Shure spanky and i apreciate ur 5 cents definetly!Well, that's it, you are talking about what you found out works for you, I'm adding my 5 cents.
But I must correct you again. There are two very different things you seem to be mixing up. One is making an organic hydro solution with bacterial culture, and other is adding microorganisms to inorganic solution. First one is tricky, second is quite trivial. If you add bacteria to organic mixture, you'll have them divide uncontrolably and do damage if you don't know exactly what you are doing. If you add benneficial bacteria and funghi to a res with only inorganic nutes disolved in water (that's what I do), you practically can't go wrong. There is very little food in there, and they can't multiply much (and thus the bad bacteria can't either).
My point exactly mateOne liner posts are for people killing time , informative posts cant be structured to teach people within the standard 50 word or less attention span .
Keep posting your long posts guys , nobody learns anything from one liners .
i had root rot only back when i was adding ezymes. Found out it was CAUSED by them. But already discussed that part inhere tough mateIf you are against using micro organisms/tea or enzymes then how do you control any pythium outbreak in DWC?
I never meant for it to be "offensive" for anyone. I apologize to anyone getting that feeling. Obviously what i say is not law and everyone not doing what i say wrong i figured that was obvious since in just your regular Autistic Grower and never claimed to be an expert or speaking on behalf of anyone other than myself.I think the title can be seen as offensive seeing somebody say what to use and what not to use not noting other ppls success doing exactly what your saying not to do sparks debate and hostile conversation maybe the title should of read my experiences with additives what I use and don't use now that doesn't come off as noing it all comes
Off as
More of a prefence that you can follow or not , and I use bennies
Nice and here's one of mineThis is a pic of one of the bigger buds of my latest grow. Just to show ya what i'm all bout
Well, no. Go to a hydrostore and ask for some aditives to make your plants grow better. Chances are you'll get shitload of "biiig budz", "root monsterz" and other funny sounding products that sell with a promisse of making your plant grow biggest buds ever in ridiculously short time. If you do some research, you'll find out that a lot of those contain organic substances such as sugars, plant extracts (a bit less bad) and other stuff that will feed microorganisms in your bucket allowing them to overrun your plants. Others will contain ridiculous amounts of phosphorus or nitrogen salts that will, if you are not careful, push your already well fed plants into overdose, burning or killing it. Lot of those will sell as bloom boosters, cell divider boosters etc. You have mentioned those as useful, but if you don't do your research but blindly follow instructions, they are definately much more likely to mess up your grow then benneficial microorganisms are. With bennies in inorganic solution, it's a no brainer. I bet if I added whole bottle of my great white into a 5 gal res, nothing bad would happen (except me wasting a lot of expensive product). Excess spores would just die shortly after activating (and the residual organic matter would not be enough to cause trouble). Sure, there are products marketed as microbes that actually contain other stuff that can hurt your plant, but that goes for every aditive.Shure spanky and i apreciate ur 5 cents definetly!
But i'm not mixing up organic and inorganic i am basically just saying "know exactly what you are doing when inoculating your grow with these products"
Like i said before i seen many people get in trouble using these additives as instructed by manufacturers, i did myself so the risk comparer to the chemicals additives you really can't deny
No you say? You already agreed ealier that some of these products had an increased risk both for your solution turning and for root rot? So how can you deny that adding these products just following instructions can not be harmfull?Well, no. Go to a hydrostore and ask for some aditives to make your plants grow better. Chances are you'll get shitload of "biiig budz", "root monsterz" and other funny sounding products that sell with a promisse of making your plant grow biggest buds ever in ridiculously short time. If you do some research, you'll find out that a lot of those contain organic substances such as sugars, plant extracts (a bit less bad) and other stuff that will feed microorganisms in your bucket allowing them to overrun your plants. Others will contain ridiculous amounts of phosphorus or nitrogen salts that will, if you are not careful, push your already well fed plants into overdose, burning or killing it. Lot of those will sell as bloom boosters, cell divider boosters etc. You have mentioned those as useful, but if you don't do your research but blindly follow instructions, they are definately much more likely to mess up your grow then benneficial microorganisms are. With bennies in inorganic solution, it's a no brainer. I bet if I added whole bottle of my great white into a 5 gal res, nothing bad would happen (except me wasting a lot of expensive product). Excess spores would just die shortly after activating (and the residual organic matter would not be enough to cause trouble). Sure, there are products marketed as microbes that actually contain other stuff that can hurt your plant, but that goes for every aditive.
