Is it better to make your own nutrients or to buy premix nutrients like foxfarm

Greengaint26

Greengaint26

Member
Hello I'm just starting my grow but idk if it saves money making your own nutrients or just to buy premix like foxfarm. I am also a fast learner so learning how to mix my own won't be a problem. Would the quality of the your own mix be better than premix or just about the same? If around the same would it be better to just go with premix? Thanks all to those who can help:) I want my babies to be the happiest they can be
 
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az2000

Well-Known Member
Are you growing in hydro/soilless or soil? I think there are good products like JR Peter's Jacks or Grow More Sea Grow that make it unfeasible make your own.
 
vostok

vostok

Well-Known Member
But are you a fast risker...? risking your DIY brews on expensive seeds, buy at least until you have done your 5th grow, by then you should have your locale dailled in well, and can then spend valuable time on your diy concoctions
 
unwine99

unwine99

Well-Known Member
Much easier to buy premixed but to answer your question, yes it would be much cheaper to make your own. I would never try it because I'm an idiot but @churchhaze might be able to lend some info -- he mixes his own stuff and uses a nifty little npk generator too.
 
Greengaint26

Greengaint26

Member
I use hydro, in my grow room with two 16 plant DWC and two 16 plant aero systems with 2 solarflair LEDs set up
az2000 said:
Are you growing in hydro/soilless or soil? I think there are good products like JR Peter's Jacks or Grow More Sea Grow that make it unfeasible make your own.
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az2000

Well-Known Member
It seems like it's more common for hydro growers to buy bulk ingredients and mix their own using HydroBuddy. @churchhaze does that.

I still think stuff like Jack's Classic is priced so low that there's no economic reason to do your own. But, if you're into that level of fiddling then you might do it for other reasons.
 
Greengaint26

Greengaint26

Member
I mean I like doing stuff myself I built everything I needed but not the lights of course but if u think it'll save me time than I might just go for the premix and do you think jacks classic can preform just as good as foxfarm cuz I see a lot of good thing from them
az2000 said:
It seems like it's more common for hydro growers to buy bulk ingredients and mix their own using HydroBuddy. @churchhaze does that.

I still think stuff like Jack's Classic is priced so low that there's no economic reason to do your own. But, if you're into that level of fiddling then you might do it for other reasons.
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
If you did well in highschool chemistry, and understand what a plant needs, you should have no problem making your own DWC formula.

Just start with the hoagland solution, or one of howard resh's formulas. They're all basically the same. This is the mix I'm currently using for DWC. There's nothing particularly hard about doing it.

mix17_results.png
 
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az2000

Well-Known Member
Greengaint26 said:
do you think jacks classic can preform just as good as foxfarm cuz I see a lot of good thing from them
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I think most of the cannabis themed products are over-priced and designed to keep users ignorant, lock them into an opaque, boutique "lineup." All that matters is the NPK ratio and balanced micros.

I grow in soil and have been taking the philosophy of hydro DIY (hydrobuddy) to a level that allows me to understand my NPK ratio, but I use generic premixed products (not cannabis themed). I use this spreadsheet. You could play with that mixing Jack's All Purpose, Bloom Booster and perhaps Citrus FeED to design your own custom ratios. Or, you can use HydroBuddy to tell you how much of each to get a ratio you want.

So, I'd stay away from cannabis-themed products. Either buy bulk and do HydroBuddy, or buy non-cannabis (inexpensive) premixed products like Jacks and you can customize your ratios to some extent with those.
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
I strongly recommend against using jacks classic because it's based on urea for the majority of its N, which is proven to benefit the plant very little in DWC. Also, that implies it does not get its N through calcium nitrate. It has 0 calcium. Jacks classic expects your calcium to be in the potting mix or soil.

Jack's does have a hydroponics formula for this exact reason which is based on calcium nitrate, and they also have many competitors with nearly identical products. (example). These products are meant to be mixed with calcium nitrate. (sold separately for stability).
 
Greengaint26

Greengaint26

Member
churchhaze said:
I strongly recommend against using jacks classic because it's based on urea for the majority of its N, which is proven to benefit the plant very little in DWC. Also, that implies it does not get its N through calcium nitrate. It has 0 calcium. Jacks classic expects your calcium to be in the potting mix or soil.

Jack's does have a hydroponics formula for this exact reason which is based on calcium nitrate, and they also have many competitors with nearly identical products. (example). These products are meant to be mixed with calcium nitrate. (sold separately for stability).
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Thanks for the info ill prob go for mixing my own than so I know that my nuts has everything I need and so I can possible come up with my own mix ill need to look into hydrobuddy than thanks again
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Greengaint26 said:
Thanks for the info ill prob go for mixing my own than so I know that my nuts has everything I need and so I can possible come up with my own mix ill need to look into hydrobuddy than thanks again
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You could get away without the copper and zinc salts. I've still never actually bothered adding them. (just in case you're looking to cut down on ingredients)
 
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toomp

Well-Known Member
vostok said:
But are you a fast risker...? risking your DIY brews on expensive seeds, buy at least until you have done your 5th grow, by then you should have your locale dailled in well, and can then spend valuable time on your diy concoctions
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Second this.
Pain and suffering from organics tinkering trying to make life easy
Your mileage shall vary life is not easy
Grab the fox farm you want to tinker do it with advanced nutes too much ? Subs are out there for voodoo juice exc. exc.
 
Budzbuddha

Budzbuddha

Well-Known Member
Get a good potting mix : FFOF or Happy Frog , Promix and others. Know that most good premium soil has basic nute structures within its mix. Goodies like Guano , micro nutes , worm castings , and raw elements. Most will have perlite. Peat , or even coco coir.

I keep soil moist not wet and just plant germed seed , it needs nothing for at least week 3 , forget nuking them with nutrients until you have a healthy " basic " plant , strong and ready to feed. After a few weeks in the soil , it may show signs of deficiency due plant pulling out what it needed while growing.

Get your growing down first , forget custom mixes or cooking your soil crap.
Just give her a nice soil bed , a little water and she will come out to play .
 
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churchhaze

Well-Known Member
Well of course you're going to screw up trying to tinker without first having experience designing nutrients. You're supposed to use a recipe if you want results you can depend on straight off the bat.

It's hard to go wrong using a proven formula like Hoagland or Resh tomato. Almost all scientific research on plants use Hoagland. It's considered the de facto standard for doing experiments.
 
ShirkGoldbrick

ShirkGoldbrick

Active Member
Hey church, have you ever tried fatmans recipe? Your micros look a lot more realistic but he had claimed to have a recipe from canna with the same micro levels in his coco formula. I never verified this.

I also saw an article somewhere around here that plants will adapt to any ratio provided it's not so grossly out of proportion that you cause a lockout and you either do res changes or use a colorometer (sp?) to add back used up chemicals.

I made fatmans recipe and ended up with a bunch of precipitate on the bottom of one bucket at 100x concentrated 3mS. Although I mixed it some more and it may be fine now, have to check yet.
 
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Atomizer

Well-Known Member
Hardly surprising if its anything like his calmag recipe, which used calcium nitrate and magnesium sulfate for a one bottle stock solution :)
 
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