Anyone who used to use or are using Advanced Nutrients, please help!!!

Hi, I’ve read many threads and comments here and there, but I still haven’t found the answers to solve my problems. Hope u guys, especially who used to use and are using Advanced Nutrients can help me. You can answer any questions or anything you know or anything you want to advise me. I’m really grateful to all of you.

I’ve just started using AN 3-part (Grow - Micro - Bloom).
My medium contains 40% Coco, 15% worm castings, 20% perlite and 15% peat moss.
Light: Marshydro sp3000

I have some questions below:

1. From your feelings & experience, AN line is the best for which type of medium? Soil or coco or coco mix (or soil-coco mixture)? Is my medium suitable? Do I need to change anything in this formula? Should I add more soil and reduce coco?
2. I’ve already had AN 3-part, so, in your opinion, which supplement bottles should I use? Which ones are really worth the money? Which ones are the “must-have” in the entire nutrient line & which bottles are unnecessary to use? Is Bud Factor X really helpful and worth paying?
3. With the above medium, what should be the pH of my irrigation water? 5.5-6.0 or 6.0-6.5? (It makes me confused ‘cause my medium contains both soil & coco)
4. The pH of my input water is 8.0, 100 ppm, and some people said that AN can automatically adjust the pH so that you don’t need to worry. So, do I really need to remeasure the solutions after mixing and adjust the pH to the required level or just ignore them?
5. When mixing nutrients, is there any order of bottles I should follow? After watering the 1st time, when should I water the 2nd time (if you can, please let me know the percentage of the root dryness at which you water the next time).
6. I was told to follow the route: nutes-water-nutes in order to avoid nutrient-burn. Is this really true? Or should I feed my plants continuously at a suitable level?
7. If possible, could you share with me your feeding schedules which you use and have good results?

Thank you so much again, in advance.

My question

Why did u create that medium mix?

With a 3 part always add micro first.

My solution based on economics and value was to switch brands

you've built more of an organic soil,so feeding salts is kinda the wrong road.Youd been better of just using coco perlite.
But none the less if you've started already then feed really low.Stick to a feed water water feed schedule.
No other bottles needed,

BobThe420Builder said:

My question

Why did u create that medium mix?

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I knew that the plants will absorb more nutrients in the later stage when using more coco perlite, but I noticed that at the beginning, my plants didn't develop as fast as when I add worm castings, so I'm planning to add worm castings. Could you introduce to me some helpful formulas to mix medium? Thank u so much.

myke said:

you've built more of an organic soil,so feeding salts is kinda the wrong road.Youd been better of just using coco perlite.
But none the less if you've started already then feed really low.Stick to a feed water water feed schedule.
No other bottles needed,

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I haven't mix the medium yet. It's just my on-going plan, you know. I wanna ask if I just mix Coco an Perlite in the first stage, do I need to add something else, or just keep it that way?
You advised me that I don't need any other bottles, which means I don't need to use Big Bud, Rhino Skin, Bud Candy, right?
Thank you so much for sharing. Your comment helps me a lot at this time.
if you can, could you share with me more, I appreciate that.
Have a nice day, bro.

I have used AN 3 part for my first grow and they seem to be working for me. I also used big bud for weeks 2-6 in flower. I used 3mil of each per 2 liter and still had some burned tips so don't feed anywhere near the 4mil per liter recommended on the bottle ! I grew in HP with worm casting and perlite. I also feed every watering . Every 5 days or when pot is light.

Coco perlite and some other non rip off nutrient line such as jacks will do wonders for your plants and your pockets.

ornglue said:

I haven't mix the medium yet. It's just my on-going plan, you know. I wanna ask if I just mix Coco an Perlite in the first stage, do I need to add something else, or just keep it that way?
You advised me that I don't need any other bottles, which means I don't need to use Big Bud, Rhino Skin, Bud Candy, right?
Thank you so much for sharing. Your comment helps me a lot at this time.
if you can, could you share with me more, I appreciate that.
Have a nice day, bro.

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Hey man, if you bought already the 3 part AN nutrients go with a soilless medium like people above said coco + perlite, or peat moss + perlite. I did a grow with the 3 part with peat+perlite and did fine with no extra bottles, use tap water and let it sit for some hours before watering, you wont need any cal mag. Apparently coco+perlite is great, maybe even better, (some people say around here) you simply will need to water more often and needs a slightly lower ph when watering/feeding.n
If you decide to grow in the future with the mix you wrote, add some organic amendments, and just water all the way to harvest, top dress some worm castings/amendments once in a while, organic growing is really simple, no need for ph or ppm adjustments, even a noob like me can do well with it.

DoobieDoobs said:

Hey man, if you bought already the 3 part AN nutrients go with a soilless medium like people above said coco + perlite, or peat moss + perlite. I did a grow with the 3 part with peat+perlite and did fine with no extra bottles, use tap water and let it sit for some hours before watering, you wont need any cal mag. Apparently coco+perlite is great, maybe even better, (some people say around here) you simply will need to water more often and needs a slightly lower ph when watering/feeding.n
If you decide to grow in the future with the mix you wrote, add some organic amendments, and just water all the way to harvest, top dress some worm castings/amendments once in a while, organic growing is really simple, no need for ph or ppm adjustments, even a noob like me can do well with it.

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Thank u for ur advice. That medium is just in my plan, I haven't mixed it yet. After reading everyone's advice, I think I'll change my medium formula, so from your experience, what ratio of coco/perlite do you mix? (6 coco/4 perlite, or I should increase the ratio of coco?)
At the beginning stage, do I need to add sth else in my medium?

