Any former users of House & Garden Aqua Flakes and Additives who use RO water?

Indoor Growing Hydroponics
#1

So I’ve been growing organically in soil with Earth Juice nutes for the past year or so. My results are OK and improving as I continue to get dialed in, but I’m thinking about getting back into hydroponics for flowering.

When I stopped growing in 2015, I had been using House & Garden nutes - specifically the Aqua Flakes A&B, Roots Excelurator, Multi Zen, Bud-XL, Top Booster, Shooting Powder and Drip Clean in a 16 bucket ebb and flow type system. My results were consistently outstanding, however, those nutes are very f*ing expensive!!

So, has anyone used the H&G line with success WITH RO water, then moved to something else a little more budget friendly with comparable results - STILL using RO water? I know there are a lot of great nutes out there, but I’d love to get advice from anyone who’s already walked the path I plan to embark.

IF you haven’t used the H&G nutes, but DO use RO water with your multi bucket ebb and flow system and get consistently excellent results, please share your nute info! :pray:

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#2

hmm… I know I don’t exactly apply here. but… RO water should have zero to do with what nutes you use nor your success rate with said nutes, since its as clean as it gets. You just need calmag/calimagic/etc to get the minerals back up and then its basically tap water again.

I do use AquaFlakes (and Bud-xl) with tap water without issues in DWC. I also have and used Canna vega/flores. I don’t think the extra bottles are necessary from either company. Roots excel and multizen are not needed at all, and drip clean is basically plain dish detergent.

I use A+B nutes, canna or h&g. I use some type of fulvic/humic acids( I use DiamondNectar as its inexpensive and gets the job done). And then I use some type of bloom booster for late flower, either straight mkp or I personally have been using some canna pk 13/14 as I still have some, but that’s it. I’m still on the fence if bud-xl actually does anything or not but I have it. About the only other thing I could say you NEED for dwc/e+f/etc is hth poolshock. Will never go “bennies” again after using poolshock for the last month or so and bennies for the previous grow. Not had a single issue with roots since using the poolshock. Just gotta dose it every 3 days or so.

I also have megacrop and been toying with maxibloom lucas style in the dwc but haven’t gotten around to trying those yet so I can’t really give any info on that at the moment. :confused:

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#3

Thanks, @HolyAngel. I wish it were that simple. I always add Cal Mag Plus to my RO water, but I don’t want it to be “basically tap water again” - at least not my tap water. I have well water, which has a pH of about 4.7 to 4.9. I need a chemical injection system to neutralize it, but that jacks up the potassium levels. After the RO system, the water is still acidic, even with the Cal Mag Plus, but it worked great with the H&G program.

When I lived in my previous home, I had city water and used Earth Juice nutes. My results were superior to what I get now with RO water / CalMag in soil or when I used the H&G line.

So, bottom line, not all tap water is the same.

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#4

Yes I definitely understand that. I didn’t mean to imply that you could use tap water, was just saying that remineralizing it with calmag will bring up the ppms and ph more inline with a general tap water.
My tap is actually pretty good(~180 ppms 70/30 calcium/magnesium + ph8) but I know most area’s do not have good tap water.

For growing all I’ve ever heard is calmag in the ro plus nutes and you’re good. Now I do keep freshwater planted aquariums and for that, we tend to use a product called GH Booster or Replenish to remineralize the RO water for plants and fish. Not sure how good or effective that would be here though.

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