Best hydro nutrients for aroma

Redoctober said:

I have heard good things about guano but never tried it. I am doing lp aero so whatever I put into the rez needs to be sterile and also be filtered with no debris because of the spray heads. Do you know or recommend any brands as such?

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I tried guano with hpa. Not good, unless your whole rez is organic, and then it will cause you fits keeping the microbes out of your mist heads filters. I put some lava rocks in a net pot, inside a paint filter inside the rez. The microbes will colonize in there, but some will get into the nutes and eventually clog filters and mist heads.

Illegal Smile said:

Curing is everything. To do it right, you need a small hygrometer (or several). The Caliber III can be had on ebay for under $20. These measure humidity. You put it in a jar sealed with buds and it tells you where they are with humidity. That is important because curing happens between 55 and 60%. If over 60, you have to keep airing it out. And you can air it out down to 55, then put the lid on, and it minutes it's back up over 60. So it's a process that takes some work, which is why most don't do it right. Note that if humidity drops below 55% (in the sealed jar) the curing process CANNOT be restarted. You can moisten buds, but you can't restart the chemical curing process. Do this right and when your buds stabilize between 55 and 60, leave them in the jars for at least a month and you will be amazed.

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I don't know how true this is; While trimming my plants before drying Ive lost some fresh wet bud under the sofa or under a bed.Ive come back like 6 month later and found pieces of this bud and it tastes really nice. Obviously one wouldnt intentionally cure bud in the open like that but that experience tells me the most important thing is time.

Hygrometers are the way to go though.

I haven't carried testing THAT far, though I understand why you would ask. Basically my current journal was intended to be a comparison of hpa vs my 21st Century F & D, using same F 1 cross seeds, nutes/ppms, & lighting. Well the 2 plants in hpa are expressing squat Indica, though in mid flower the leaves are now looking more sat, whereas the plant in F & D is ~ 85% sat, with a more barrel (indica) shape. So I said F the test and am now feeding the F & D with V & B, but it's only been 3 days. I upped the ppm from ~ 640 to ~ 800 while increasing floods from 1/60 min to 1/30 min during lights on; 1/60 lights off. Since feeding V & B (only 3 days) to the F & D buds they quickly plumped up to medium size marbles. New pics Friday. Hope you all come by my journal for a peek.

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I will certainly check out your journal! I think to get a good read and accurate comparison, you're probably going to want to use clones of the same mother rather than seeds. I know I'm probably stating the obvious, but it's the only way you'll truly know the differences. I have noticed that my plants in lp aero have a more pungent smell than those in dwc. It's not a HUGE difference, but it is there. I'm not sure why, but maybe the extra access to oxygen makes a difference to the roots and to the plants at large. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what the exact compound(s) are that are actually responsible for producing the aroma we all know so well. It's not the THC. And I'll be the first to admit that smell can occasionally be misleading. I've encountered pungent weed over the years that wasn't necessarily all that strong, and I've seen other weed that had a very unassuming smell but was a kick in the face. Usually the two are correlated though.

Good tip on the guano tea, it might not be the best thing for aero, though I'm sure it's probably wonderful in soil.

RO: Yes, no doubt clones for accurate A/B testing. I was not expecting such a diverse genetic expression. Already have taken clones for the next round

PetFlora said:

RO: Yes, no doubt clones for accurate A/B testing. I was not expecting such a diverse genetic expression. Already have taken clones for the next round

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Excellent! I have front row seats!

What do you think about F&D vs just plain DWC using hydro buckets with air stones to aerate the roots? I've had some pretty good grows with buckets. The drawback is that changing the water can be a bit of a pain in the ass.

I have tried just about every method before tossing together my 21st Century F & D from parts on hand; Air Pots + lava rock + lp pump+ outboard rez + pvc + Rubbermaid tote + a few fittings. This system allows for flexibility to maneuver the plants, as well as the convenience of an outboard rez. As I am a small user, my rez is < 5g; dumping and replacing with fresh nutes is easy.

