Making a nutrient change

I've used General Hydroponics Duo system now for a few years while getting my feet wet growing in DWC. While the system seems simple to use and I've achieved some modestly decent results, I think I could be doing better, specifically when it comes to aroma and taste.
After poking around here for a bit I noticed a lot of people like the Botanicare line of nutrients. I was looking at the Pure Blend Pro series along with a few of the supplements like Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag,maybe the Sweet Raw, and some bennies for the reservoir. I notice that almost all of it is from organic sources as well.
I guess my question is will I notice an extreme difference? Or are we talking subtle differences so small that only someone who is a weed connoisseur that judges competitions would see a difference? I know people are running these nutrients with success but were there any specific "gotcha" moments specific to these nutrients like only use half strength, don't use nutrient (x) with it, etc. ? Is this considered Organic?
Thanks in advance!

I run the pure blend pro line and all additives and can say that it makes for the best tasting weed ever. It feels so good to hear long time smokers say how good it smells or tastes. I have a great recipe on one of the first few pages of my thread, my three stages of flower.

I use GH system also, and I'm using LiquidKool, and snow storm ultra. My latest question is this, I don't have a PPM meter so I'm wondering if I follow the recipe on the bottle what sort of PPM are you acheiveing?

esinohio said:

I've used General Hydroponics Duo system now for a few years while getting my feet wet growing in DWC. While the system seems simple to use and I've achieved some modestly decent results, I think I could be doing better, specifically when it comes to aroma and taste.
After poking around here for a bit I noticed a lot of people like the Botanicare line of nutrients. I was looking at the Pure Blend Pro series along with a few of the supplements like Liquid Karma, Cal-Mag,maybe the Sweet Raw, and some bennies for the reservoir. I notice that almost all of it is from organic sources as well.
I guess my question is will I notice an extreme difference? Or are we talking subtle differences so small that only someone who is a weed connoisseur that judges competitions would see a difference? I know people are running these nutrients with success but were there any specific "gotcha" moments specific to these nutrients like only use half strength, don't use nutrient (x) with it, etc. ? Is this considered Organic?
Thanks in advance!

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personally i find its mainly down to genetics/phenotype with taste and smell, i do find when i have grown the same plant in soil as in hydro it smells a little different
with soil, the last time i did this it was a clone of afghan1 with hydro it had a typical afghan smell sweet hash smell, in soil it smelt quite musky cheesy
the taste was the same to me, perhaps a subtle difference , the tightness of the hydro buds was more desirable than the extra muskiness of the soil buds imo

none of these magic potions will make much difference sadly it really is about genetics
this is why folk keep these clones for years, you could grow cheese in miracle gro and it will still stink like fuck and taste funky like it does

peace

I can guarantee that if you follow any bottle recipe it will be too much. A good ppm pen can be had for not much and it will pay off in nute savings and plant yield.

AlaskaHashMan said:

I use GH system also, and I'm using LiquidKool, and snow storm ultra. My latest question is this, I don't have a PPM meter so I'm wondering if I follow the recipe on the bottle what sort of PPM are you acheiveing?

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I believe those bottle instructions are mainly for "general use" type stuff. House plants and stuff like that. It is mixed much stronger than the nutrient schedule listed on the website. It's pretty clear on that schedule what plant they are giving you instructions for Like Superstoner said, it will be too much!

skunkd0c said:

personally i find its mainly down to genetics/phenotype with taste and smell...... /snip
peace

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I do agree that a lot of the smell and such is pheno and strain specific. I guess I'm thinking that since these chemicals are using mainly organic ingredients vs straight chemicals that there has to be *some* taste and smell difference.

After doing some price checking at both the local hydro stores today they are pretty much the same. I think I'll give them a go for my next run.

everything is worth testing for your own piece of mind mate go for it

i could harvest a bud at 6 weeks dry it in warm air in 3 days that smells and taste stronger
than many weeds at full maturity fully cured

unfortunately many phenotypes from many strains although they have good consistent potency imo
many lack smell and taste

the very smelly tasty individuals are rare they stand out from the bunch and could be 1 in 1000 or 1 in 100000 etc
afghan/skunk cheese blueberry and diesel are good places to start for smelly strong tasting plants
but grown from seed and not from a selected smelly clone keeper
the phenotypes you get might only have average smell, there is nothing you can do growing wise to bring it
up to the level of these very smelly/tasty keepers you could perhaps improve it slightly with different growing methods

peace

I've been running the GH at full strength or close to it for a little over a year or so. I can see your point about it not being cost effective, especially if extrapolated over many years. That said I've been relatively happy with my yield of about a pound per harvest, but I'm sure that I can increase it. I've got a flood type tray with scrog. Running an old ass 1000w (without hood). Using the Gro-dan cubes I think four or five inch. Black plastic covering my tray to promote root growth without concern of cube size. This current batch is my first using Snow Storm Ultra and Liquid cool bloom. They look great, but I agree the PPM Pen is the way to go. I'll be getting one in a few days. They are about 100 bucks up here.

There was a crop where I went with as strong as nutes as possible without showing signs of stress or toxicity but I don't subscribe to that methodology.

I switched from Dyna-Gro to Botanicare Kind base and bloom for this flower cycle and have been impressed so far. I had issues with the DG... salts percipitate quickly in every bottle I have bought. Took me a while to figure out and pinpoint DG as the culprit, but it was causing me N tox in flower... dark green papery leafs clawing downward despite low ppm. i have half a grow that went through 12/12 stretch with 330ppm DG bloom that got N tox, and the other half tranplanted later went through 12/12 stretch with only Kind, and the buds look bigger than usual (at week 4) and the leaves are a healthy lime green.

I tried liquid karma and fulvex in my dwc setup and got slimed in less than 12 hours. The Kind line is fully or close to fully salt/mineral based so no organics to worry about, although I do foliar spray with liquid karma and fulvex. I also really like the aquashield for pathogen control.

I also used pure blend pro in coco hempys, but for dwc I plan to run Kind for a while.