Advanced VS House and Garden VS GH - Surprising results !!

I am reposting this since the last thread got closed due to some newbie name calling other members So please keep it clean fellas. Its good info and I wanted to share. I want to save some people the time and $$ it took me to figure this out.

For those that think it isnt very scientific perhaps you are right but it has been very repeatable. Having used 12 gallons of the Advanced and 10 gallons of the H&G and 16 plus pounds of the GH powder I think it is safe to say. This is comparing the base nutes of these lineups which is more then fair since it is 90% of what you are giving your plants and the bulk of your costs.


I would also like to add that I have in fact used the ENTIRE lineup of Advanced and House and garden for several grows BEFORE doing this comparison and they still did not yield as well as the winner of this contest. In fact they performed no better then those base nutes did with the additives used in this test.



Cheap ass Maxibloom BEATS Advanced Nutrients & House and garden


I'll make this short but sweet. I have been running 3 tables with all three nutes. Same room same exact lighting etc. Have run multiple rounds now and run multiple strains to compare .

Setup ;

4X4 Ebb and Flow tables

5 inch pots Hydroton

1000 watt Hortilux bulbs all bought at the same time.

LOTS of fresh air being forced into room no CO2. Been there done that and too much PITA for this old guy.

I rotated the nutrients from each table for a total of three rounds to make sure it was consistent.

Plants all taken from same mothers by myself. Grown SOG 4 per Square foot. Switched at the same size 6-7 inches tall. All vegged with same nutes under same 600 watt tray then moved to flowering trays.

Strains grown are as follows;

Super Skunk
Cheese
Blue Dream
Agent Orange
Ice
Chronic White Widow

These are my results and honestly I am very surprised at them.

#1 Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom A&B, Floralicious Plus,AN Big Bud powder, MOAB bloom booster,Gravity, Ultra Snow Storm

Most expensive by far. Will run you $80 to treat about 250 gallons. I bought 6 gallons of each for $299 total and you use 3 teaspoons per gallon .

Results ; Great, very easy to grow with the stuff very tolerant to PH fluctuations no deficiencies. Good yields and good quality. No complaints other then price.



#2 House and Garden Aqua Flakes A & B , Floralicious Plus, AN Big Bud powder,MOAB bloom booster,Gravity, Ultra Snow Storm

Much cheaper then Advanced. Nearly half the cost. 5 gallons of each cost me $179 . You only use 2 teaspoons per gallon with this one max.

Results;

Main thing I noticed was plants didnt stretch much. Plants were much shorter then the Advanced plants. They grew very well and very dense but dont expect nearly the same kind of stretch. PH drops like a rock sometimes I have noticed so beware. Once I had 3.5 PH after adding the stuff. Other times just normal drop. Everything grows great. Quality on par with AN. Not quite as easy as the AN and shorter plants. Despite the savings I wont be using it anymore personally. I really dont like how much shorter then plants stayed. I need stretch for my type of growing. Lower yield then the AN but very fat plants. Was pleased over all.



#3 GH Maxi Bloom powder , Floralicious Plus,AN Big Bud powder, MOAB bloom booster,Gravity, Ultra Snow Storm

CHEAP CHEAP and EASY !! You can buy a 2 pound sack of the stuff for $15. You need 2 teaspoons per gallon for full strength so about 200 gallons for $15 worth !
You can also get this in 16 lb tub for $100.


Results;

Love how easy this stuff is to use. No dealing with spills and the hassle of moving 5-6 gal jugs around. Dilutes very quickly. PH is nice and stable. Doesn't burn at full strength and plants love it ! Stretch is like the Advanced when you use 50% Maxi Grow 50% Maxibloom the first week of bloom. Shit grows great with this stuff ! I was not expecting this and didnt want to post about this until I knew for certain. Totally blew me away. Got better results with this then either of the other two. Buds are significantly larger and actually produced more trichomes Largest yield of the three. Yes the cheap shit beat the other two in every way that matters ! Did I mention I was surprised to see this outcome ?