I had 2 plants growing in my F & D; one a clone of the mother that was in mid flower, the other is an F1 cross from that mother. The cross overtook the tray and space under the light, forcing me to finish the clone elsewhere. I quickly tossed together a hydro-bucket + bubbler rig, using a round wash bucket ( ~15 X 7). I put 4 large Oxystones on theirs sides in the bottom, covered them with a larger AP bottom (looks like a grate) and placed the clone (which is in a 1G AP) on top.

I added nutes to ~ 3" above the bottom of the AP. Total nutes ~ 1.5g: it has been working great, and I haven't bothered to keep the light out of the nutes, with zero algae growth. I change the nutes every 5-7 days. I supplement by feeding from the top using a meat baster, to keep any roots above the water line from drying out. It's simple and highly effective. Pics in my journal

Taking a page from hpa, roots perform best when fed small amounts followed by a dry period. HPA roots are the epitome of efficiency (see photo in my journal). When their environment is right each root develops thousands of fish bones AND upon those fish bones, tiny root hairs (think pipe cleaner fuzzies) to capture and absorb the atomized mist feedings.

Every DWC/NFT root mass I have ever seen looks like swollen spaghetti, which is the least efficient root for feeding the plant: it is also most susceptible to root rot and nute lock out. And yet, plenty of people use it and seem to have successful grows. That said, I see the most cries for help from DWC/NFT growers. Personally, I like to minimize potential problems.

It has taken me 5+ grows to get a functioning hpa system, but only because I challenged myself to achieve similar results to true hpa growers who use an accumulator + solenoids + deep cycle timers capable of < 0.5 second bursts to feed. Their systems are a lot more complex (and expensive) than I want to do

I would like to add my two cents.my buds loose her smell when dry.I don't have a meter so I hang then for 5-7 days put them in a jar and burp them for a week.after that I let them sit in the jars for a month. I will need your help this time around.I hope I can count on you guys.

I've used Fox Farms "Cha Ching" in the last 4 weeks of flowering in the past 5 soil grows....it claims to be an oil and resin builder...can't tell you if it works or not because every one of those 5 grows has a nice aroma and taste. All different but definitely aromatic and tasty. Once I complained about my carbon filter passing some smells to the outside and my mentor asked if I was using a flowering booster or additive of some kind.....hmmm....I did an auto-flower recently as a fun thing it was sensitive to nutes so I left Cha Ching out of the mix.....doesn't have as strong an aroma but it does have a discreet blueberry taste. I have since moved to coco for my medium and I'm trying Canna Boost as the accelerator...it is a low odor grow (Sweet Deep Grapefruit). If the aroma comes up I'll let you know.

jojodancer10 said:

I would like to add my two cents.my buds loose her smell when dry.I don't have a meter so I hang then for 5-7 days put them in a jar and burp them for a week.after that I let them sit in the jars for a month. I will need your help this time around.I hope I can count on you guys.

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I take a different approach when I am curing for pungency. Instead of getting them 90% dry then burping them, I dry them almost 100% over a month in a cool (55-60 degree) basement. I then bag them up and put one or two fresh fan leaves per half lb, and zip them shut for a few days. After a few days I remove the shade leaves, which are by then limp. What this does is reintroduce a small amount of moisture to the buds. Just barely enough so they do not crumble. This leaves them smelling very pungent and sweet.

I have done the burping and they take on a rotten fruit odor. If you don't let them dry long enough before burping, they will lose their odor when they dry and smell like hay.

Dry them completely as slowly as possible then reintroduce a little moisture and you will have some sweet smelling stuff. Do NOT use orange peels to reintroduce moisture. Orange peels ruin the smell of the week and can strip out the smell completely.

Try Advanced Nutrients. Nirvana, Big Bud, Overdrive, B52, and Bud Candy are a nice combo. Smells amazing after a good dry. I believe its the bud candy that heightens the smells. Its kinda like Botanicare's Sweet but it heightens the natural smell of the plant, not maskign it with a grape or orange scent/flavor. But bottom line, it comes down to the strain your growing. Advanced Nutrients is pretty much everywhere in the US... or on ebay. I get min from oasisgardenhydro.com if youre looking for a credible source. Would love to hear what your results are with AN in comparison to the other lines. Cheers.