House & Garden how I saved money!

[nightmarecreature]

I thought I would post this to help people save some money. I use H&G base nutes, specifically Cocos A and Cocos B but the additives are way too expensive. I do use two additives like Top Booster and bud XL. I seem to run out of the H&G additives too quickly. I use these equivalent substitutes and they work just as well if not better and they are cheaper, last longer.

House & Garden

Multizen and Amino Treatment= Botanicare Vitamino and Dyna Gro ProTekt Silica.

Roots Excelurator and
Algen extract= Seaweed (Growmore seaweed 5ml or (beneficial Biologics kelp logic 1tsp) Humic acid enough for 5 gallons. Beneficial microbes, Great White,root bloom, capulators, ect, enough for 5 gallons. Sea Green 1 ml. 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix all ingredients in 250 mls of water. Then use at 1/2ml-1ml per gallon.

Drip clean= 10mls White Vinegar per gallon

Magic Green= Natures Nectar Nitrogen 5-0-0 and Botanicare Fulvic acid. I only like spraying my leaves with organic matter. Salts tend to dry out the leaves and leave white salt residue .

Shooting Powder= Mother of all Blooms AKA MOAB

 

[Raregenetics]

I thought I would post this to help people save some money. I use H&G base nutes, specifically Cocos A and Cocos B but the additives are way too expensive. I do use two additives like Top Booster and bud XL. I seem to run out of the H&G additives too quickly. I use these equivalent substitutes and they work just as well if not better and they are cheaper, last longer.

House & Garden

Multizen and Amino Treatment= Botanicare Vitamino and Dyna Gro ProTekt Silica.

Roots Excelurator and
Algen extract= Seaweed (Growmore seaweed 5ml or (beneficial Biologics kelp logic 1tsp) Humic acid enough for 5 gallons. Beneficial microbes, Great White,root bloom, capulators, ect, enough for 5 gallons. Sea Green 1 ml. 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix all ingredients in 250 mls of water. Then use at 1/2ml-1ml per gallon.

Drip clean= 10mls White Vinegar per gallon

Magic Green= Natures Nectar Nitrogen 5-0-0 and Botanicare Fulvic acid. I only like spraying my leaves with organic matter. Salts tend to dry out the leaves and leave white salt residue .

Shooting Powder= Mother of all Blooms AKA MOAB

I thought I would post this to help people save some money. I use H&G base nutes, specifically Cocos A and Cocos B but the additives are way too expensive. I do use two additives like Top Booster and bud XL. I seem to run out of the H&G additives too quickly. I use these equivalent substitutes and they work just as well if not better and they are cheaper, last longer.

House & Garden

Multizen and Amino Treatment= Botanicare Vitamino and Dyna Gro ProTekt Silica.

Roots Excelurator and
Algen extract= Seaweed (Growmore seaweed 5ml or (beneficial Biologics kelp logic 1tsp) Humic acid enough for 5 gallons. Beneficial microbes, Great White,root bloom, capulators, ect, enough for 5 gallons. Sea Green 1 ml. 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix all ingredients in 250 mls of water. Then use at 1/2ml-1ml per gallon.

Drip clean= 10mls White Vinegar per gallon

Magic Green= Natures Nectar Nitrogen 5-0-0 and Botanicare Fulvic acid. I only like spraying my leaves with organic matter. Salts tend to dry out the leaves and leave white salt residue .

Shooting Powder= Mother of all Blooms AKA MOAB

Now this is what im talking about, useful information, thankyou for sharing this with your fellow farmers, i can feel my wallet expanding all ready, thanks again :)

 

[sensicloud]

Moab works awesome with HG :)

 

[nightmarecreature]

I'll do a price breakdown.

I also forgot to mention, do NOT PH the white vinegar. Flush at three time the container size, then let it sit for 24hrs. Do this because the dissolved salts can over fertilize your plants. After the 24hrs, flush once more with PHed water at 1 1/2 times the container. Now you can feed your plants like normal. This is for Coco coir.

