In the hydro shops I've been in the basic 3 - part nutes from GH, AN and others are all about the same price. Along with the
pH Perfect aspect AN adds a few other, useful things to their base nutes like Wet Betty,(a surfactant that helps it absorb quickly into any soil/soilless media),
"pH Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom is a 3-part premium base nutrient trio precisely formulated to give your high-value crops the exact nutrient ratios and concentrations they need. No competitor offers this full spectrum of quality ingredients. When pH Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom is fed to your plants, they benefit from an unmatched array of amino acids. You’ll also witness amazing results from the fulvic acid and powerful non-ionic surfactant, which form a multi-stage delivery matrix to ensure your plants absorb everything. And the powerful chelation guarantees that every nutrient is more available to your plants’ precious roots than ever before. And that’s not all: pH Perfect® Technology works around the clock to calibrate and adjust the pH for you, so you never have to use meters or add harsh pH-adjusting chemicals ever again. And as always, if you’re not thrilled with your results using pH Perfect Grow, Micro, Bloom, you get 100% of your money back because of our Grower Guarantee!"
That's some hype from AN but does illustrate some of the reasons I like their stuff.
If you're like me and like to help new growers get their shit together and grow decent plants you will have noticed that pH issues are one of the main things that cause problems. Most of those issues are because of the water they use on their plants. pH Perfect nutes overcome many of those issues. I use RO water only so I never have to worry about my water being a problem. We have about 15 of those 20L jugs that cost $3 each to refill and $15 each to buy. I'm not on town water and we get our house water from a large dugout on my property. It's over 400ppm and at a pH of 8.5 so we don't drink it nor would I use it to water my plants.
I don't buy into all the hype AN uses to sell their stuff but like them for the simplicity of their basic nutes. The money you save by not having to buy a pH pen and the other stuff like storage sol'n, calibration sol'n etc will buy you enough nutes to grow a few thousand dollars worth of pot. Not to mention all the time you save not f'ing around trying to keep your pH right which 90% of people do wrong in the first place. pH is the most complex detail any of us have to deal with and to eliminate that from our growing is huge.
I used to live 15 minutes down the road from AN's first production place. I've shot pool with Big Mike and hung out with the people that worked for him. They actually believed in doing right by the cannabis culture and since their inception have promoted their products specifically to grow pot. Who else has done that? Nobody!
Just that alone is enough to sway me to their side. I had enough of their first generation nutes to last for 10 years and held off on trying the pH Perfect stuff until about 4 years ago and not worrying about pH is another huge plus for me.
I grew my first real buds back in '78 in 5gal buckets of dirt and sheep shit from my father-in-law's farm in Delburne, AB. Since then I have invested a huge proportion of my life into growing and studying all aspects of growing pot. I'm still in awe of many of the growers to be found here and in other forums. I can't give anyone great advice about how to setup a huge grow-op but I can confidently guide any grower how to get great results from the start.
My basic advise for any, non-organic freak grower are these.
Use RO or distilled water only.
Avoid grow media like Miracle-Gro or their garbage nutes.
Buy the basic pH Perfect nutes for soil/soilless growing or hydro.
Establish a decent environment to grow plants.
Follow those basic guidelines and I can guarantee success to anyone that is setting off to make themselves self-sufficient in growing their own meds. There are a thousand other things you can do to improve your grow but all but really stupid people will figure it out as they go along.
Ignorance is just a lack of knowledge. Stupidity is a lack of the intelligence needed to become knowledgeable.
Get more knowledge here!
I found a great spot to download
FREE POT BOOKS . I downloaded a grow bible first and got lots more. Books look great and complete like the real ones I have here. No web site but just a page of links. Just right click on what you want and then "Save Link As" to download so they don't open first as many are 50+ megs. They got lots. Enjoy.