back in the day i vaguely remember my pops telling me about some scandal with the makers of dyna gro and how their phosphorus source wasn't good or something but regardless ive heard nothing but good news from this thread, and related threads. im a fan of organics honestly, but i can see how pH is a large concern to some, but its nothing a little lemon juice or spring water cant fix. plus, you cant burn your plants with organics.
and im on your side with the whole over priced idea, i couldnt agree more, i could give you best example to prove it also. i used to have this gallon of what they called liquid carbo load, which is said to swell up buds. this stuff is really the same thing as any other organic molasses really, while 4L of carbo load goes for 58 bucks right now, i could go to whole foods and buy blackstrap molasses and get the same results for about 4 bucks a L, and you only use this stuff for probably the last 4 weeks of flower.
those who run with AN and GH often do hydro but i feel like their harvest isnt worth half what they spent on their equipment, let alone their nutrients(which of course they buy a gallon a majority of the time but little do they know that they're probably not gonna be growing long enough to use even 1/4 of that shit). also AN puts out so many different versions of their stuff, whatever happened to the good ol veg-flower-big bud combo? they've really gotta make it more simple rather than taking the same stuff, adding a different color to it, and slapping a different label on it.
the grow industrys squeezing the life out the up and coming growers, but in my opinion, they should be doing all they can to help this growing(no pun intended i swear) industry and quit worrying about making 80 dollars for selling stuff that taken out of our planet by workers who are probably payed 5 cents an hour. its wrong to charge anything over 10 dollars for nutrients. it seems like all of us forget that cannabis i just another plant, not some special alien species that requires specific trace elements, it needs everything that any other acid loving plant needs. AN knows what people are buying this specific nutrients for, shit my dad even traded the owners weed for quarts of their old nutrients whenever they were starting a production line down the street in orlando. yes, their site has pictures of tomatoes, but really, whos paying 80 dollars to feed their tomatoes.
if anything, i'd do the sure thing and go buy some guano or blood/bone meal(i get high N guano for about 8 bucks for a good sized bag at the hydro store, oh and on the way out dont forget to ask for free samples.), theyre all reliable sources of n, p and k. synthetic nutes can be easy on you as far as effort, but your gonna be aching when you look in your wallet.