I went with the
Fox Farm 3 bottle for hydro since I see a lot of folks using it and there is a ton of information on it. I was going to go with
General Hydroponics, but was informed they were bought out by Monsanto, so I declined.
Also grabbed a ph and pm tester. My tap water ph is at 7 and my ppm was at 107, so I grabbed some ph up and down solution.
I am going to do a test run with some bag seed from some decent smoke I had, but really want to get some premium seeds for my 2nd run if anyone wants to help out? :) I am going to Colorado in September, so hopefully I can get some seeds while there.
First and foremost, if you are looking for seeds look no further, you are on THC Farmer where top quality seeds can be had and you can even get in touch with the breeders directly here.
Grabbing a pH meter and a ppm meter are great, but they are not going to do a whole lot of good for you with those
Fox Farm nutrients. The issue with
Fox Farm nutes it that they contain a lot of organic materials. Testing solutions made with organic materials will not read accurately. Digital pH and ppm meters use the electro-conductivity of the solution to determine pH; many organic materials have no charge and therefore will not be read by a digital pH or ppm meter. Ultimately yo can never get a truly accurate reading when using a digital meter with organic materials. Nutrients like GH 3-part or Advanced or
House and Garden are all mineral salt based; each ingredient in those bottles are in forms that will have a charge and therefore digital meters will be able to accurately determine pH and TDS.
I may be too late with this suggestion, but I wouldn't recommend
Fox Farm nutrients for hydroponic uses, even though they suggest you can. If you are doing drain to waste hydroponics they will work fine, so long as you do not leave them in a reservoir. Given you are in DWC, which is its own reservoir, I would highly recommend using a mineral salt nutrient. My main concern with
Fox Farm nutrients in a reservoir is that there is a lot of organic material in those nutrients and they need time to decompose before they release their nutritional content. That same material is more likely to rot and cause problems when left in a reservoir. Ultimately I wouldn't recommend using any nutrients that still contain organic material in hydroponic systems that require a reservoir.
On a side note,
General Hydroponics was bought by Hawthorne Gardening Company (who also bought out Sunlight Supply), which is a subsidiary of Scotts/Miracle-Gro. However Scotts is not owned by Monsanto. Yes Scotts does all the sales and distribution of Monsanto's consumer goods, which is pretty much limited to Round-Up. So while I never want to support Monsanto, buying GH products does not put money in their pockets, just the pockets of another company willing to distribute Monsanto products. But I assure you, somewhere in your purchases you bought at least one product that was distributed by Hawthorne, it would be tough not to.