Multizen and Amino Treatment=
Botanicare Vitamino (1 quart $25) 1.50ml small plants 3ml large plants
Dyna Gro ProTekt Silica (1 quart $17) 1.25ml small plants 2.50ml large plants

House & Garden
Multizen 1 liter $42
Amino treatment 250ml $51
Total $93
Substitute $42

Beneficial Biologics offers free samples, direct to your hydro store, It's enough to last a long time. Here's what they give you.
Sea Green, Kelp Logic, Humic, Root Bloom bennies. Great White also offer free samples through plant success.The only thing you'll need to buy is unsulfured molasses at about $3. I also bought 1 gallon of Growmore Seaweed for $20. The growmore works best at 0.75ml a gallon for hydro or coco and will last a lifetime. 1 liter of this stuff is plenty, 1 gallon is super over kill.

Roots Excelurator and
Algen extract= Seaweed (Growmore seaweed 5ml or (beneficial Biologics kelp logic 1tsp) Humic acid enough for 5 gallons. Beneficial microbes, Great White,root bloom, capulators, ect, enough for 5 gallons. Sea Green 1 ml. 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix all ingredients in 250 mls of water. Then use at 1/2ml-1ml per gallon.

House & Garden
Roots Excelurator
Algen Extract= $3 The rest of the ingreidents are free through Beneficial Biologics. You can make several batches of 250ml with their sample. I just reuse my roots excel bottle and refill with this recipe.
http://www.beneficialbiologics.com/

House & Garden
Roots Excelurator $55
Algen Extract 500ml $35
Total $90
Substitute $3

Drip clean= 10mls White Vinegar per gallon

House & Garden
Drip Clean $45
White Vinegar $3
Total$45
Substitute $3

Magic Green= (Foliar only)Natures Nectar Nitrogen 5-0-0 4ml per gallon and Botanicare Fulvic acid (15ml per gallon). I only like spraying my leaves with organic matter. Salts tend to dry out the leaves and leave white salt residue .

Mix together. Lasts a long time.
Nature's Nectar Nitrogen 1 quart $17 4ml per gallon
Botanicare Fulvic 1 quart $19 15ml per gallon

House & Garden
Magic Green 1 liter $83
Total $83
Substitute $36

Shooting Powder= Mother of all Blooms AKA MOAB

House & Garden
Shooting Powder 5 sachets $60
MOAB 100g $12 Through MOAB 100g sample pack for $12 shipping, includes 100grams of MOAB. Or $18 for 100grams of MOAB.
Total $60
Substitute $18

Grand Total H&G:$371

Grand Total Substitute:$102
(Keep in mind these subs also last a LOT longer than the H&G stuff, saving you more money in the long run.)

 

[Theoneandonly Z]

I thought I would post this to help people save some money. I use H&G base nutes, specifically Cocos A and Cocos B but the additives are way too expensive. I do use two additives like Top Booster and bud XL. I seem to run out of the H&G additives too quickly. I use these equivalent substitutes and they work just as well if not better and they are cheaper, last longer.

House & Garden

Multizen and Amino Treatment= Botanicare Vitamino and Dyna Gro ProTekt Silica.

Roots Excelurator and
Algen extract= Seaweed (Growmore seaweed 5ml or (beneficial Biologics kelp logic 1tsp) Humic acid enough for 5 gallons. Beneficial microbes, Great White,root bloom, capulators, ect, enough for 5 gallons. Sea Green 1 ml. 1 teaspoon of molasses. Mix all ingredients in 250 mls of water. Then use at 1/2ml-1ml per gallon.

Drip clean= 10mls White Vinegar per gallon

Magic Green= Natures Nectar Nitrogen 5-0-0 and Botanicare Fulvic acid. I only like spraying my leaves with organic matter. Salts tend to dry out the leaves and leave white salt residue .

Shooting Powder= Mother of all Blooms AKA MOAB

For those that didnt know, Nightmare just dropped some secrets!^^^

 

[Confuten1]

@nightmarecreature nice post man! I also use H&G (aqua flakes in coco) base and switch adds very similar to u. Quick note, when I bought grow more kelp last time Amazon said is was discontinued(but se suppliers still had some).
I use all the same substitutes as u except bontucare fulvic, I use fulpower and I still use drip clean but I might try that white vinegar sub. Again, thanks for the post man, a lot of peeps will save a lot of money if they take heed to ur instructions.

Confu

 

[nightmarecreature]

Here's how you add these. I forgot to add because I run OG's, they are Magnesium whores. I also use Botanicare Cal/Mag at 3ml for small plants and 5ml for large plants.

