Humboldt Part a&b ppm SCREWED!??

Humboldt has a plethora of feeding schedules.. at the hydro shop I tested the ppm, 1ml per gal , for each of the products they recommend for hydro. Part a&b were at 30ppm per ml a gallon each, the sea mag was 20ppm 1 ml per gallon and the Ginourmous was around 70ppm/1ml gallon.... The "hydro" chart shows to use per gallon 4ml each of a&b, 1ml of SEA MAg and 1ml of Ginourmous...for first week flowering... next four weeks the part a&b are only raised to 5ml a gallon ok ,, lets add it up.. 50 gal rez.. part a=120ppm , part b=120 ppm , seamag=20, ginourmous =70,,, for a whopping total of 330ppm.... and thats what my ppm meter went up after adding these amounts!.. . The hydro store guy and the company rep said not to worry about my ppm because these nutes use amino acids and others use salts that raise ppm .. and that all the nutes are available for my plants... needless to say, I am concerned.. One chart of theirs shows this formula to be in the 900ppm range , with addition of 1ml of their sea cal ... Im sure the sea cal only raises the ppm a little.... Looking for any opinions before i ruin my plants at such a vital time.. 2nd week of flower.. Thx, Frogster

Humboldt nutrient employees don't know their @ss from a hole in the ground. I've called them before to ask them questions about their products and they literally told me to 'google it'.

As far as ingoring the ppm of your nutrient solution, I'm not at all surprised to hear them say that because that is totally ridiculous . First of all, you need to find out what scale your TDS meter reads on, there are several.

http://www.hydroponics.net/learn/debate_over_ec_and_tds.asp

Secondly, ignore all feeding schedules and start your plants out at around 1.4 EC. For some plants, that's as high as you'll ever need to go. Some may go as high as 2.0 EC but keep in mind 'less is more' when feeding.

Lastly, those nutrients are very diluted and I'm sure you blow through them pretty quickly. Just to illustrate a point, 1ml of DynaGro's veg formula contributes 130ppm to a gallon of water and 1ml of their bloom food contributes 90ppm to a gallon. Good luck!

Thx, HB.... Fucking hydro store employees! I looked for dynagrow around town, I was going to use the same products you used in your dyna grow journal < I couldnt find them.( I didnt look hard enough)... shit.... If the ppm were the amount that it says on their stupid f'ing chart i wouldnt mind so much.... The amount I put in according to the chart should be 900ppm... instead its about 360ppm.... wtf? yea, sounds like they diluted the crap, all my bottles were sealed , and the test I ran at the hydro store were from sealed bottles... I will call Humboldts back in the a.m and get to the bottom of this.bad batch 9not hot enough? or something) . Funny thing is, I cant find nothing on google concerning this low ppm and it not matching up with the nute schedule... I just added another 100ml of a&b , ppm went up 100ppm with the a and 80ppm with the b... Holy shit, bet this would cost 2x more to run than AN at this rate!! The reasons I tried this product, hydro guy explained that I would use less (according to the feed chart, wouldnt cost more than the novabloom) and the amino acids seemed good for the ph stability and the bennies....

frogster said:

yea, sounds like they diluted the crap, all my bottles were sealed , and the test I ran at the hydro store were from sealed bottles...

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I didn't mean that your bottles were tampered with, I meant that they are just weak solutions. Honestly though, they're about as potent as the GH 3 part. FloraMicro is about 88ppm in a gallon, Floragrow is 60ppm and their florabloom is 35ppm. I used to rip through that stuff pretty quickly at those potency levels.

Again though, those feeding schedules are just a guide and using your TDS meter exactly how you were using it (measuring the potency of the nutes) is a great way to get your own schedule. Often times, recommended schedules are way too strong so that is surprising theirs is pretty weak.

