FF's Side By Side Laboratory - at last!

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F

FastForward

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Right....we all know that there's WAY too much bullshit when it comes to advertising canna related grow products ("more! better! faster!") and I've been bleating on for yonks about the need for independent side by side grows.

Well, now is the time. I'm mid-grow right now so I can't test flowering boosters yet, so I'm going to start with CLONING and ROOT DEVELOPMENT.

CLONING

Aims:
- to determine which is the quickest way to get clones rooted
- to determine which products are the most effective

Products in Test:

Medium: Canna Coco, Galuku Coco, Root Riots (rapid rooters), Water, Nutrient Solution (no medium)


ROOT DEVELOPMENT

Aims:
- to determine which root stimulators are the most effective
- to determine the impact of a microherd on root development

Products in Test:

Root Stims: Rhizotonic, H&G Root Exelurator, Clone Start
Beneficials: AN Voodoo, Piranha and Tarantula


I don't have the space to do all of these in one go, so it'll have to be in stages. I'm going to use one strain (Snoe Sleepaa) for the sake of uniformity and the same propagation area, to try to keep all factors equal.

I'm going to measure root development by eye - I know it's not very scientific but other than weighing plants or measuring roots, it might just be the simplest and easiest way to manage it. Am open to ideas.

As for cloning, will plant clones in shallow coco, around the same dimensions as the root riots, so that there's an equal amount of space to grow through before roots are seen (i.e. considered rooted).

My main motivation for this is to see if the expensive stuff (AN beneficials, H&G Root Exel) is worth it and actually does what it says on the tin. Cost a small fortune to buy this stuff and I'm dead curious to see if it's bollocks or not.

Will start later on this evening by taking the cuts and kicking off the show.

FF
 
Ffs side by side laboratory   at last
P

pilot error

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Kudos FF. I wondered the same things, so I'll be settling in for the show.

~fires up a fattie and passes to RB1
 
JayBee

JayBee

International Toker
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great idea, way to set up to the plate and grab the bull by the horns (few usa terms for ya)...
 
mace

mace

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A little science never hurt anyone. I'm on board for this grow show.
 
T

Tolpan

599
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Great idea FF!Thanks for that!

Me likes the root excelerator!

Greets
 
true grit

true grit

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Awesome FF! What do you have planned for base nutes? Would you consider doing a couple plants with some of the more popular a&b formulas only? Do a side by side and maybe help point out some deficiencies in the formulas before comparing additives? Either way from root and clone to bud, this will be hella informative!
 
R

randalika

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nais won ff :)
iam really looking forward to the test-results of the froot stimulators as i wanted to do such a test myself.
greetings,randa
 
BOSSMAN88188

BOSSMAN88188

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Very cool test.
Thanks for spending the time and money to do this.
And for sharing it with the rest of us
 
F

FastForward

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Thanks fellers. Am just sitting down smoking a j after having spent the past couple of hours setting it up.

ROUND 1: Rooting Clones with Root Stims (in Canna and Galuku Coco)

Base Nutrient : Formulex (2.9:0.9:3.4) 5ml per litre
RootStim1 : Rhizotonic 4ml per litre
RootStim2 : Root Exelurator 0.3ml per litre
RootStim3 : Clone Start 2ml per litre

all at pH 5.5

There are two banks of clones - one bank is in Canna Coco, the other in Galuku. I don't expect any differences between the two, but I had the end of a bag of Canna Coco and the new bag of Galuku.

Each RootStim has 4 clones, marked:

R - Rhizotonic
PS - Plant Start
RXL - Root Excelurator

They're planted in some plastic OPENABLE trays called RootTrainers, so that I can open them up and take a look at the root growth progress and photograph it. If these things are any good I might end up using them instead of pots.

Normally I pour my baby juice/rooting mix into a sprayer after soaking the coco for foliar spray, but I didn't have 3 spray bottles to keep them separate....so instead of opted for a fulvic acid foliar as it seemed pretty neutral and should promote growth across the board. Obviously everything gets sprayed with the foliar twice a day. I've never done the fulvic as a foliar before, so if they look crap in a day or two I'll switch to a formulex only foliar.

That's about it for now. Had a bit of a time getting 32 clones together from my mum, so some may not root...but there should be enough there to get an idea.

Also I wanted to do a bank in root riots to compare the mediums, but that will have to wait as I just don't have the room (and having 32 clones in here makes me scared enough, seeing as our law enforcement consider any cannabis plant illegal - so a clone is the same as a 7 week flowering plant).

Back when there's something to report :)

FF

EDIT: I think Plant Start isn't a dedicated root stim and is probably used in conjunction with one....so it's really between the Rhiz and the Root XL...but will be interesting to see how the AN product fares...
 
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H

Hash Master

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fastforward you'll probably be up for member of the month! again!
 
T

theherbalizor

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Wicked. Locked in to this one!
 
logic

logic

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nice thread ff i think the Root Excelurator from H&G is going to win. but we will see.
 
T

theherbalizor

Premium Member
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I used to say this logic, but they have changed the product. I now do much better with Rhizo. If I could get an old bottle of Root excel then nothing would come close.
 
F

FastForward

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ROUND 1, 7 DAYS LATER

The early results are in...I'll cut straight to the chase:

Observation #1: Galuku is a poor rooting medium compared to Canna Coco! That is immediately obvious from the first overview shot. There are more rooted clones on the Canna side and they're all much healthier. The Galuku side shows lots of dead and dying unrooted clones.

Observation #2: H&G Root Exelurator appears to outperform Canna Rhizotonic. The roots are longer and fatter. Judge for yourselves in the photos.

I don't think there's too much need to procede with this first experiment. As a root stimulator it appears from this early first finding that Root Excelurator is the daddy. From here I'll do some more specific tests to compare the two again in Canna Coco.

I was planning on using these rooted clones for further tests for the beneficial bacteria, but because the Galuku side appears to have failed (or is just slow), I think I'll bin these and restart with a fresh batch of rooted clones all in the same medium and same rooting stimulator.

Anyhow, that's it for now. Very interesting and surprising findings. I'll seek to repeat them to make sure, but coming up next..... expensive beneficials....voodoo, tarantula and piranha and their effect on root mass development.
 
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