Expensive nutrients: Worth it?

Hello, I am new to this and have been using a nutrient regimen right out of Advanced Nutrients magazine/advertisement. I've been doing well with it.

Brewed some organic teas and those have shown immediate and phenomenal results.

This lead me to think (I am no chemist by any stretch of the imagination), but all these various lines of nutrients deliver the same basic things. Is a 2-1-2 solution from one line any different than a 2-1-2 solution from a much less expensive line? Does the remainder of the solution contain some sort of proprietary mix that can really make a difference?

I am reluctant to abandon a regiment that is working, however, I have read many comments from seasoned (or at least compared to me) growers who claim these fancy nutrients are a waste of money.

As a newbie, I would be grateful for any input. And please forgive the lack of
posts, as I have only much to learn and I have been lurking for some time, getting some great info.

Personaly I would stick with what works for you! And the expensive nutes last a long time! You are only using 1/4 tsp to 2 tsp per gallon. If you look at it you are spending probably only about $10-$15 per plant the whole growth cycle. I use Fox Farm nutes and soil so not to sure about AN but I garantee your not spending that much per plant. What I would do if I were you is get the same strain from seed or clone, "clone being better" and do a side by side test with a cheaper fert. I always recommend people do their own test because your test will have to work with your growing ability/habbits and your grow room conditions. GL brotha

Plants love variety. Using a few different fertilizers helps decrease the chances of both nutrient burn and micronutrient deficiency. The micronutrients are quite often the biggest difference between one fertilizer and another, cheaper one. You don't seem to specify what you consider to be "fancy" or "expensive" fertilizers. Some guanos, for example, get pretty pricey but many are definitely worth it.

Some of the best fertilizers imo include Fish Emulsion/Hydrolyzed Fish, Maxicrop soluble powder, Bone & Blood Meals, Bat & Seabird Guanos and Palm Bunch Ash.

Its a personal preference to some extent, and Mother's Finest is right on about variety. I like the idea of spending less on a grow bloom style main input nutes, and spending the extra cash instead on micro nutes, bateria cultures, CO2 supplements, lighting equipment, advanced air pruning pots, etc. Their are a lot of claims made by nutrient companies, and there is plenty of marketing and hype in there, always keep that in mind.

I'll do a GH Lucas vs AN Sensi G&B program in about a month when I get my hydro system going, hope this debate continues open by then. It could also be a Hortilux vs Sunmaster Comparison, your choice. S

I usually dont buy because of hype. I like to buy things for personal knowledge. From having used a good amount of different products. Different strains do act differently to different nutrients. Its could all just be in my head though haha. Somethings i forget to write things down and dont remember exactly what i used that grow

I Think we spent about 250 on nutes last year. Went with the dyna-gro line. It seems to have everything needed for a good grow. I should have enough to do most of this years grow also.

i'm currently using jack's classic, which is about the same price as miracle gro or cheaper. i actually heard about it from sensible growers on this site and decided to give it a whirl and i loved it. way cheaper than the fox farm i was using. i only use the bloom formula. just the one tub of stuff. i have decided that a rich healthy organic soil is my preferred method to get my plants through veg. if anything i might look into organic options for flower time, as well, since the whole organic thing is working out so much better for me in veg. it's really up to the grower and what they notice about their plants. all growers focus on different aspects of the grow, and this shapes how they view different nutes imo. i do think that expensive nutes are a waste for a total noob because they have no baseline to compare ferts and skills. they may as well start in the basement and work their way up while they hone their skills. this is in soil, though. i can't speak for hydro.

ONLY NUTES THAT WILL KILL YOUR WALLET IS BIOBIZZ? for the entire set it can reach almost 1grand. like 1-300 a bottle

I had this same delema recently. Ill share with you what I learned.

Advanced Nutrients are certainly a good way to go if you have the money. They are designed specifically for cannibus cultivation. But there are a few drawbacks other than price, like they break their regiment up between lots of different products so you have to spend more money on all this different shit to get a complete balanced diet for your plants. They have a few different options for Grow and Bloom fertilizers, but what I really like are the supplements. B-52 is amazing stuff it makes a real difference. Also you could try Dr Hornbys Voodoo juice. Test plants that were fed voodoo juice displayed up to a 90% increase in root mass over the control group. Very High Output mixed with Wet Betty is also an excellent option for folliar feeding, although I went with Dutch Master Liquid light and Saturater gold because I couldn't find VHO anywhere online.

Personally I think you would be better off going with something like Dyna-Gro for your Grow and Bloom fertilizer. The ratios of "canna specific" nutrients like the ones AN has are off. You want like 20-10-10 during grow if you have the lights on 24/7. AN's fertilizers don't really achieve that.

Look into Dyna-Gro. Its cheap but good. The Folige pro is awesome when its mixed with the Pro-Mag and the Pro-tekt. Makes your plants green and strong till the very end. If you do a little math you can get the ratios perfect. People who have degrees in horticulture use stuff like Dyna-Gro and mix it to the perfect ratios themselves. Advanced nutrients is good for supplements or if you dont know what your doing, but I wouldn't use it necessarily for fertilizing.

As far as your original question, different fertilizers have different formulations. A higher quality fertilizer may be more expensive and you may get a little better results but in the end it all comes down to N-K-P. As long as you have your feeding schedule, nutrient ratios, and concentrations under control, a cheaper fertilizer should be fine. But do consider using supplements or doing some follier feeding. In the end your yield and quality will be better.

