I us HN's Master Line and all addtives. I decided to do a comparison grow. A total of 16 power kush plants.
All plants were grown in MaxiPots 3.27gal, HN soil which is about 70% Peat, remainder is perlite, dolmitic lime, and myco
Plants were grown about 18" in height and topped a few times to allow for multiple colas
Lighting was HPS for sunrise, sun during daylight, HPS for sunset, then sealed in dark room for 12 hours of night. on rainy days they remained under 1000W HPS
4 were given HN's entire lineup (control)
4 were given HN's entire lineup @ half strength with the addition of Humbolt Countys Own Snow Storm, Bush Master, Gravity, & Purple Maxx according to their combined feed schedule (half strength and quarter strength nutes were used as per HCO's guidelines when using all of their products.
4 were given HN's entire lineup with the addition of Kushie Kush for the first 6 weeks at 2ml/gal
4 were given HN's entire lineup with the addition of Flower Dragon for the first 2 weeks at 6ml/gal
Observations...
#1 - not gonna use flower dragon again, at least not on a small plant or perhaps it was the dosage? I may give it a try on one of my outdoor in ground plants. On the paperwork that came with the free quart there are 4 methods to feed with. We chose the powerhitter because of an increased time in vegetative state. i found that flower dragon caused the plant to become more scragly. It weighed out apx the same as the control, however, the flowers were not as packed together and trimming gave off more leafy material the providing more shake as an end result. the plants needed to be tied and supported more than the control group. There was no noticable difference in taste, aroma, or high.
#2 - kushie kush imparts a different flavor and aroma, more of a musky earthy oily note that is desired in kush plants. However it too caused the plant to become more scragly. The flowers were more dense than the dragon group but not as tight as the control group. final weight was greater than the dragon group but less than the control group. nugs looked better once they were trimmed and cured but not as good as the control group. it is something that we will continue to use on true kush plants but the test was really to see if it gives the "kush" flavor. I will say that it does, but to use it as an additive with other nutrient companies...hmm...not sure about that and to use AN's entire lineup?...hmmm...not sure about that either.
#3 - Humbolt Countys Own - Snowstorm, BushMaster, Gravity, PurpleMaxx - Very good results!! We still need to tweak the feed schedule for it. Bushmaster can be used up to 4 times according the bottle. HCO recommend reduced or no nutrient usage if using all 4 of their boosters. Purple Maxx didn't cause any purpling, however, we know from growing the power kush that it doesn't get purple unless it gets really cold. Then the entire plant will turn puple and won't need purplemaxx at all. As far as weight and look. The control group and HCO group had the best shaped plants and flowers. There was very little if any scragly popcorn style nugs. Weight of HCO was greater than the control group but not by a significant amount. There were however more trichomes visable when viewing through a scope. Taste wasn't different nor was aroma. The plants were fed half of the nutrient value of the control group and at times when it called for using straight water we used quarter strenght nutrients. It's interesting to see that by using less nutrients we were able to get the same yield.
#4 - HN - very solid nutrient lineup. The Verde is by far one of my favorite products. It is the basis of our foliar application. We've since then begun a new experiment. We are now comparing HN's Master A/B with Sunleaves Guano Teas as a base nutrient. Still using the remainder of the HN lineup to brew a very nice compost tea. pH is much more stable using the Guano instead of salt based nutrient. We are adding the Humboldt, Flavorful, Prozyme, Roots, Myco Madness, White Widow, Honey ES, Mayan, DueceDuece and Equilibrium. Our comparison is not entirely complete as the HN lineup uses BigUp and Ginormous which are both salt based. We are not using those in the guano tea but are using it in the nutrient resi.
Cheers