Ebb and flow nutes?

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
Just finishing up my second ebb and flow grow with the gh trio. Bottles are getting low so I’m thinking of trying something different. Gh has been good, but I have had an issue with salt build up in the medium so wanted to look at other options.

Any strong opinions?
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
Jacks 321 hydro

For salt build up, try covering the top of the media to slow down evaporation.
Thanks for the rec. I’ve seen generally good comments on jacks. On the media I do keep it covered with panda film outside of maybe a 3 inch hole for the stem.
 

Larry3215

Well-Known Member
Is that where the salt is building up? When I did E/F I covered tight to the stem.

Also, if you're not flooding to the top of the media, water will wick up in a super thin layer which can/will evaporate much faster.
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
Is that where the salt is building up? When I did E/F I covered tight to the stem.

Also, if you're not flooding to the top of the media, water will wick up in a super thin layer which can/will evaporate much faster.
I‘m pretty sure that is where it’s building up. I’m not 100% certain. I don’t quite flood to the top of the medium though so maybe that is worth looking into. Thanks!
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
Even if it is salt build up.... does it bother you? Does it give you a bad yield?
Hard to say. It’s my second grow, and had this issue with both. I can see about half way through flower or so the measured return flow ec gets very high. Plants tend to stop eating at roughly the same time. First plant was a bit anemic. Current grow looks pretty good (see below)

I’m not sure something is broken, but I’m trying to learn how to do this better.

CBAE56BB-617E-44CA-9F02-77058B832EE7.jpeg
 

newbplantgrower420

Well-Known Member
Will the rockwool block covers completely eliminate salt buildup? I know theyre good to prevent algae but I dont get much of it anyways.

Ive never used them.

I do get some algae and alot of salt buildup with MC/Jacks on top of my 6x6x6 cubes but overall the plants health is good. I dont know if it hurts yield though.
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
I did find this interesting side by side comparison. This guy wasn’t doing jacks unfortunately, but he does what at least are intended to be apples to apples comparisons of a number of hydro nute lines,

He came out in favor of AN.

 

newbplantgrower420

Well-Known Member
I did find this interesting side by side comparison. This guy wasn’t doing jacks unfortunately, but he does what at least are intended to be apples to apples comparisons of a number of hydro nute lines,

He came out in favor of AN.

Cant take it seriously when hes listing the only cons as no cannabis specific support. What about the quality and the size and the smoke.

Jacks 321 and Dynagro are solid bases.

Then you can look for your additives if you want. Your silica...and your Root rot preventatives.

Then your organics in hydro if you think it helps... kelp... humic acid fulvic acid. Its gonna get messy though.
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
Cant take it seriously when hes listing the only cons as no cannabis specific support. What about the quality and the size and the smoke.

Jacks 321 and Dynagro are solid bases.

Then you can look for your additives if you want. Your silica...and your Root rot preventatives.

Then your organics in hydro if you think it helps... kelp... humic acid fulvic acid. Its gonna get messy though.
I can take it seriously as “hey here’s a guy who tried to be somewhat scientific in measuring yield”. It’s an important metric, and he has some data. It’s not definitive, but at least it’s one persons attempt at quantifying these comparisons. If we had a series of people doing this we might get a better picture of what works.

No knock on jacks. I’m sure they are fine products. It was just an interesting article I came across researching this.
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
I did read the test.
It is such a typical test as you often see in the cannabis scene: Far from scientific.
So it is hardly possible to demonstrate whether the better result is due to the nutes alone.
Perhaps there was more CO2 in the air in one grow. This is quite possible if tests take place in different seasons.
The same goes for humidity. I found nothing about that in the test.
He only tested it with Jack Herer. Perhaps the outcome would have been different if he had used a different strain. Each strain can have its own specific needs. Some like more or less N for example.

Even people who have used the same set-up, same strain and same nutrition brand for years do not have a consistent yield. It probably has to do with different CO2 levels, not optimal VPD, or some disease that was not visible, but perhaps still present below the surface. In a very light form that can affect the yield a bit.
So it is impossible to draw such conclusions about a nute brand with a few grows like the tester did.
Only when he does it with different strains under controlled equal conditions (VPD, CO2, PAR) can anything useful be said about it.

Another note: If he uses 3 x 1000 Watt's and his highest yield is just below 5 pounds... he is not the best grower anyway.
Or he has not dialed in his room yet, after all these years.

I am not saying that AN is not or cannot be the best nutes brand, but it is impossible to determine that from the linked test.
 

Fordprefect42

Well-Known Member
I did read the test.
It is such a typical test as you often see in the cannabis scene: Far from scientific.
So it is hardly possible to demonstrate whether the better result is due to the nutes alone.
Perhaps there was more CO2 in the air in one grow. This is quite possible if tests take place in different seasons.
The same goes for humidity. I found nothing about that in the test.
He only tested it with Jack Herer. Perhaps the outcome would have been different if he had used a different strain. Each strain can have its own specific needs. Some like more or less N for example.

Even people who have used the same set-up, same strain and same nutrition brand for years do not have a consistent yield. It probably has to do with different CO2 levels, not optimal VPD, or some disease that was not visible, but perhaps still present below the surface. In a very light form that can affect the yield a bit.
So it is impossible to draw such conclusions about a nute brand with a few grows like the tester did.
Only when he does it with different strains under controlled equal conditions (VPD, CO2, PAR) can anything useful be said about it.

Another note: If he uses 3 x 1000 Watt's and his highest yield is just below 5 pounds... he is not the best grower anyway.
Or he has not dialed in his room yet, after all these years.

I am not saying that AN is not or cannot be the best nutes brand, but it is impossible to determine that from the linked test.
Completely agree. I would never take some random guys test of a handful of plants and draw sweeping conclusions about nutrient brands. These tests aren’t exactly science but they are better than “I tried super bloomin bud crusher and it’s the best stuff ever.”. If we had 50 people doing something like this and started to see patterns emerging in the results, I would apply real weight to them. The way you get around the problems with those variables you describe is with more data points to balance them out. I posted the link because it’s interesting and relevant not because it’s proof.
 

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
Advanced Nutrients "PH Perfect" work good in recirculating systems. Probably the 3 part would be most suitable although I don't see why you couldn't use the Connoisseur line.

For Cannabis I feel like you get the most out of the base line nutrients using Advanced but another good one you can try is House & Garden Aqua Flakes.. Those are all I have experience with in flood drain using rockwool. I like that the Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect doesn't ever drift PH as long as you top it off every 5-6 days like it says anyways.
 
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