I’ve been growing since '78 when I got my first pathetic buds in farm dirt and sheep shit.
For the last 20 years I’ve mostly used AN nutes but lately been using MegaCrop and really like it.
I has lots of good stuff in one dry mix. There are large bits of something so it’s hard to make sure that it’s equally distributed when you take out enough for your feed. Also absorbs water from the air so must be sealed up good or it goes all slimy.
If you want easy nute feed then you can’t go wrong with AN 3-part. The pH Perfect part is well worth it and it has other additives built in. I only buy the Rhino Skin and Big Bud so not blowing a lot of cash with all the other supplements. I only grow in DWC or ProMix HP and have been doing that for 20 years next Feb.
It really is tho I grow everything using RO or distilled water.
When I do DWC I go the whole grow from clone to harvest and never do a nute change. I did a side-by-side once and the grow and yields were virtually the same.
Tap water totally changes everything tho no matter what nutes you use. All the minerals in tap water stay in the soil/pot and just build up with every watering until they throw off the pH and nutrient balances so bad they can kill your plants or totally f’k your yields.
I’ve only been growing pot since '78 so might not know everything yet.
Not really but have only used it on one crop so far. They now sell a bud booster that looks every bit as good as Big Bud so I might just get some of that and do a side-by-side to see what works better.
I mostly grow soilless or DWC and AN makes it easy. With RO water I never have to change nutes in DWC or bother with getting lots of runoff in my potted plants. The MC seems to be pretty good regarding pH. 1g/L with RO read pH6 and using my dugout/house water came out at 6.5 and it’s pH 8+ and 400ppm out of the tap so I figure it has good pH buffers built in.
The AN 3-part costs less sometimes than others so why not use it. Their supplements are costly but I only use the Rhino Skin and Big Bud from AN. Got some REMO CalMag and dose with Epsom Salts a bit for the hell of it but you don’t really need much else.
Organic growers are always bitching about the numbers of bottles needed for hydro but when you look at the list of stuff to make organic ‘super’ soils I laugh.
I don’t do well in dirt but am putting out some autos in the garden this year. Mostly just dirt and compost but might supplement with hydro stuff if I think they need it. Sebring’s seeds, Earth Lover for CBD and Loco-Mota for the THC. If that goes well will grow lots more next year. This far north we already have 20 hours of light every day so the plants grow fast. The rhubarb is already 3ft tall! lol
I totally get all of that. For years I’ve used 2 parts and 3 parts with various supplements and it gets really annoying and expensive.
I like mega crop because on paper it should be the perfect nute. Dry so no wasted weight or filler, complete with all macros and micros and all the good extras like kelp, b vitamins, silicate, and carbohydrates. Problem is it’s not quite perfect, but I’ll still take it over $50 bottles of phosphate and potassium…it’s all the same shit
Outside is a whole different story, the sun and living earth environment is just impossible to recreate indoors.
Also is big bud the same thing as ‘dr hornsby big bud’? I used that shit for years, it was one of the few supplements that I could honestly say made a noticeable difference. It also smelled incredible haha
To hell with commercial bloom additives. Just use monopotassium phosphate. Dirt dirt cheap. $50 worth is a lifetime supply. I spent $20 and IDK if i’ll go through it in 10+ years.
If you really wanna get fancy, mix it with potassium sulfate and a bit of epsom.
Yes it is. Supposedly Big Mike was ripping off Dr. Hornby so he left but AN kept the formula.
I still have the jar of the original I bought when it first came out and tho the NPK has changed over the decades it’s still the best bud booster I’ve ever used and I’ve tried lots.
I give my plants a half dose a week before flipping then the other half at the flip. Massive bud formation and many more sites in just a week after the flip.
I consider it total bullshit to wait until week 2 or 3 before adding boosters. But then I’m feeding my AN 3-part at a 3-2-1, (GMB), ratio in soilless ProMix HP until the flip. If fed at a 1-1-1 ratio the difference may not be so noticeable. After the stretch is over I switch to a Lucas Formula type feeding at 0-1-2 with Big Bud until the end of week 6 for 9 week plants. Then nothing but Epsom salts added until the end.
I do actually add some of the vitamin and mineral supplements I take myself a couple of times during the grow. I pound then in a mortar and pestle then shake up the jug of water as I water. 2x1000mg ascorbic acid, (vit C), 2 iron, 2 selenium, 4 B1, 2 K and 2 zinc. I’ll give them a dose of that in veg then another at the flip.
Not sure how much it helps the plants but it sure helps me.
After the stretch the need for N drops rapidly and the Micro nutes are already high in N compared to the Grow. So I drop the Grow and feed Lucas Formula style with 1 part Micro to 2 parts Bloom using 3-part AN nutes tho most 3-part are near the same formulations of N-P-K.
Low N shows up easily as the old fan leaves start yellowing and that’s what I like to see a few weeks before they are done. Too high N retards flowering and not just in pot plants. Tomatoes are a prime example and have almost the same needs as pot but like higher P near the end where higher K is what pot likes after the stretch. Extra S helps with resin so Epsom Salts can help with that. Big Bud has 20% S but I like to add more with Epsom or MSM.
The ultimate determinant is the genetics of the seed you plant. No amount of nutrients will make a crappy strain produce good bud.
