3 days on jack's 5-12-26 and the plants are loving it! Bye bye General Hydroponics forever

I took the plunge 3 days ago and transitioned my entire garden over to jack's 5-12-26 from GH's maxi grow / bloom, and all of the plants look fantastic at 647-675PPM! That's pretty incredible to me, and explains why my jack's grown flowers taste and burn better. I have to feed GH's maxi grow / bloom at 775-825PPM to prevent deficiencies. Jack's gets the job done at nearly 200PPM less. The plants are growing and are as happy as they can be with significantly less fertilizer input, so the plants are absorbing lower levels of elements and I believe this is directly related to flavor and burn qualities.

We've all smoked one of those fertilizer over loaded hydro flowers that scorch your throat and lungs. They often burn poorly, but visually appear like any other high quality flower. I believe it's the plant simply absorbing too many elements. Those elements accumulate in the plant's tissue. Flowers for instance, right? Who on earth wants an excessive amount of phosphorous or potassium in their flowers? P&K loaded flowers look great. It's all downhill from there. The flowers taste terrible, and they burn poorly due to the excess elements present in the plant tissue. That problem doesn't occur with jack's. I'm excited to post my post harvest quality report on the latest jack's grown flowers in the near future. Anyone else notice their flowers taste better with jack's versus other fertilizers that require much higher PPM's to satisfy the plant's needs?

Lights out at the moment. I'll snap pics and post them later tonight. I hate when I see a thread like this and the OP doesn't post pics. Just pisses me off

I have not harvested anything with jacks yet. I switched over this go and things are looking facking ggggrrrreeat!

I'm doing the entire tap water chart with the bloom and finish formulas. Didn't buy the clone stuff. Not needed.

Running the bloom atm for a week or 2.

Starting to hate growing from seed. Plants are on completely different stages of life now. Makes running 2 plants on the same res much harder.

Jacks is a great fertilizer. You don't need cannabis specific nutrients to grow great weed. In fact some of the cannabis specific nutrients will fry your plants if you feed atb the rate they have in their ridiculous feeding charts using a dozen bottles of this and that. Too many people are hung up thinking cannabis is some special plant that needs all this special stuff. It's one of the easiest plants to grow which is why I can't understand why so many have so much difficulty and issues. Well I do know. They're overfeeding them with all this crap out there because they fell for the marketing.

The idea that we should "push" the ppms instead of using the minimum amount necessary to keep them happy is what makes for nasty bud-you see it all the time, pics of buds with fried leaves everywhere. That's one reason I like coco so much, you can get away with much lower #s and just feed more often.

Failmore said:

I have not harvested anything with jacks yet. I switched over this go and things are looking facking ggggrrrreeat!

I'm doing the entire tap water chart with the bloom and finish formulas. Didn't buy the clone stuff. Not needed.

Running the bloom atm for a week or 2.

Starting to hate growing from seed. Plants are on completely different stages of life now. Makes running 2 plants on the same res much harder.

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Great feedback man! Good to hear you're on the gravy train and not overpaying for fertilizer, and it sounds like it's working great for you!

My $.02 on Jack's marketing the clone and bloom mix is that they are just trying to keep their marketing consistent with other cannabis specific fertilizers. If people want to buy it J.R. Peters is going to sell it if it's fertilizer related. I'm sure the clone mix and bloom mix are great quality fertilizers. I feel they are unnecessary, and only an attempt to get some of that lack-of-information-cannabis-gardener $cheddar$ Everyone's gotta make a dollar in this world. They aren't over charging for the products, so it's not an ethical dilemma or anything like that. It's just more cash than you need to spend buying 3 separate bags. Clone, 5-12-26, and bloom. The 5-12-26 and calcium nitrate is all that's needed. I'd get lost in all the schedules and transitions. Way too complicated for me

xtsho said:

Jacks is a great fertilizer. You don't need cannabis specific nutrients to grow great weed. In fact some of the cannabis specific nutrients will fry your plants if you feed atb the rate they have in their ridiculous feeding charts using a dozen bottles of this and that. Too many people are hung up thinking cannabis is some special plant that needs all this special stuff. It's one of the easiest plants to grow which is why I can't understand why so many have so much difficulty and issues. Well I do know. They're overfeeding them with all this crap out there because they fell for the marketing.

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You should have seen my first pot plants I ever grew. I had this little suitcase called "techna flora recipe for success." Man did I feel cool. Had like 10 bottles of shit that made no sense to me, but I was instructed to use them all. And I did. I harvested nothing smoke-able. It was pretty horrendous looking. Then I got on the forums and started taking advice from other growers. Wound up landing on the GH flora trio with floralicous plus at the time. Worked great. Very expensive fertilizer though if your garden grows in time. Those bottles empty very quickly, and I just kept watching my money go to the bottomless pit of the hydro store. Those days are over thank god

jonnynobody said:

Great feedback man! Good to hear you're on the gravy train and not overpaying for fertilizer, and it sounds like it's working great for you!

