Nutrients Questions

[DLicious23]

Ok one more question today... How do I give our plants the proper nutrients in the soil? Our caregiver's wife makes a homade nutrient solution of sugar water and molasses, is that good for the plants? What would you guys suggest?

 

[sedate]

sugar water and molasses, is that good for the plants?

Roots don't do anything directly with sugar and molasses even though lotsa people think so. A friend of mine keeps trying to tell me they make the buds "sugary" - whatever that means.

Ask your caregivers wife to explain to you why she does this and post up with the explanation. I'm always eager to hear these.

Those ingredients can serve as food for beneficial bateria within the soil - which in turn can speed nutrient absorption at the roots.

Don't worry about this right now. Get through some grows first.

What would you guys suggest?

A quality all-in-one chemical fert. If you're in Denver, I like O'Tooles.

For a beginner, I'd get a quart of FoxFarm's "GrowBig" and "TigerBloom" - use them at 2/3bottle strength until you get through a grow.

You might want to test your water too - the entire strech of Denver-Castle Rock - Colorado Springs - has incredibly hard water and you won't make it through a grow on tap water in these areas, in my experience.

There are lots of options here . .

Springs tap water killed my girlfriends' plants in three feedings.

 

[Seafrost]

Agreed. Pure Blend Pro works very well in soil. Do not overfeed.

 

[sedate]

am sorry but that is not what i would do at all Sedate, tiger bloom is chemical junk- stay far away

This grower is clearly a neophyte.

TigerBloom is an inexpensive, effective, complete fertilizer.

This recipie:

Get Pura vida -bloom or PBP bloom, and liquid karma, calmg, and hygrozyme

is very much more complicated and flat-out five-times as pricey. For the smallest bottles available.

Your recipie is "better" - but, IMO, not for this poster.

 

[Xceptional]

recommending a noob to get hygrozyme? that shit costs more then gold i wouldn't recommend it even if it does work great. something simple makes much more sense.

General Hydroponics Flora Grow, Micro, Bloom
Dyna-Gro - I've never used it BUT read lots of people using it becasue it works well, it's cheap and it's a single part nutrient so it's simple to use.

unless you are going to really dive in and spend a lot on equipment and invest hours a day EVERY DAY learning just keep it simple and you will still get some fire bud you will be more then pleased with. all these bells and whistles are not requirements remember half this shit everyone is raving over today wasn't not available 10 years ago and they grew bud just fine then and it was good bud.

i would personally go "soil-less". the reason is it's a inert medium that has no nutritional value and no ph value. what this means is whatever you pour into the medium is what the plants get so its a little more control (or easier to obtain that level of control) just my 2 cents I'm no guru but i started hydro, went to soil then went to soil less and i hated soil and liked and continue to run hydro and pro-mix bx soil less.

 

[Xceptional]

Your recipie is "better" - but, IMO, not for this poster.

lol yeah bro that was like recommending a lambo to a 16 year old as a first car. sure a lambo is a better car but is it what a first time driver should get behind the wheel of first?

 

[Xceptional]

that is by no means a lambo maybe a civic, you could easily get all 4 bottles i mentioned for right under 80 and you would end up with a HIGHER yield of BETTER bud, now would you not pay 80 bucks for that vs 20 and compare the fact that it is also organic vs inorganic, also you could drop out everything there except the base of pura vida or pure blend pro and still be better off at about the same price,

i didn't mean a lambo in price, that's AN and then H&G lol. i meant the lambo is too much car and tons of added danger for a new driver that was the failed attempt at a analogy. the disagreement with your post wasn't about price as much as it was complexity. i guess a better analogy would be when you buy your first bike the say get the 600 not the 1000......

and in all honesty lbs for lbs hygrozyme cost damn near as much as a lambo (joking). i dont recall the recommended ml per gal but i remember when i looked at the bottle and saw it and calculated the cost for my 40 gal res that i flush weekly it was hundreds of dollars just for the hygrozyme if i rant it at recommended strength just for one cycle.

 

[xX Kid Twist Xx]

i agree for your 1st grow keep it simple. you eventulay will go along the lines of what franti said but for now you just need to keep the thing alive and watered. I use the foxfarm products with no ill results. GH 3 part is cheap easy and even color coded. it looks like a kids drink. and its very easy to use, plus its the cheapest one out there. sorry General hydroponics 3 part

 

[MJPassion]

In order to answer your first question properly there needs to be more information given.

What type of medium are you using? Hydro, soil or soilless (coco coir, hydroton, perlite, sand, gravel, what have you)

Soil is forgiving and will buffer any nutrient application mistakes you might make. As far as I'm concerned, it's superior to straight up Hydro in this fact alone. The ONLY advantage, for the plants, to going hydro is to increase your yields and possibly decrease your flower time by a couple of days. There are no other advantages to hydro over soil. This is my opinion, peeps, so don't try to argue with it! If ya wanna say it's cleaner than soil I'll just call ya a slob. Cleanliness is up to you no matter what medium you are using. Spilled water and chems don't clean themselves up.

What kind of water are you using? (Tap, distilled, RO, bottled)
RO and Distilled are the best. They should have 0 PPM, 0 TDS, 0 EC and pH 7. If ya dont have an RO maker I'd get one. Using any other water source, you need to be aware of what is in it.

THE SUGAR QUESTION:
Don't use bleached white sugar... All of the nutritional value has been removed by in processing it and is there fore useless for your soil (micro guys) and you. (That's the reason white sugar is referred to as "empty carbs")
Molasses, however, is great stuff used in moderation. (1/8 to 1/4 tsp per gal H2O) It contains Iron, Calcium and Potassium that will be released once the micro guys in your soil eat it.
USE ONLY UNSULPHURED MOLASSES. Blackstrap being the best.