To cut things short here, my point is, if you want to plant your plant and not think much about it, just buy some good quality soil and perhaps add some fertilizer for flowering plants at the later stages. If you go into advanced techniques such as hydroponics and mess with aditives, you have to do your homework. And as homework goes, bennies are no worse then anything else you might wish to expose your plants to.
About boosters i said the cell dividers they often are based on ARE proven to increase growth and rooting.You have mentioned those as useful, but if you don't do your research but blindly follow instructions, they are definately much more likely to mess up your grow then benneficial microorganisms
Is that how you started out? I mean we all start out not knowing shit and the we learn as we go along. I think many inhere will agree you can easily still be inexperinced after two yrs of growing.To cut things short here, my point is, if you want to plant your plant and not think much about it, just buy some good quality soil and perhaps add some fertilizer for flowering plants at the later stages. If you go into advanced techniques such as hydroponics and mess with aditives, you have to do your homework. And as homework goes, bennies are no worse then anything else you might wish to expose your plants to.
I have no problems with the fact that bennies are low on your list of adidtives to consider. Only problem I have is with the fact that you present them as a very advanced thing that is not for an average user. What I'm trying to argue is that they are not more advanced or dangerous then the other stuff you are recomending. Some, of the products from this group, like the pure bacterial spores products, are very safe and have a large error margin. Some, like the bacterial teas, are quite safe as long as you prepare them correctly. Some are just bad products, products falsely marketed or products that can go very wrong if used together with some other products. But as I said, that's no different then other groups of products that you do reccomend.No you say? You already agreed ealier that some of these products had an increased risk both for your solution turning and for root rot? So how can you deny that adding these products just following instructions can not be harmfull?
Do i seem like a guy that "blindly follows instruction not doing his homework? Seriously? I believe i've earned a bit more credit than that by now :-/
The two of us just have different preferences obviously thats all, no biggie we can't all agree. I actually do find us agreeing on alot of points. It just seems you can't get to terms with my opinion that "bennies" are low on the list of preferred additives in my opinion.
Altough i am alleays going to consider bennies something to add once you have experience in using them. even knowing about them i don't find adding them worth the effort or money. But again, opinions opinions!
Try reading through a topic about getting rid of slime on the DWC portion of this forum, and you'll see quite a lot of people that were either using organic nutes or boosters, and who's problems went away shortly after they have stopped using them. You add sugars, you feed bacteria. It's that simple.About boosters i said the cell dividers they often are based on ARE proven to increase growth and rooting.
I also said they are very expensive and the beneifts may be less than the price.
You are right however these products often contain sugars and other stuff that migt feed any bacteria in your solution. Thats why i wrote that you will have to trust the producer if not risking loosing money on bogus that wont work.
The amounts the typically specify to add however are typically quite low and i never heard of anyone experiencing any problems from using diff brands of root/bloom boosters. I have with peeps using some of the wast array of organic beneficials. Often and i tried it myself
Well, yes, I have made it through my grow with a bag of soil, two bottles of supermarket brand fertilizer and some flower pots. And my results were not bad at all. Much better then what people get when they start experimenting with stuff they don't understand. So yes, I think not ading anything untill you do some research and have at least some understanding of how it works is the way to go in my opinion. I'm not saying you should spend months here. Spending an evening or two googling should give you an idea about what's what.Is that how you started out? I mean we all start out not knowing shit and the we learn as we go along. I think many inhere will agree you can easily still be inexperinced after two yrs of growing.
Saying that you shouldnt add ANY additives before doing hours and hours of research is just unrealistic and unessecery to demand of people. i agree that goes for some additives, and i describe that in the post too.
For me i started getting a lot of advice and quickly getting lost in information so ended up just following what i though made most sense. Then i picked up along the way. Then after slowly gaining some understanding of the plant the research started making more sense. It takes time to gain experience.
This is the one additive guide i would love to have had when starting out growing personally. And it's adressed to everyone like i was. Peeps that want to do the best possible for their plants but don't iet have the necessery knowledge on wich additives do what and wich to prioritize.
And personally, i think the post serves that purpose just exellent. But believe me i AM sorry if i stepped on anyones toes like i said before i will agree i should have refrased the bit about the bennies.
I have no problems with the fact that bennies are low on your list of adidtives to consider. Only problem I have is with the fact that you present them as a very advanced thing that is not for an average user. What I'm trying to argue is that they are not more advanced or dangerous then the other stuff you are recomending. Some, of the products from this group, like the pure bacterial spores products, are very safe and have a large error margin. Some, like the bacterial teas, are quite safe as long as you prepare them correctly. Some are just bad products, products falsely marketed or products that can go very wrong if used together with some other products. But as I said, that's no different then other groups of products that you do reccomend.