Lastly I throw this out there just for fun. I was able to get 30 grams per plant with my Chronic White Widow strain at 4 per square foot. No CO2. Great yielding Strain, good nute lineup, good air movement and lighting. Totally doable up to 1600 grams per light or 3.5 lbs ! For those gram per watt junkies that is 1.6 grams per watt. I give most the credit to that particular strain. Ice does almost as well but the rest fall to 20 grams per plant range.

So the moral of this story is you dont HAVE to buy expensive fancy bottled nutes to have great results . I was all sold on AN when I started hydro almost a year ago and now I know the truth. FYI been doing indoor growing for 5 years so not a new grower at all.

Peace

EDIT :

Ok well I know everyone wasnts some pics. Here is an early on round of Advanced Nutrients full lineup to give you an idea atleast of the reults I am getting. Strain here is Fruity Chronic. Averaged 30 grams per plant on this particular grow but they were in 6 inch pots not the 5 all my tests were done in and were vegged longer then the others. I averaged 25-28 I think on my last Maxibloom grow on this strain in 5 inch pots and much shorter veg time.

I have a couple gallons left of H&G A&B and wont even be using them which tells you not only does the cheapy cost less but works better.

Huh, this is interesting.

I really can't believe that a cheap nute can work so well. I've tried using other cheap nutes in my younger days, and they have been nothing but disasters. At the same time, I've used Advanced Nutrients without any issues and great results.

And I don't want to knock anyone's growing, but I've actually never seen someone grow with Maxibloom in my area. But hey, if it works for you...good for you.

Always glad to see someone post results online. Much better than just whining about one nute being worse than another.

Nice you put those nutes to work man. ++rep for you sir

Must of been a pain!

Great comparison! Do you have any flower pics? I spend more on additives than I do on my base of aqua flakes. I would like to see Ionic grow/bloom/boost in a comparison since its a simpler 1 part nutrient and 60$ gets you 2.5 gallons of grow,bloom, or boost. Highest yields indoors I have seen come from IONIC but then again Heath is not from this world. --|-- rep

dlively11 said:

I rotated the nutrients from each table for a total of three rounds to make sure it was consistent.

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I think I know what you are saying, but could clarify please?

..and great work and thank you for posting your results and the details for everybody. Wanted to say thanks in the other thread, but it got locked before I could. Regardless of how a few may not like how the test was done, there is good info here that a lot of folks will find very valueable.

I think that the simple 1 part nutrient solution is the key
1.Were you using tap water?or RO?
2.How was your reservoir? tempatures stored at? did you notice any nutrient settling out of any of the brands?

And no pictures???

surphin said:

I think I know what you are saying, but could clarify please?

..and great work and thank you for posting your results and the details for everybody. Wanted to say thanks in the other thread, but it got locked before I could. Regardless of how a few may not like how the test was done, there is good info here that a lot of folks will find very valueable.

Click to expand...

Sure, I ran each nutrient on all three of the trays for atleast one round. So first round MAxibloom was in tray #1 next round it was on tray #2 and so on. Just in case a ballast , bulb or air was better in one verse the other.

UrbanAerO said:

Great comparison! Do you have any flower pics? I spend more on additives than I do on my base of aqua flakes. I would like to see Ionic grow/bloom/boost in a comparison since its a simpler 1 part nutrient and 60$ gets you 2.5 gallons of grow,bloom, or boost. Highest yields indoors I have seen come from IONIC but then again Heath is not from this world. --|-- rep

Click to expand...

Sorry I wasnt good about doing picture comparisons. I was going by how the plants looked , smelled and the dry weight.

UrbanAerO said:

I think that the simple 1 part nutrient solution is the key
1.Were you using tap water?or RO?
2.How was your reservoir? tempatures stored at? did you notice any nutrient settling out of any of the brands?

Click to expand...