Wow, thanks for all the good info. I lean toward the adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Doesn't mean I can't improve. In time, I hope to try some of the things mentioned and keep control plants to measure the difference.

richbuds said:

Hello, I am new to this and have been using a nutrient regimen right out of Advanced Nutrients magazine/advertisement. I've been doing well with it.

Brewed some organic teas and those have shown immediate and phenomenal results.

This lead me to think (I am no chemist by any stretch of the imagination), but all these various lines of nutrients deliver the same basic things. Is a 2-1-2 solution from one line any different than a 2-1-2 solution from a much less expensive line? Does the remainder of the solution contain some sort of proprietary mix that can really make a difference?

I am reluctant to abandon a regiment that is working, however, I have read many comments from seasoned (or at least compared to me) growers who claim these fancy nutrients are a waste of money.

As a newbie, I would be grateful for any input. And please forgive the lack of
posts, as I have only much to learn and I have been lurking for some time, getting some great info.

Click to expand...

Personally, I like Advanced Nutrients. No surprise there, I'm sure.

This is why I like it:

*lots of options
*easy to use
*AN is created for MJ growing
*AN has a 100% money-back guarantee (though I haven't tried it before)
*The bundles - Hobbyist and Expert are the ones I'm familiar with
*they keep innovating
*they're helpful
*they seem to be more stable with pH
*they drum up a lot of controversy....LOL

Yes, they're expensive. But I think they're worth it. Some other nutes are just harder to control and I just don't try as hard with I use cheap nutes. I don't know.

How that helps!

Using Jacks myself. No complaints, got great results!

Total Head said:

i'm currently using jack's classic, which is about the same price as miracle gro or cheaper. i actually heard about it from sensible growers on this site and decided to give it a whirl and i loved it. way cheaper than the fox farm i was using. i only use the bloom formula. just the one tub of stuff. i have decided that a rich healthy organic soil is my preferred method to get my plants through veg. if anything i might look into organic options for flower time, as well, since the whole organic thing is working out so much better for me in veg. it's really up to the grower and what they notice about their plants. all growers focus on different aspects of the grow, and this shapes how they view different nutes imo. i do think that expensive nutes are a waste for a total noob because they have no baseline to compare ferts and skills. they may as well start in the basement and work their way up while they hone their skills. this is in soil, though. i can't speak for hydro.

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richbuds said:

This lead me to think (I am no chemist by any stretch of the imagination), but all these various lines of nutrients deliver the same basic things. Is a 2-1-2 solution from one line any different than a 2-1-2 solution from a much less expensive line? Does the remainder of the solution contain some sort of proprietary mix that can really make a difference?

Click to expand...

This is a common point of confusion, and there's a lot of experienced growers out there that will actually give the wrong answer because they just don't know any better.

It's not so much a "proprietary" mix as it is just a secret recipe of commonly known fertilizer salts. It's like a bakery. They don't have some kind of flour no one else has ever heard of, but the exact proportions and the exact ingredients have infinite variation. There's a LOT of different ways of combining the base fertilizer salts to achieve any given NPK ratio, and which salts are used can make a huge difference.

So not all 10-8-9 NPK fertilizers are the same. Also, the ratio is more important than the exact number. A 20-20-20 isn't twice as strong as a 10-10-10 unless A: the application rate is the same and B: the availability of all three nutrients is the same. For example, nitrogen derived from urea is less available than certain other (typically more expensive) sources.

Factor in that each of the individual macro and micro nutrients can be made from different quality sources and there can be a wild amount of variation in effectiveness between different fertilizers. One could be made of good quality across the board and another be even better for some nutrients, but absolutely terrible for others. So even though the second one uses some ingredients that are better you could still end up with massive nutritional problems.

So you can see why many people choose not to risk things with cheap nutes.

richbuds said:

I am reluctant to abandon a regiment that is working, however, I have read many comments from seasoned (or at least compared to me) growers who claim these fancy nutrients are a waste of money.

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I chalk most of that up to the same argument I make for not buying a Mercedes. See, I can't afford to buy a Mercedes. So I tell myself and anyone else that cares to ask that I prefer my Honda because it does everything I need a car to do and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

On the other hand, if I hit the lotto I would probably buy a Mercedes or a car like that. Why? Because it's a damn nice car and despite my insistence that I don't really need one that's just a way for me to make myself feel better about not being able to afford it.

So the guys who buy expensive fertilizers believe there's enough of a difference in quality to justify the price. And the guys who can't afford them believe that what they do buy is just as good and does everything they need a fertilizer to do.

The tricky part is figuring out that both sides are correct from their own point of view.

I use a more expensive fertilizer myself - Advanced Nutrients. I've done the math and I firmly believe the improvements in yield and quality that I see are not only attributable to the better fertilizer, but far outweigh the increase in cost over something cheaper.

It's up to everyone to decide exactly where the price point and results curves meet and give them the best satisfaction.

It's a weed.

I prefer reputable, organic standard liquid fertilizers available everywhere. I change between them for variety, likes to give some seaweed for micros on occasion, and tweaks them with other additives like fish-emulsion for veg, molasses, and even a small amount of chemo P&K in bloom to adjust the ratios a little.

I run drain-to-vaste in 3 g pots with soil/perlite, and feeds ferts that's been "activated" by aeration with a pump/airstone in a barrel for a day or two before it's used. I always water with run-off, and relatively moderate-strength fert-solution in each watering, and I get 120-150 grams pr 14 days vegged and topped hybrid clone under a 600w hps... 4 clones under each lamp, topped for 8-10 colas of approximately the same height.

The light and airy perlite soil, the "activated" liquid organics, and the 10-20% run-off with each twice-a-day watering, makes them thrive as hell for me without too much of the expensive stuff.