General Hydroponics Vs Botanicare? Which will prevail!?

I have been always curious what the difference between the nutrients lines are. The costs of the nutrient lines to what I get out of them. So I have set out to figure out which one is the best bang for my buck. I have 16 Pineapple Express clones. They are all in one 8x8 tent with 4 600w Super blue hortilux bulbs. 8 of the Pineapple Express (PAX) are being watered with Botanicare KIND line and the other 8 are being watered with the General Hydro Flora series. Since the plants are in the same tent all the conditions are the same. I am growing in Cana Coco and I am sticking exactly to the nutrient schedule they have provided. I entered all the nutrient number into my garden in GrowBuddy, which tells me how much of each nutrient to use depending on how old they are I started these in February. The room temps temps hi/lows are 85/65 and humidity Hi/Low is about 45/65%.

3 weeks later: The plants are now 15" tall and I have moved them into 1 gallon containers. I super cropped them so all the top nodes are level and they are about 12" tall now.
I am watering each plant around 1000ml and the ppms are around 900. (EC x 700)

At week 5 day 5 I transplanted the 16 PAX into 7 gallon nursery pots. I lolipopped the plants up to about half way

at week 7 day 2 my plants are 22" tall and looking GOOD!!
The General Hydro Plant are getting 3000ml of water per plant and the ppms are running around 1120.
The Botanicare plants are getting 3000ml as well but the ppms are coming out higher at 1400.

Time to flower! I let them veg for 7 full weeks all the way to week 7 day 7. I switched the bulbs out to 600 w Hortilux HPS and put the lights on 12/12. These are the values I am going to use throughout flowering for the Botanicare KIND line and GH line.

Wee, 2 day 4 of Flower! The plants are all growing about the same pace. The tallest part of the plants are 34-36". I am lolipopping everything 21" and under. This is the first lolipop of flower I am going to do it one more time once they have been in there for 2 full weeks.

Nice idea. I use botanicare pure blend so I'm interested in your results. Subbed

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I lolipopped for the 2nd time at 2 full weeks in flower. Since I am in the experimenting mood I have always wondered how lolipopping the plants affect the end weight. How far up is the best to take off the plant? So for the front two light. One GH and one Botanicare KIND I am taking everything under the bottom 2/3rds of the plant. The two back lights I am taking off even more. Only nodes that are being touched by the light. That is a lot. So the second test is to see how lolipopping affects my plants end weight.

So this is where I have seen a difference in the lines. The GH line PPMS are coming out to around 1000ppm and the Botanicare ppms are steady at 1600ppm!! thats a big difference. They are still growing at the same pace, all the same height and no nutrient deficiencies.

I am keeping the light about 20" away from the top nodes. There is no glass over the hoods. The temps are fluctuating sometimes getting up to the high 80's and low 60's and humidity is around 50%. Humidity hi/low 45/75% I know its a little high for flower but eh.. they seem to be doing great.

Week 3 day 2 CO2 TIME! I just got a 20 pound CO2 tank and a Xtreem green house controller to regulate the amount of CO2. I am going to start off at 500ppm.

Week 3 day 4 I am raising the CO2 to 650 ppm

Week 3 day 6 I ran out of CO2. The humidity has gotten a little out of control and it was 85% when I went down there. I am venting it out now. I need to set it up better so it doesnt go over 50%

I am noticing some copper color between the veins on the top fan leaves on the botanicare plants and one or two GH plants. This may be due to the fact that the humidity is to high and the plants cannot transpire or because I started using CO2 and they need more nutrients. Not sure why the Botanicare ones would be showing this more since they are getting higher ppms of nutrients. Kinda thinking its the humidity.

what made you choose these two brands to test out of all that's available

Because I have used GH for a while and I wanted to compare it to the new KIND line. Next time I am going to do Canna vs House and Garden

Loving your grow dude.

I appreciate that, it is a fun hobby. Time to go celebreate 4/20!

im subbed. looking good.

im saying the gh will dominate like ur grow im subbed

Botanicare is pure organic. so to me the taste will make up for it in the end.

Its week 5 day 4 here in the garden. Starting to notice the difference between the two, I love to see it. Its hard to know what is going on with your plants sometimes, but when you have an exact duplicate growing right next to it and you can compare it to them it helps a lot.