Someone told me whever you use a one part dry nutrient they have higher NPK values etc which is why you get better growth. Tap water run through cheapo inline filters. Reservoirs are 75 gallon and 100 gallon. No air stones no circulating pumps. Not sure on the temps. Room highs are about 80-82 degrees with no AC just LOTS of fresh air coming in. I have two 6 inch fans blowing air into the 5X20 room. No noticable settling of nutes I could see. The maxibloom mixes really fast. Few minutes in cold water and it will all be mixed in with a little stir.

Ok well I know everyone wasnts some pics. Here is an early on round of Advanced Nutrients full lineup to give you an idea atleast of the reults I am getting. Strain here is Fruity Chronic. Averaged 30 grams per plant on this particular grow but they were in 6 inch pots not the 5 all my tests were done in and were vegged longer then the others. I averaged 25-28 I think on my last Maxibloom grow on this strain in 5 inch pots and much shorter veg time.

I'll try and find some more pics and post them up. I didnt intend to do this experiment and post about it until after the fact. Otherwise I would have got more pics.

I am now trying an experiment to see how they do without AN Bid Bud which I have been using on all my runs previous. Shit is supposed to work great but I want to see how much it is really doing for my $$

dlively11 said:

Sure, I ran each nutrient on all three of the trays for atleast one round. So first round MAxibloom was in tray #1 next round it was on tray #2 and so on. Just in case a ballast , bulb or air was better in one verse the other.

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Ok, cool. This is what I thought you meant by it. Thanks.

Yields seem to be down a little with no Big Bud now ... Look good just not as fat and a little different growth kind of stretchy on the tops instead of rounded.

I don't care about yield as much as quality....Gimme a half pound of dank to a pound of o k chronic any day.........My herb sits on the top shelf of dispensaries thanx in part to H&G and AN supplement combos...I have gone the easy route and the quality is just not there.....The patients who spend their hard earned money on meds don't lie....My product sells out and keeps them coming back for more....That is all the proof i need.....Peace

masonite420 said:

I don't care about yield as much as quality....Gimme a half pound of dank to a pound of o k chronic any day.........My herb sits on the top shelf of dispensaries thanx in part to H&G and AN supplement combos...I have gone the easy route and the quality is just not there.....The patients who spend their hard earned money on meds don't lie....My product sells out and keeps them coming back for more....That is all the proof i need.....Peace

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Hey I am not knocking AN or H&G, they both work very well. I simply get a little better results for half the money with the GH dry combo I am using. I have since added Hydroplex in place of AN Big Bud and now not only do I get the same mid flower weight but the quality has gone up a notch. As to the whole quality issue, mine are all top shelf too (literally, just like you) and I am running 24 strains. Just a heds up to those wanting to save their hard earned $$.

dlively11 said:

Hey I am not knocking AN or H&G, they both work very well. I simply get a little better results for half the money with the GH dry combo I am using. I have since added Hydroplex in place of AN Big Bud and now not only do I get the same mid flower weight but the quality has gone up a notch. As to the whole quality issue, mine are all top shelf too (literally, just like you) and I am running 24 strains. Just a heds up to those wanting to save their hard earned $$.

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Well ...if you just compare base nutes and you are still using additives...H&G are some of the cheapest base nutes out there....$75 total for 5 liters of both A&B and it gets cheaper the more you buy.........When I use my additives I never go over 5ml a gallon of base and use only 1-3ml a gallon of base during veg........Additives are costly no matter what line you use..... in my opinion H&G's base is much better........That's the beauty though....It's like baking a cake......If you got a great recipe..... stick to it.....Peace

I liked H&G dont get me wrong. I tried the GH Maxibloom as a experiement and it gave be better results which surprised me. I still have a few gallons of the H&G lying around which should show how well it really worked. Might try the Maxi, it could surprise you. I like that is is so darn cheap and being a powder its very easy to use. It is a one part nutrient as well so you can go buy a $14 2.2 lb packet and be set. I now firmly beleive all these companies are charging a premium on the water and packaging compared to dry nutes. I epxecgted the dry nutrients to fail in comparison honestly. I was a firm beleiver in AN's lineup.Like you said whatever works for you. Just want people to know there are other potions out there that work just as well.