Try reading through a topic about getting rid of slime on the DWC portion of this forum, and you'll see quite a lot of people that were either using organic nutes or boosters, and who's problems went away shortly after they have stopped using them. You add sugars, you feed bacteria. It's that simple.
I won't claim some of those products aren't both safe and useful, but I will certainly argue that as a group they are certainly not safer or more fool proof then bennies.
Well, yes, I have made it through my grow with a bag of soil, two bottles of supermarket brand fertilizer and some flower pots. And my results were not bad at all. Much better then what people get when they start experimenting with stuff they don't understand. So yes, I think not ading anything untill you do some research and have at least some understanding of how it works is the way to go in my opinion. I'm not saying you should spend months here. Spending an evening or two googling should give you an idea about what's what.
Makes lots o sense mate you are quite good at expressinc yourself.I agree that those additives you mentioned above are quite safe. Still, problem is, you have nothing to prove you are an expert (not at first glance). Someone looking for info about how to grow will run into about hundred of guides just like yours, and some will be recomending really bad things. That someone new will not be able to distinguish who is telling the truth without comiting to homework I have mentioned before and could easily do something bad to his plants. Thus I think it's best to start with bare minimum and add new things as you learn more.
When I said spending an evening or two, I meant spending it researching one concept or subject. I know it's time consuming, but hey, we're spending shitloads of our time pampering our plants, building stuff for our grow rooms, risking being found out, and suddenly now we are going to complain about our hobby taking too much effort?
As for bennies, basic principle is this:
You have three main kinds of action you want form your microorganisms.
1) Decomposition of dead matter
Your mix should contain microorganisms that decompose dead orgainic matter (dead roots, shed plant cells etc.) into simple molecules. By doing that they make a bit of plant food, but what's most important, they spend food invasive microorganisms will need in order to survive. Good source for such microorganisms are the earthworm castings. They are basically waste of worms that eat dead plant matter. Those worms have loads of different symbiotic microorganisms in their guts to help them decomopose their food, and thus their waste stays rich in those microorganisms. There are also comercial aquarium nitrobacteria that can help decompose certain byproducts further. Pondzyne is a great product containing bacteria that decompose organic mater. It is marketed for pool cleaning.
2) Predation or parasitism on other microorganisms
Some of the microorganisms you will want to introduce are the ones that directly hunt and kill others. It seems contraproductive adding stuff that kills good microorganisms also, but you'll be constantly adding more of those, and foreing microorganisms will be ones that will be constantly reduced in numbers. There are commercial products that contain both funghi and bacteria that have this mechanism of action.
3) Symbiotic colonization of the roots
There are microorganisms that can colonize the roots and live on them without causing any damage. By doing so, they protect roots from outside influences and parasitic microorganisms. Some funghi even go step further and donenct to the root system forming a smbiotic relationship where they help with te intake of water and nutrients, while plant actively supports them by feeding them sugars. Again, there are commercial products taht contain such microorganisms, but earthworm castings, being made from plant mater including roots, contain those also.
Bennefit of adding beneneficials migh be slight direct improvement of the plant vigor, but it's most important role is protecting the plant from infections that will decrease their strength or even kill them.
Using bennies can be as easy as buying a bacterial product (I'm using great white and ZHO because they were available in my country, but there are many available) and adding it as per instructions. One should go for the products that contain microorganism spores and perhaps some kind of carrier. YOu don't want to be adding any sugary organic stuff in any considerable quantities.
As for the teas, I wasn't refering to compost teas used in organic grows that contain different kinds of decomposing stuff. Basic idea behind brewing teas used in inorganic hydro grows is just to let microorganisms propagate for a while before adding them to your system. By doing that you are saving shitload of money and giving those bennies a bit of a head start as they start in your res fully developed and in great numbers. What you want to do is mix up stuff containing microorganisms some sugar, water and letting it sit with a bubbler inside untill those microorganisms multiply and use up the sugar you gave them.
My exact formula is: 2.5L of pure water, 6.5 g of unrefined brown sugar (melases are even better), a handful of earthworm castings a bit of great white and a bit of pondzyle. I let that bubble for 2 days at 21 to 24 C. After it's done, I strain it throuh a tea strainer, add some to my res and save the rest in a frudge. I add half half a cup more every third day and brew a new batch every 9 days. Recipe is my interpretation of Heisenbergs work described in teh DWC section.
Not much can go wrong except if you manage to kill off the bennies in your tea, thus leaving only the sugar. I managed to do that by brewing at a temperature that was too low (I got a small aquarium heater from Ebay later on) and I've heard someone do it by adding chlorinated water.
PS. I'm quite high so I hope some of this makes any sense