Add your Cal/Mag first, then wait 15min. Then add Cocos A, wait 15 min. Then add Cocos B. PH between 5.5-6.0 it doesn't have to be perfect at this point, just in range. Now add all your additives one at a time and stir them in, I always add my silica last. Now PH. Wait 30min, PH again. Wait 15min double check PH again.

 

[Confuten1]

@nightmarecreature can u elaborate or reexplain the first paragraph of the price breakdown post( white vinegar flush) I read it several times and just didn't understand what u meant.

Confu

 

[soserthc1]

Agreed nice post have almost the entire line of H & G sitting in the cabinet but got in from craigs list and have not really messed with it but did notice the insane price tags - just the root excel was 80$ .. good info maybe i'll do a chemical run one of these days

thanks

 

[nightmarecreature]

@nightmarecreature nice post man! I also use H&G (aqua flakes in coco) base and switch adds very similar to u. Quick note, when I bought grow more kelp last time Amazon said is was discontinued(but se suppliers still had some).
I use all the same substitutes as u except bontucare fulvic, I use fulpower and I still use drip clean but I might try that white vinegar sub. Again, thanks for the post man, a lot of peeps will save a lot of money if they take heed to ur instructions.

Confu

Yeah, that Growmore is crazy for the price. I still have almost a full gallon after two years. At 0.75ml per gallon, I don't think I will ever run out. It took me a long time to get the ratios right. That seaweed is so concentrated, I used to much in the beginning and had all kinds of problems.

The White Vinegar is not the same as drip clean but it gets the job done the same. It dissolves the salts. I notice after the vinegar flush my plants green up after flushing before even adding any nutes.

I was nervous using the white vinegar at first but it has only helped for flushing salts. I have been using this recipe for 2 years now and the only thing I changed was that I was using X-Nutrients Amino Blast, they don't make it anymore so I'm using the Botanicare Vitamino. You won't notice any difference using amino acids but they have to do something and plants need them.

 

[Confuten1]

Here's how you add these. I forgot to add because I run OG's, they are Magnesium whores. I also use Botanicare Cal/Mag at 3ml for small plants and 5ml for large plants.

Add your Cal/Mag first, then wait 15min. Then add Cocos A, wait 15 min. Then add Cocos B. PH between 5.5-6.0 it doesn't have to be perfect at this point, just in range. Now add all your additives one at a time and stir them in, I always add my silica last. Now PH. Wait 30min, PH again. Wait 15min double check PH again.

Funny I also mix the same way lol but I dont wait so long inbetween, in fact I don't wait at all. I do mix with a mixing stick vigorously for 10-20 seconds in between each step or lately I just leave my pump on and hose dangling a couple inches above the water line in my 55 gal drum and wait 30seconds in between adds. I've left my ec meter and ph meter in to check if my mixture is fully mixed and I don't see fluctuations so I've always assumed what I do is good enough of a mix/desolve time.
Why do u wait so long inbetween?

Confu

 

[Confuten1]

Yeah, that Growmore is crazy for the price. I still have almost a full gallon after two years. At 0.75ml per gallon, I don't think I will ever run out. It took me a long time to get the ratios right. That seaweed is so concentrated, I used to much in the beginning and had all kinds of problems.

The White Vinegar is not the same as drip clean but it gets the job done the same. It dissolves the salts. I notice after the vinegar flush my plants green up after flushing before even adding any nutes.

I was nervous using the white vinegar at first but it has only helped for flushing salts. I have been using this recipe for 2 years now and the only thing I changed was that I was using X-Nutrients Amino Blast, they don't make it anymore so I'm using the Botanicare Vitamino. You won't notice any difference using amino acids but they have to do something and plants need them.

Yea I use 1ml per gal grow more kelp no more.

Ok I see so u don't add Vinegar every feed like drip clean but rather u use as a flush. I kinda do that when I run my teas once a week, I wonder if adding vinegar at the same time would hurt the benificals?

Confu

 

[nightmarecreature]

@nightmarecreature can u elaborate or reexplain the first paragraph of the price breakdown post( white vinegar flush) I read it several times and just didn't understand what u meant.

Confu

"I also forgot to mention, do NOT PH the white vinegar. Flush at three time the container size, then let it sit for 24hrs. Do this because the dissolved salts can over fertilize your plants. After the 24hrs, flush once more with PHed water at 1 1/2 times the container. Now you can feed your plants like normal. This is for Coco coir."

