Agreed. The so called snake oil products are a ripoff. Though some people swear by them, I have not tried them. No one excepting Uncle Ben has offered a D.I.Y. method to body slamming your plants into flowering mosters. Being a noob myself, I would appreciate any knowledge any of you all could share regarding; What products to source the appropriate nutes, how to apply the nutes (outdoor, indoor, hydro, DWC, NFT etc.) Will a heroic dose of N do it? (i.e. 33-0-0 as per UB's technique)
Also anyone reading this, if you can answer the following please send me a personal message and befriend me.
Q: Hydro drip system in rock-wool. Today I began week 7 of the nutrient program as outlined by A.N. (expert level-whatever) I use a buffered pH down in powder form. kept adding a little and checking back in hour. the res solution would start out yellow when tested then an hour later dark green, indicating pH 8 or so. I adjusted again. And again with the same results. the pH would rise back to 8 in a matter of an hour. then I went and checked it after one final adjustment and it was down at like 4.5. My question is do I need to dump all these expensive nutrients I just mixed and start over? Or will simply correcting the pH allow the plants to uptake the nutes? To put it another way, is there a chemical change that occurs with these elements in pH extremes? (for hypothetical, fictional example: Zinc bonds with iron to create another element entirely) or is it just that the pH level makes the plant cranky and unwilling to cooperate until it's "terms" are met? i.e. correct pH. Thanks in advance.