My $.02 on Jack's marketing the clone and bloom mix is that they are just trying to keep their marketing consistent with other cannabis specific fertilizers. If people want to buy it J.R. Peters is going to sell it if it's fertilizer related. I'm sure the clone mix and bloom mix are great quality fertilizers. I feel they are unnecessary, and only an attempt to get some of that lack-of-information-cannabis-gardener $cheddar$ Everyone's gotta make a dollar in this world. They aren't over charging for the products, so it's not an ethical dilemma or anything like that. It's just more cash than you need to spend buying 3 separate bags. Clone, 5-12-26, and bloom. The 5-12-26 and calcium nitrate is all that's needed. I'd get lost in all the schedules and transitions. Way too complicated for me

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Not arguing at all with that. Def can go start to finish with the base. Just wanted to see how they did if I went the route they suggested.



These 2 autos are Crushing it. Needs some trimming for sure. Been busy and lazy. Fiance is studying in the room so I don't want to make a racket atm.

Rurumo said:

The idea that we should "push" the ppms instead of using the minimum amount necessary to keep them happy is what makes for nasty bud-you see it all the time, pics of buds with fried leaves everywhere. That's one reason I like coco so much, you can get away with much lower #s and just feed more often.

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i feed mine in dwc 1x a day at 0.5EC.

jonnynobody said:

You should have seen my first pot plants I ever grew. I had this little suitcase called "techna flora recipe for success." Man did I feel cool. Had like 10 bottles of shit that made no sense to me, but I was instructed to use them all. And I did. I harvested nothing smoke-able. It was pretty horrendous looking. Then I got on the forums and started taking advice from other growers. Wound up landing on the GH flora trio with floralicous plus at the time. Worked great. Very expensive fertilizer though if your garden grows in time. Those bottles empty very quickly, and I just kept watching my money go to the bottomless pit of the hydro store. Those days are over thank god

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I switched to a product years ago similar to Jacks but put out by the local hydro shop. I was getting my wallet cleaned out running multiple reservoirs for flood and drain. Money was literally going down the drain each reservoir change. I think the worst was the Botanicare Pure Blend Pro. I only did one run with that and then went to the GH 3 part. Both the Botanicare and GH made a mess. That purple GH Micro is some sludgy stuff. And that Pure Blend Pro is thickly sludge as well.

Jacks is a clean running nutrient if you're doing hydro but it works fine regardless of hydro, soil, coco, etc...

Less money spent on unnecessary overpriced nutrients means more money to spend on beer. If I'm going to be pissing money away I want it to go through me first.

xtsho said:

Less money spent on unnecessary overpriced nutrients means more money to spend on beer

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put that on a t shirt and i'll buy it.

rkymtnman said:

i feed mine in dwc 1x a day at 0.5EC.

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I started using Jack's 2 months ago. Started @ my usual .8-1.2ec and had a bad P/Mg deficiency.

Found I'm having to run 1.6ec veg and full strength 2.4ec in flower using RO water in hydroton hempy buckets.

Not an issue. Plants are liking the Jack's, I just didn't expect to be feeding @ 2x my usual EC.

.Smoke said:

I started using Jack's 2 months ago. Started @ my usual .8-1.2ec and had a bad P/Mg deficiency.

Found I'm having to run 1.6ec veg and full strength 2.4ec in flower using RO water in hydroton hempy buckets.

Not an issue. Plants are liking the Jack's, I just didn't expect to be feeding @ 2x my usual EC.

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that's weird for sure. twice what you used to feed at huh? im using the jacks RO formula (with well water)and this is the first ive not needed to add Mg

what were your old nutes?

so if you go by the jacks bag NPK ratio it's 5-12-26 plus the cal/nit which would make it 17-12-26, correct?? so like 1.4 - 1 - 2.2??

rkymtnman said:

that's weird for sure. twice what you used to feed at huh? im using the jacks RO formula (with well water)and this is the first ive not needed to add Mg

what were your old nutes?

so if you go by the jacks bag NPK ratio it's 5-12-26 plus the cal/nit which would make it 17-12-26, correct?? so like 1.4 - 1 - 2.2??

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I was using the 1 part Megacrop.

Jack's mixed @ full strength is 2.2-2.4EC in RO water @ a mix of 3.6/2.4/1.2.

Hmmm..............................3 days and everything is awesome. Please post again in another 42 more days and say the same thing. Then I will cheer and clap for you

Failmore said:

Not arguing at all with that. Def can go start to finish with the base. Just wanted to see how they did if I went the route they suggested.

View attachment 4849442

These 2 autos are Crushing it. Needs some trimming for sure. Been busy and lazy. Fiance is studying in the room so I don't want to make a racket atm.

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Great picture of your ladies man! They look healthy as a horse in it's prime. How far into flower are you? Those auto's are interesting. I've never ran one myself, but I hear they greatly shorten the seed to harvest time. I wonder how fast you could turn harvests if you ran a perpetual with auto's? Harvest every 6 weeks?

