Veg and Bloom Grow

homebrewer said:

Are you mixing those plant food measurements in a gallon of RO? If that's the case and if your numbers are correct, there are several liquid plants foods that are cheaper than this dry food. Usually dry food is the better value.

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1 gallon correct
makes 81 gallons @ 1 tsp. given 5.5g/tsp. 448g/lb.

patlpp said:

1 gallon correct
makes 81 gallons @ 1 tsp. given 5.5g/tsp. 448g/lb.

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Ok, so I did some quick math and it looks like a $20 tub would last about 9 weeks with feeding levels at 1.0 EC in my 15 gallon res. Don't get me wrong, this stuff clearly works, it's just not a great value compared to other liquid and dry food options.

Where VEG+BLOOM is $99 for 5lbs, Maxibloom is $90 for 16 pounds (maxigrow is more comparable though).

Simply an observation.

@pet By no means am I writing V&B off. I always take extra ingredients into consideration. That is why I think PH-Sensi is a good value with its' Fulvic/humic/amino's and wetting agent added. I e-mailed V&B and he said the added Si of ~ 30 ppm is sufficient to reap the Si benefits yet not too much to comprimize PH stability. It sure mixes well, real clean like Dyna.

I decided to do some cost comparing.
Dyna-gro's feed schedule;
Dynagrow Bloom @ Kmart 23.99 qt., suggested 10ml per gallon average, makes 94 gallons, $.25 a gallon
Dynagrow Protekt @ Kmart 17.99 qt., suggested 4ml per gallon average, makes 236 gallons, $.08 a gallon
Dynagrow Mag Pro @ Kmart 26.99 qt. suggested 1ml per gallon average, makes 946 gallons, $.03 a gallon

Dynagro $.36 a gallon.....
Veg+Bloom $.24 a gallon.....

Veg+Bloom works out to be 30% less. Plus, I am using less than 5.5 grams Veg+Bloom per gallon so my cost is actually more like $.20 a gallon.

Cuebossa said:

I decided to do some cost comparing.
Dyna-gro's feed schedule;
Dynagrow Bloom @ Kmart 23.99 qt., suggested 10ml per gallon average, makes 94 gallons, $.25 a gallon
Dynagrow Protekt @ Kmart 17.99 qt., suggested 4ml per gallon average, makes 236 gallons, $.08 a gallon
Dynagrow Mag Pro @ Kmart 26.99 qt. suggested 1ml per gallon average, makes 946 gallons, $.03 a gallon

Dynagro $.36 a gallon.....
Veg+Bloom $.24 a gallon.....

Veg+Bloom works out to be 30% less. Plus, I am using less than 5.5 grams Veg+Bloom per gallon so my cost is actually more like $.20 a gallon.

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I wasn't comparing VEG+BLOOM to any liquid plant food in particular but since you used DynaGro, we can crunch some numbers to compare.

1ml of a DG base into a gallon of RO is around 120ppm (.7 scale). So to get to 1.0 EC, you'd need 5.8 mls/gallon. The DG bases run about $50/gallon so that puts the cost of a ml at 1.3 cents ($50/3780mls).

So to compare apples to apples here, it would cost 7.54 cents to get 1 gallon of RO to 1.0 EC with DG so in my 15 gallons res, a nine week flowering cycle would cost $10.17 (.0754*15*9) as compared to VB which is almost double to cost.

I'm not saying one food is better than the other, I was just surprised at the cost of this dry food. It works though and your plants look great. Keep up the good work!

@HB you should add pro-tekt costs in also since VB has silica and fulvics and can not be segregated in the measurements. VG has free shipping when you buy 3lbs or more (about 3 lbs equals 1 gallon Dyna dosage wise). I can get dyna @50/gal free shipping all day. When I stated 5.5g/teaspoon I was going off the label. When I actually measured 10 level teaspoons I got 38g so 3.8 g/tsp (more inline with @petflora's measurement) With these amended numbers I get 2.3 grams for an EC of 1 in 1 gallon. 1 lb will feed 195 gallons@1ec. or 10c / gallon.

DYNA: 7.5c/gal
V&B : 10c/gal with silica/fulvic/amino's

@HB if you add pro-tekt what would the dosed per gallon cost be pushed up to ? (if you were to decrease your grow calc and add silica to reach the same EC of 1)? Probably close to 7.5c anyways?

