Hey f6, was cruising around the forum trying to orient myself to all the various sections and found this thread you started in early February. I'm a bit surprised this didn't garner much more interest!!??? Ennyways, I guess its never too late to re-awaken the good idea you started.
I'm pure hydro re-circulating with the GH Flora 3-part series of nutes, which differs by the addition of a separate micro base. And their Nova series incorporates several organic ingredients along with some refined minerals. And if I can stand on my soapbox for a minute without falling off, I'd offer that most any organic feeding system can benefit from some mineral based ingredients. Calcium, magnesium, most all micronutrients and many supplements are all mineral based. So whether you're adding dolomite lime to a dirt grow mix, or a more refined cal-mag supplement to a nute formula, the desired results are going to be the same. But the more natural ingredients are harder to measure effective dosages, and may not be in a form that's readily available for uptake by the plant.
But back to task, you seemed mainly interested in GH's supplements, which are the same between 3-part Flora and your 2-part Nova. I use their expert recirculating regimen with some tweaks, so I've had experience with almost all of their additives. My thoughts:
RapidStart - is a good rooting product, but during my photoperiod cloning days I ran some side-by-side grows and found SuperThrive to be more effective.
Diamond Nectar - a humic / fulvic acid supplement derived from mined minerals. You can look at this as providing some of the same benefits that humus / composted plant materials provide to plants. It is advertised to improve plant uptake efficiency for other nutrients, possibly allowing a weaker strength nutrient mix to provide the same results. From a practical perspective, I started using this many years ago and have been extremely satisfied with results. I experienced increased yields and more firm bud density ever since using this. HIGHLY recommended.
Liquid KoolBloom - a bud booster derived from stronger phosphorous and potassium, and a few other things (vitamins?) Recent speculation by some growers has wondered if bloom supplements are really necessary. Myself, I've used it for years, and once again, I'm pretty sure it has resulted in increased yields for me. While I'm not 100% certain this holds true, SOMETHING I did when migrating from Simple to Expert Recirculating formulations resulted in a big jump in yields and increased bud density. I know it's not hurting my yield so I'm not willing to eliminate it from my regimen.
Floralicious Plus - this is probably the closest thing to organic in GH's Flora line. A vegan plant booster - seaweed extracts, carbon building blocks(fancy name for sugars), fulvic acids, other stuff designed to increase microbial activity & health in a plant's root zone. It is expensive, but highly concentrated; used @ 1mL per gallon rate. I bought a quart a couple years ago and I'm still using it for propagation, seedlings, veg and bloom. Again, I have not QUIT using it to see if my results decline, and I won't. I think the stuff works amazingly well - I've never had a single root problem since beginning use of this product. Over the next year I intend to research if this product helps establish myco populations in a hydro root zone. I think it does, but that's admittedly subjective of me. I'd love to hear from others who have used (or stopped using) this product.
FloraBlend- another vegan plant booster derived from seaweed, rock powders, etc. Also has Leonardite mineral, a major ingredient in Diamond Nectar. Produced with/from micro-organisms to benefit root structures. Is this another reason I never experience root problems anymore? Can't prove it but I won't quit using it to find out. I use this through veg and transition, after which I switch to:
FloraNectar - a natural sugar additive designed to aid enzymes & improve plant metabolism. I think this assists in maintaining a healthy root environment. If there's one product in this entire regimen I'm sketchy on, it's this one. But then again, go back to the late 90's / early 2000's, and some people were experimenting with adding fruit juices to their reservoirs. I'm not sue if a plant can benefit directly from sugars in the reservoir, but there is certainly tons of anecdotal evidence of dirt, hempy and coco growers benefitting from molasses additions to their feed regimen. For me, I'm convinced it doesn't hurt & may help, so I'll keep using it during the bloom cycle of my girls.
KoolBloom Dry - a HUGE phosphorous and potassium booster that supposedly stresses the plant to finish its bloom cycle with increased yield, flavor and aroma. If there's two products in this entire regimen I'm sketchy on, this is the other one. I've used it since my SOG photoperiod days during the last week or two of my grows, and maybe it has helped my yields (?). Lots of people swear by it. Myself, I have skipped this occasionally, and I'm not convinced it's helping me. But I do know it doesn't hurt.
Finally, SubCulture M and B - M is for mycorrhizae, and B is a bacterial / fungal product to improve root zone health. Both of these products have solid proven science behind their use and will no doubt benefit coco, hempy or dirt growers. But I am pure hydro so I'm weak on their use in my environment. I do believe in the science, and I do use myco's through the vegetative stage of my plants. But I use VAM - if you do the research on myco's, VAM is the only actual commercial producer (call it grower if you wish) of mycorrhizae. Everyone else (supposedly) gets theirs from VAM as well. VAM is cheap, Subculture M is not. I won't quit using VAM, and over the next year I intend to do much more research on myco's in hydro. As to Sub-B, again, I feel the science is solid but I'm not sure how it works in a pure hydro world. Research to follow later.
Can anyone provide a microscope slide of what these look like when a root zone is inoculated? My speculation is that a hydro root zone does not have the physical media needed to support these. I could be wrong. And my speculation ain't worth a shit unless I can find the science to prove it. Do we have any botanists in the house that can enlighten us on this without making my head hurt? I love the science but if it gets too deep I lose focus & understanding. Not sure what causes that?????
Final thoughts on GH supplement strength. I largely believe that the product RATIO's in GH's feed charts are spot on, but I do feel the recommended strengths are too high, especially for the vegetative growth stage of autoflowers.
Sometimes I DO go full strength, especially in bloom, but unless I find a particularly nute hungry strain I find myself watering down the mixture later, based upon ppm monitoring.
I use a simple method to retain product ratios while reducing strength, simply by increasing the amount of water in the nutrient solution. For example, if I think 50% is the proper strength, I measure the nutrient ingredients for 1 gallon but mix it into two gallons. If I need 66%? Use 1 gallon's measure of ingredients into 1.5 gallons water; or 2 gallons' measure of ingredients into three gallons. Or another calculation method - if I want an 80% strength, I mix one gallon measures of nutrients into (1 gallon divided by 0.8) 1.25 gallons of water. This method is really helpful for small amounts of nutes to top off the reservoir between feedings. So for example, if I wanted a 43% mixture, I would measure to one gallon's measure of ingredients but add it to (1 gallon divided by 0.43) 2.33 gallons water.
OK, the ham's coming out of the oven and my stomach is growling. Time to feed the munchies, Boyz n' Girls!!!
Now the rest of you growers wake up & help us out!!!