Also, find out what scale your TDS meter is on. I run some plants at 1150 and some at 950ppm but if you and I are on different scales, my numbers will not directly translate to yours.

http://www.gardenscure.com/420/hydroponics/96521-printable-ec-ppm-cf-conversion-chart.html

I dont think the bottles where tampered with, just a crappy batch perhaps??? I have the .5 version.... it reads exactly what gh novabloom has on the chart, so its accurate... I was testing with 1ml per gallon at the hydro store, part a was 30ppm per gallon,, last night I added 100ml to the rez(50gal) and my ppm jumped 100ppm,, so that would be 50ppm per ml.... the part b when I added 100ml it equaled about 30ppm.... the hydro store 1ml per gallon was off, its hard to get exactly 1ml with a crappy dropper.... what gets me is humboldt has a hydro feed chart with ml per gallon& given ppm for that amount that doesnt match what I am finding, its about 1/3 of that.(900ppm on chart, 360ppm in reality). I would have never bought this product had I know I needed to put this much product into my rez to reach the ppm desired... to me that is bad batch,false advertising , or outright lying! My hydro store guy sold me on it because it seemed like a decent value compared to the novabloom, with added benefits... I will get to the bottom of it today... be sure of that..... You tell em Im coming and Hells coming with me...

frogster said:

I dont think the bottles where tampered with, just a crappy batch perhaps??? I have the .5 version.... it reads exactly what gh novabloom has on the chart, so its accurate... I was testing with 1ml per gallon at the hydro store,

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What I do is add 5mls to 1 gallon of RO water, then divide the resulting ppm number by 5. Measuring out exactly 1ml can be tricky.

what gets me is humboldt has a hydro feed chart with ml per gallon& given ppm for that amount that doesnt match what I am finding, its about 1/3 of that.(900ppm on chart, 360ppm in reality).

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Their ppm reading is just on a different scale than yours, probably the microsiemens scale. In that case, 900ppm on their scale (or about 450-500 on your scale) is a great place for vegging plants.

My hydro store guy sold me on it because it seemed like a decent value compared to the novabloom,

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The potency of the nutes, or how concentrated they are, is something you usually don't find out until you've already bought the product. Is it too late to take it back for some of that floranova? I've heard that's some highly concentrated stuff.

Ahh, just off the phone with the Humboldt guys,,, Thorough explanation why the ppm reading is so low... Less inert salts than other brands..Guy swears that the nutes at the lower levels are fine.. At this point I explained why I was freaking out on him and that they need to explain this on the website.. really who the hell wants to go from 1200ppm to 600ppm without a thourough explaination! You or brickhouse give them a shout and really get a thourough explaination, I just had to take the guys word for it . I did run across a couple of grows that the plants couldnt handle more than 600ppm without burning up... Im sitting at 850ppm total right now (250+ppm left over from previous nutes in buckets) the ppm crawled up 10ppm from last nights 12hr cycle.. so perhaps these nutes are way stronger&higher absorbing rate at a lower ppm rate,, Like they claim... Time will tell.. iI found the Humboldts 1/2 price at bghydro online.... so , im going to try to stick it out... The floranova is strong, i could visibly see the salt build up from them, and I dont think my bennies liked them,,, Im pretty sure the high salts were killing my bennies off.. I had ph always swinging up, pretty sure from the bennies dying and being eaten up in the system...

frogster said:

Ahh, just off the phone with the Humboldt guys,,, Thorough explanation why the ppm reading is so low... Less inert salts than other brands..

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So the guy is saying there are less salts that don't do anything in their formula as apposed to other brands and that's why their ppm is lower? This is the first time I've ever heard of anything like that. Keep us posted because I think that's a load of sh*t.

Yea, thats the "Theory?" The amino acid base doesnt shoot the ppm up like the chemical base... The bottles Number percentages (npk) are adequate, so they must contain the specified amount labeled? I just received this in a PM from another member on here.. "I follow the ml/p gallon exactly and am getting fantastic results. Stick with it man! When you get your first harvest and everything turns out top shelf, then you'll love it.

You should really use the flavorful and hum-bolt (at least the flavorful). It'll help with nutrient uptake a lot. With those added the ppms are pretty right on the money in my experience.

I've been using a modified version of the humboldt nuts line for a few years now and unless something else goes wrong I get top shelf bud every time. (I don't use big up powder or their carbs though, I sub MOAB and bud candy there)