All in all I think they are equal in value given the added stuff in VB

patlpp said:

@HB you should add pro-tekt costs in also since VB has silica and fulvics and can not be segregated in the measurements. VG has free shipping when you buy 3lbs or more (about 3 lbs equals 1 gallon Dyna dosage wise). I can get dyna @50/gal free shipping all day. When I stated 5.5g/teaspoon I was going off the label. When I actually measured 10 level teaspoons I got 38g so 3.8 g/tsp (more inline with @petflora's measurement) With these amended numbers I get 2.3 grams for an EC of 1 in 1 gallon. 1 lb will feed 195 gallons@1ec. or 10c / gallon.

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Gotcha, that's more inline with what i'd think a dry food would cost.

DYNA: 7.5c/gal
V&B : 10c/gal with silica/fulvic/amino's

@HB if you add pro-tekt what would the dosed per gallon cost be pushed up to ? (if you were to decrease your grow calc and add silica to reach the same EC of 1)? Probably close to 7.5c anyways?

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Protekt at a rate of 4mls/gallon and priced around $40/gal adds about $5 to the cost of a grow in my 15 gallon res and adds about 4 cents to the cost of a gallon. So 11.5 cents vs VB's 10 cents.

I'm all for 'cheap and easy' and it definitely looks like VB is easy. Your initial numbers surprised me but it actually does look like VB is cheap afterall.

homebrewer said:

Gotcha, that's more inline with what i'd think a dry food would cost.




Protekt at a rate of 4mls/gallon and priced around $40/gal adds about $5 to the cost of a grow in my 15 gallon res and adds about 4 cents to the cost of a gallon. So 11.5 cents vs VB's 10 cents.

I'm all for 'cheap and easy' and it definitely looks like VB is easy. Your initial numbers surprised me but it actually does look like VB is cheap afterall.

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I find the simplicity of use a huge value factor as well. 1 part, nothing else to worry about....priceless. I also like that if you keep it in it's container it lasts forever and won't settle like liquids do.

The Ocean Forest specimen is really putting out the pistils now, I've kept her around 1.3-1.5 EC

homebrewer said:

Gotcha, that's more inline with what i'd think a dry food would cost.




Protekt at a rate of 4mls/gallon and priced around $40/gal adds about $5 to the cost of a grow in my 15 gallon res and adds about 4 cents to the cost of a gallon. So 11.5 cents vs VB's 10 cents.

I'm all for 'cheap and easy' and it definitely looks like VB is easy. Your initial numbers surprised me but it actually does look like VB is cheap afterall.

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4ml gallon of Protekt?? I have never used that much.

Lucius Vorenus said:

4ml gallon of Protekt?? I have never used that much.

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I use up 10 ml/gal...upon research 140 ppm showed the most benefit

Lucius Vorenus said:

4ml gallon of Protekt?? I have never used that much.

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DG 'recommends' 5mls/gal and I use 3mls/gal in veg for my hydro girls. The combination of my base nutes and protekt always puts the pH in my hydro reservoirs at 5.8. I could use less Protekt but I'd be adding pH up instead, pick your poison.

Just started using V+B on my soil plants, so far 1 week in and their taking it on pretty well.. ill post pictures of the final results.

450ppm Ro/soft formula might bump it up a bit later in flower then lower it at the end for a flush
Ro water 6.5ph

Ocean Forest seems to be producing nice herbs. I am very impressed by how little I need to tend to it. I am watering every other day now and have recently flushed from the 1.4EC I was running due to super dark leaves.

Lovely lady bossa, how many watts are your plants under?

I have the 4-5 of these under a 600 at all times. Need to stay medicated.

Nice! I need a ec meter I guess..

So break that down, how many teaspoons per gallon have you been using? Did you wait until flower to start feeding it VB or was you giving your vegging plant VB on top of the nutes already in the ffof?

Get an EC meter, it really helps you dial it in! I Stopped using teaspoons but I would guess it's around 3/4. Yes, I used it from day 1 as it's instantly available. I fed when I transplanted.

Wow. That's a lot of nutes, do you have pics of the different stages? My plants have always flourished up to week 4 with just what's in the soil.. I didn't really plan on starting the VB until I flipped. Unless they start acting hungry before of course.

I'd like to see a pic of that plant at 4 weeks veg..

Here is a day or two after I transplanted. I only veg for a couple weeks.
cuebossa-153098-albums-veg-bloom-picture2280954-riu1.jpg
and that was on 8/3 so I'm about 5 weeks in, I think it really helped build the bones by starting it earlier on