd recommend it for sure at this point though if price isn't a problem because it doesn't get any easier.

 

[Tone5500]

The thing I like about veg+bloom is it has fulvic acid and silica in it. So I still have to crunch numbers because I'd use those two products anyway and it might equal out to the same cost as maxi and also having to buy silica and acids. Not sure yet. I do know it works good so I'll see. I'd recommend it for sure at this point though if price isn't a problem because it doesn't get any easier.

You use no additives or anything else just veg+bloom, cuz I'm thinking for five pounds 129.00 isn't bad at all , do you add back nutes or just do rez change outs every two weeks or so??

 

[AlphaPhase]

I add extra silica, epsom here and there. But that's it. I do add backs for a month and then change out the res. So for veg no res change until flower. then one res change in flower unless I add something special that only needs to be added for a week or so, so 3 res changes tops in flower for a 10 week strain. It's not too bad of a price really. About 1 tsp per gallon of water equals the PPM I use. The gg4 I am growing now is using MUCH more than other strains though, so it all depends on how hungry the plants are = the price of nutes.

 

[Tone5500]

Because for a five pound bag at there max strength 6 grams per gallon my water volume is 10 gallons in a 12 week havest with vegg I could get three full cycles out of it for 125 that's damn good .

 

[Tone5500]

I add extra silica, epsom here and there. But that's it. I do add backs for a month and then change out the res. So for veg no res change until flower. then one res change in flower unless I add something special that only needs to be added for a week or so, so 3 res changes tops in flower for a 10 week strain. It's not too bad of a price really. About 1 tsp per gallon of water equals the PPM I use. The gg4 I am growing now is using MUCH more than other strains though, so it all depends on how hungry the plants are = the price of nutes.

Maybe I'll give it a try after I run out of my current bottles I use quite a few additives kinda feel foolish because I no I don't need it all so wha your talking about sounds perfect with using the shock for a clear rez

 

[AlphaPhase]

Oh hell yeah man, for a 10 gal res it's TOTALLY worth it, no joke. I would recommend it for you for sure man. I have threads you can look at proving it's awesomeness. 5g = 1tsp roughly. My last grow I had 3 strains that didn't go over 1tsp per gallon. It really did work perfectly and you can also get a sample of +size which is a PK booster that works well. It works if used at the proper time. I 100% back the product up but for me switching to something cheaper might be the best route to go since I'll be upgrading things soon. I don't know though, I might use it for a while because I have their nutes completely dialed in and it's so damn easy. The only deficiency I've had is mag. The product contains cal/mag in great % but some of my plants are mag whores so I have to add a little more. They have RO version, tap water version, even nutes for coco or dirt (I have the V+B dirty version but haven't used it yet). I use the RO nutes with my tap water because my tap water is 100ppm (.7 scale)

 

[Tone5500]

Oh hell yeah man, for a 10 gal res it's TOTALLY worth it, no joke. I would recommend it for you for sure man. I have threads you can look at proving it's awesomeness. 5g = 1tsp roughly. My last grow I had 3 strains that didn't go over 1tsp per gallon. It really did work perfectly and you can also get a sample of +size which is a PK booster that works well. It works if used at the proper time. I 100% back the product up but for me switching to something cheaper might be the best route to go since I'll be upgrading things soon. I don't know though, I might use it for a while because I have their nutes completely dialed in and it's so damn easy. The only deficiency I've had is mag. The product contains cal/mag in great % but some of my plants are mag whores so I have to add a little more. They have RO version, tap water version, even nutes for coco or dirt (I have the V+B dirty version but haven't used it yet). I use the RO nutes with my tap water because my tap water is 100ppm (.7 scale)

I have a five gallon of calmag do I could supplment with that If I have to because I use ro water

 

[Tone5500]

I'm not really sold on bloom boosters don't get me wrong I use them but I'm going on the next run of three monster I'm going one with one with out and one just base nutes no additives for flower and see what I come up with yeild wise

 

[AlphaPhase]

I never really use bloom boosters either but Igave the +size a go. I oonly used 1/2 strength, I liked what I saw, but that being said I haven't had a run with out it so I'm not even sure if it worked. But it did no harm wither and buds were so damn frosty. I really want to think it worked, but if it was a fluke and just the base nutes put on as much frost as I had, I'd be even more sold on it. I only used the +size since it was a sample and I needed more Sulfur in my nutes. But now that I use Epsom salts, Sulfur is covered. Hey, another thing that is cool with the veg+bloom is I st3aight up use my water out of my hydro res to water my potted plants. I have one in 12 month old miracle Grow (nutes were depleated so I started feeding hydro nutes) and some small plants in a new wierd mapito in mesh pots. They aren't the healthiest but they are by far not unhealthy either. Not sure how it works for everything I have but it is. Such a trip man

 

[AlphaPhase]

I haven't even uppotted the plant in the bottom pix in a year or so, just started feeding it v+b like 4 months ago or so, it's a wtf moment