Use RO water and add your vinegar at 10ml per gallon, do NOT ph the solution.
Say you are running a 3 gallon pot or container. You need to flush it at 3x the amount with the water vinegar mix. So you will need 9 gallons to flush that 3 gallon pot. Say you are running a 1 gallon pot. You will need 3 gallons to flush it. After you flush it with the water and vinegar, don't do anything for 24hrs because the dissolved salts in your coco could act as a fertilizer. The salts left over are concentrated. Most of the time they are flushed out but some remains. The vinegar will dissolve what is left in that 24hr period.

 

[nightmarecreature]

Yea I use 1ml per gal grow more kelp no more.

Ok I see so u don't add Vinegar every feed like drip clean but rather u use as a flush. I kinda do that when I run my teas once a week, I wonder if adding vinegar at the same time would hurt the benificals?

Confu

Yes, I do the flush once a month. Yes, it will mess up your beneficials and you will have to readd them. I wait so long in between mixing because I'm usually busy doing other stuff. The most important part is really the last part, when you make sure your PH is stable at the end.

 

[Confuten1]

"I also forgot to mention, do NOT PH the white vinegar. Flush at three time the container size, then let it sit for 24hrs. Do this because the dissolved salts can over fertilize your plants. After the 24hrs, flush once more with PHed water at 1 1/2 times the container. Now you can feed your plants like normal. This is for Coco coir."

Use RO water and add your vinegar at 10ml per gallon, do NOT ph the solution.
Say you are running a 3 gallon pot or container. You need to flush it at 3x the amount with the water vinegar mix. So you will need 9 gallons to flush that 3 gallon pot. Say you are running a 1 gallon pot. You will need 3 gallons to flush it. After you flush it with the water and vinegar, don't do anything for 24hrs because the dissolved salts in your coco could act as a fertilizer. The salts left over are concentrated. Most of the time they are flushed out but some remains. The vinegar will dissolve what is left in that 24hr period.

Thank you,
I was reading that initial post with the assumption of using vinegar jus like drip clean and adding it to every feed mix.

Confu

 

[nightmarecreature]

Drip clean might be ok if you run a dripper system. Since I hand water my plants, they only need a flush once a month, sometimes I wait two months. I'd rather buy a $3 bottle of vinegar and save the money.

 

[Confuten1]

Drip clean might be ok if you run a dripper system. Since I hand water my plants, they only need a flush once a month, sometimes I wait two months. I'd rather buy a $3 bottle of vinegar and save the money.

i dont, i also hand feed(pump hose and wand) I've wondered in drip clean was nessissary. Ive went weeks w/o using it and didn't notice a difference. plus i feed with 20% runoff so mage i should jus cut it out completely.

confu

 

[nightmarecreature]

I've gone without flushing for months. With General Hydro, that shit was so salty it would lock my plants up. With H&G I don't think you have to flush, I just know that my plants are happier when I do flush about once a month or every two months. For the Price, I think H&G should add the drip clean to the base nutes. The additives I believe is where all these companies really make the big bucks.

I'm not saying don't use the H&G additives. What I'm saying is if you are on a budget or want to save some dough, those subs work excellent.

 

[nightmarecreature]

You can also get a sample kit from Botanicare. The samples are free,they let you choose 4 items, but the shipping cost is $16. I recommend Cal/Mag,Fulvic acid, Vitamino, then pick whatever else. That way you have some of the substitutes.
Get the sample kit from Beneficial Biologics for free and the MOAB for $12 shipping. For $28 bucks you will have most of the stuff you need for your subs. You can also get a nice pack of Great White bennies from Plant success for free. It's nice they offer samples, it will allow you to know what you want to run.

I have used Root Bloom and I like it better than Great White. They work seem to work well though. I'm going to try Capulators Root pack next to make my final decision.

 

[Confuten1]

You can also get a sample kit from Botanicare. The samples are free,they let you choose 4 items, but the shipping cost is $16. I recommend Cal/Mag,Fulvic acid, Vitamino, then pick whatever else. That way you have some of the substitutes.
Get the sample kit from Beneficial Biologics for free and the MOAB for $12 shipping. For $28 bucks you will have most of the stuff you need for your subs.

like always, very informative!
thanks

confu