And, you told me that "I did a grow with the 3 part with peat+perlite and did fine with no extra bottles, use tap water and let it sit for some hours before watering, you wont need any cal mag", so, could you tell me the reasons why I don't need to add Cal-Mag when using tap water and let it sit for some hours? ('cause I was advised to add Cal-Mag regularly when using Coco)

You only use AN 3-part, right? I've heard a lot of compliments on AN Big Bud, Bud Candy, Rhino Skin, Overdrive,.... In your opnion, do they really make differences?

Peat perlite like promix HP will have lime already in so calmag isnt necessary most times.Coco generally needs to be pre buffering as it can strip the ca mg.
Do more research,AN is basically over priced food.Go to the drain to waste section.Plenty good info there.

I think 95% of newbs who start out with AN end up ditching it and going with cheaper and arguably much better nutes later.

I had nothing but issues with AN. Never had a successful grow. A lot of that was grower error I will admit.

Nothing but amazing buds with jacks 321.

Sorry I know that does not answer your questions.

ornglue said:

Thank u for ur advice. That medium is just in my plan, I haven't mixed it yet. After reading everyone's advice, I think I'll change my medium formula, so from your experience, what ratio of coco/perlite do you mix? (6 coco/4 perlite, or I should increase the ratio of coco?)
At the beginning stage, do I need to add sth else in my medium?

And, you told me that "I did a grow with the 3 part with peat+perlite and did fine with no extra bottles, use tap water and let it sit for some hours before watering, you wont need any cal mag", so, could you tell me the reasons why I don't need to add Cal-Mag when using tap water and let it sit for some hours? ('cause I was advised to add Cal-Mag regularly when using Coco)

You only use AN 3-part, right? I've heard a lot of compliments on AN Big Bud, Bud Candy, Rhino Skin, Overdrive,.... In your opnion, do they really make differences?

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well I didn't grow with coco, but I think around 60/40 or 70/30 coco/perlite mix is fine, and you dont need anything else.

About the tap water thing, well it depends on how high the ppm of your tap water is. My tap water is around 350, and water that has that kind of ppm will have some minerals on it already, like calcium and magnesium, letting it sit for some hours will help to evaporate the chlorine. People do say that coco requires more cal-mag, tho, maybe someone with experience growing in coco will help with this. But for soil grows and peat+perlite grows tap water with high enough ppm will do just fine.

About the last part, well I didn't buy more AN bottles aside from the 3 part formula, because they are a little expensive, but I'm glad I didn't buy them to be honest, people around here (as you may be already reading from the other comments) say that they aren't necessary, buncha snake oil. I did OK in my grow with the 3 part formula, I had mostly novice grower errors, like not getting rid of the runoff, you gotta get rid of the runoff or salts will build up.

After my grow with AN, I decided to grow organically, and so far I like it a lot more. Its very easy, all the work goes in the mixing of the soil, no ph adjustments , and I love the whole soil food web thing, now I even have my own worm bin xD. Plants are healthy, and all I do is water, and I can reuse my soil mix, saving a little money. But that's just me, maybe you'll find the hydroponic way to suit you better, people do get awesome results growing with bottled nutrients.

ornglue said:

Could you introduce to me some helpful formulas to mix medium? Thank u so much.

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Coco. There you go, done.

You're welcome.

ProMix HP. There you go, done

Cheers.

Failmore said:

I think 95% of newbs who start out with AN end up ditching it and going with cheaper and arguably much better nutes later.

I had nothing but issues with AN. Never had a successful grow. A lot of that was grower error I will admit.

Nothing but amazing buds with jacks 321.

Sorry I know that does not answer your questions.

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Thanks for your helpful info, I actually use AN ‘cause I hear a lot of people saying it's easy to use (where I live, information sources and community are very limited)

But over the past few days reading many comments in this forum and listening to everyone's advice (including you), I will definitely have to change and try another nutrient lines, and I will definitely try the Jack’s as you said.

I heard about Jack’s a lot these days, everyone commented that their products are cheap and effective, however, so far I haven’t known anything about this nutrient line.

Do you mind sharing with me a little more experience and information on how to use Jack 321? Could I inbox u, I am very grateful to u.

myke said:

Peat perlite like promix HP will have lime already in so calmag isnt necessary most times.Coco generally needs to be pre buffering as it can strip the ca mg.
Do more research,AN is basically over priced food.Go to the drain to waste section.Plenty good info there.

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Thanks a lot. I’ll definitely reconsider the nutrient line before using. I just wanna get good and quality buds. ‘cause where I live, the info sources and community are very limited, you know, so I’d like to hear from everyone.
Could you recommend me a good nutrient product that is easy to use and helps to create amazing buds based on your exp? Also, can you name some links that I can see the drain to waste section info like you said above? Thank u, in advance.

Whoa now ! Don't go dismissing AN outright....

Not sure why all the haters (aside from the marketing hype) but it works.

I got into trouble by pushing the max nutrients amounts but backed off in time. Half the recommended amounts and staying close to a 1/1/1 ratio seems to be the ticket for me.

The M/G/B (3x1L) and three supplements (3x250ml) cost me ~$140. So not THAT expensive.

From three plants (two grows) I got +30 oz and still have enough nutrient left to grow ~ two more plants.

Using ProMix HP, two gallon plastic pot for one plant (13.2 oz), three gallon fabric bags for the other two (17 oz), 600w MH/HPS, roughly a 3' x 3' enclosure and well water with a ppm of 500.

Having said that, mixing up solutions every day can become a PITA

Just out of curiosity I want to try MegaCrop one part on my next grow. That cost me about the same but will last for years !

Cheers.