And I'm actually very interested to see how your results are. I was apprehensive to buy the clone and flower formula. Let us know what you think when you've got a smoke report after harvest. I'm very interested to know how the quality is using the 3 different NPK ratios at different life stages.

A little hair cut defoliation will vastly improve your yield. How far into flower do you think you are?

xtsho said:

I switched to a product years ago similar to Jacks but put out by the local hydro shop. I was getting my wallet cleaned out running multiple reservoirs for flood and drain. Money was literally going down the drain each reservoir change. I think the worst was the Botanicare Pure Blend Pro. I only did one run with that and then went to the GH 3 part. Both the Botanicare and GH made a mess. That purple GH Micro is some sludgy stuff. And that Pure Blend Pro is thickly sludge as well.

Jacks is a clean running nutrient if you're doing hydro but it works fine regardless of hydro, soil, coco, etc...

Less money spent on unnecessary overpriced nutrients means more money to spend on beer. If I'm going to be pissing money away I want it to go through me first.

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I have no aversion to using a different brand as long as the value is the same as jack's. I hear lots of great things about mega crop. There's another one that's really growing out there, but I can't remember the name. I chose jack's out of familiarity and grow green had 25# bags on sale for $56 including free shipping. Fucker's had me boxed in. I couldn't say no

.Smoke said:

I started using Jack's 2 months ago. Started @ my usual .8-1.2ec and had a bad P/Mg deficiency.

Found I'm having to run 1.6ec veg and full strength 2.4ec in flower using RO water in hydroton hempy buckets.

Not an issue. Plants are liking the Jack's, I just didn't expect to be feeding @ 2x my usual EC.

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Wow that's interesting. I get weird leaf anomalies if I run my usual 1.8 EC with jack's. Every environment is different though, and if that's what the ladies want for lunch you better serve that shit up I tried the recipe at 3.6g jack's and 2.4g calcium nitrate, but it was too strong. The canopy didn't look healthy and tip burn was evident. My lights are very close to my canopy though. Jonny has low ceilings in his flower room. As a result my plants drink a lot more water than a flower room in which the lights were placed higher. The leaves are sweating at a much higher rate and as a result they drink much more water. I have 5 that are drinking daily now. 2 of which are now drinking twice per day. I haven't even entered the 4th week of flower yet. I'm going to have to upgrade to 10 gallon buckets after this cycle. Watering 2-3x/day is bush league shit man

.Smoke said:

I was using the 1 part Megacrop.

Jack's mixed @ full strength is 2.2-2.4EC in RO water @ a mix of 3.6/2.4/1.2.

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How often do you water? My standard 5 gallon plants that aren't exceptional monsters usually go every 2 days. Jager was my first plant that required 2x/day last cycle. This cycle I have 3 plants that vegged for over 10 weeks. Fucker's are mucking up my routine because they're so dam big, but the harvest should be substantial. Only got 9 in there this cycle. I have 1 more blue dream hiding in a 4x4x6.5 under the Geyapex COB. That girl stinks so good I don't think I'll ever let her go. BD is a keeper.

rkymtnman said:

put that on a t shirt and i'll buy it.

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Wish I could drink beer. God do I miss a nice solid alcohol buzz. I drank the swill man. Bud Ice. Cheap. Effective. Drink it with a spoon. 6 years sober last year. I do miss it, but I'd lose everything if I went down that rabbit hole again. Even tried non-alcoholic. I felt like shit for 3 days and had a significant reaction that was unpleasant. Doctor's say some people develop an allergy to alcohol and it changes the way their body reacts. That's me. Fortunately I keep a good stock of hash oil on hand to keep me lubed up between the ears

6 1/2 years ago I woulda totally wore that fucking shirt!

jonnynobody said:

Great picture of your ladies man! They look healthy as a horse in it's prime. How far into flower are you? Those auto's are interesting. I've never ran one myself, but I hear they greatly shorten the seed to harvest time. I wonder how fast you could turn harvests if you ran a perpetual with auto's? Harvest every 6 weeks?

And I'm actually very interested to see how your results are. I was apprehensive to buy the clone and flower formula. Let us know what you think when you've got a smoke report after harvest. I'm very interested to know how the quality is using the 3 different NPK ratios at different life stages.

A little hair cut defoliation will vastly improve your yield. How far into flower do you think you are?

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I'm day 47 from putting them in the pot. 49 from seeds in towel.

If you leave autos alone they will flower much faster and produce a fast small plant.

It seems when you start mucking around with lst and what not they tend to veg longer and grow bigger.

From what I have seen from my friend they do flower much faster.

Whether or not you can get faster turn around is kinda up in the air.

It seems like they flower and stretch at the same time. So there is no 2 week transition.

Growing from seed csn suck tho when you want to change the nutes based on time. Left plant is deep in flower. Right side plant is not. So they are 1-2 weeks difference. Which means a staggered harvest. And a staggered finish. And that sucks for me...a lot.