Is there anything out there that even remotely touches the yield and reliability of ole GH three part? Would love to go organic, but I have had rotten luck. Any help is appreciated, TYIA.
short version: if you run organic nutes in rdwc (or any true hydro system for that matter, excluding aquaponic setups), youre going to have a bad time. many have tried, none have succeeded. if you want the long version, ill elaborate, but ive tried it and it was a huge waste of time and resources. closest you can get is botanicare pbp, but even that is a long walk for a short drink. i have done this too, and its just way more work than it needs to be to keep things running smoothly. mineral based nutes are the way to go in hydro
if you are looking to switch your nutes up, look into jacks 5-12-26 + calcium nitrate (or haifa cal prime) + epsom salt (commonly referred to as jacks 321). i would argue that dry nutes are inherently more reliable than any pre mixed stock solutions, and much easier to tinker with if you want to adjust your recipe. yield is more a factor of genetics, environment, and your grow style. as long as the plants have everything they need nutes-wise, no brand is going to outperform another
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The problem I had in the past were seemingly pathogen issues and the fact that while it stank like shit, it didn’t pay off in reliability. Ended up requiring a chiller and it still ended in some slimy ass brown pythium explosions. Was just hoping there was a viable organic nutrient by now. 20 years and running…gonna just stick to the GH 3 part and AN supplements. Never been done wrong, always reliable, although I have been thinking powder as of late due to price per dose and straight up dial-in factor considering my change in magnitude is going to warrant such considerations. Just sucks that I either have to fuck with soil or stick to chems. I hate soil. Hate hate hate soil. Works for lots of people, but I don’t want the troubles associated. Heckin fuck. 
same here. indoors, at least
hard to get cheaper than jacks unless youre making everything from scratch
technically, nutes are nutes. organic stuff broken down by microbes results in the exact same stuff thats in non organic nutes- raw minerals. obviously you get other useful byproducts from the organic process, but these can be added manually in bioavailable form to a hydro res. so can certain microbes if you are not running sterile. this is a subject of heated debate, but i am of the opinion that a plant does not care where its food comes from, as long as it has everything it needs in the ratios that it wants. when good genetics are properly grown, dried, and cured, i seriously doubt even the snobbiest pot snob can tell the difference between a flower fed with raw minerals and a flower fed by the organic process in a blind taste test
i should point out, i do run both- im not trying to shit talk organics or anything. my indoor is all live res hydro, and my outdoor is all organic. for me, its about whatever is the most efficient in terms of labor and cost
were you running some form of sterilizing agent (h2o2, pool shock, etc) or beneficial bacteria in addition to the chiller? ime, both are necessary
Yeah, 29% H2O2 when I had outbreaks, which were fuckin constant, then I’d have to readd all my microbes and mycorrhizae and shit via heisenberg tea, which is normal because I’d change my solution weekly anyway, but I didn’t have to constantly run nothing but peroxide for a day before adding nutes every time. With my old standard nutes, didn’t have constant problems with pythium, and with the chiller none at all, so no problems, I just had blocks of bright white roots and new solution every week. Like I said, just going to stick to the old faithful. I’m about to start work on pure O2 injection into the rooting environment and see if that can stave off pythium sans chiller to see if I can save some space and energy costs, although I’m unsure of how that’s going to effect my roots health. I figure if I hit about 10ppm, I’m golden so long as my solution stays below 72-70°F, which won’t be too difficult. If all else fails, the wort chiller and water chiller come back into play and I just have a nice, well aerated and oxygenated rootzone. I’m going to see how much O2 they can take too, because by pure O2, I do mean absolutely pure on demand electrolytically evolved oxygen. Working on diy nanobubbles too. I’d just like to do it with organics if possible, but hell, if I can’t, I’ll still end up with a tent full of pornstar colas.
Problem with organic is most of the compounds needs to be broken down by microbes for the plant to use it. Therefore it’s food for microbes. so if your providing all that nutrients, it leaves you open for infections. Yes you can inoculate with the desirable ones and try to have them outcompete with the bad ones, but it’s still an uphill battle since it’s not a closed system and contamination is a constant occurrence.
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That is a great way to visualize it. Instead of straight to plant, its to microbes to plant.
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RDWC requires a good amount of attention as it is…don’t complicate it by trying to make it organic. You’ll be chasing problems forever. Hydroponics is engineered for salt based nutrition.
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