Do We Really Need Nutrients with Ideal Hydro Conditions? Looking for Top Growers' Opinions

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hbnrmz

Member
Hey everyone!

After gathering information from various forums, insights from fellow growers, and even getting feedback from grow shops, I'm starting to question: are nutrients even necessary for hydroponics? If, theoretically, the basic conditions like light, temperature, and humidity are perfect, would boosters or nutrients even make a difference? It's a thought that's been bugging me, especially with all the different opinions out there.

While I have all the basic nutrients on hand, I'm curious if there's something additional that's worth considering to give my crops a boost. We all know manufacturers always tout their products as the best, but from what I've gathered, if the basics are properly set, there might not be much more to add. Also, could you point me to some of the top growers on this forum who have a lot of experience with hydroponics and nutrients? I'd love to learn from their experiences and insights.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations and references! :)
 
Tolerance Break

Tolerance Break

Well-Known Member
You're asking two very different questions.

Feeding your plants tap or RO alone in hydro is not sufficient, they will starve to death.

Additives are only nessessary if the plant demands it.

VPD, fertigation frequency aswell as volume, light intensity/spectrum (PAR and DLI), strain, Co2 levels, and feed strength are all going to have an effect.

I've grown weed with just Jacks 321, and I've grown weed with Jacks 321, finish, and Impello brand Mono sililic acid. I got weed every time. So, no, you don't need additives, but they can be helpful.
 
Tolerance Break

Tolerance Break

Well-Known Member
Hydro is a broad topic. There's Drain to waste, flood and drain, deep water culture, and within those categories there's variations of grow mediums, and no two of them are the same in practice, but they all have their pros and cons. You should browse the sub forum, or topic search the sub forum, and start reading. Looking through grow diaries will be of great help.

Welcome to roll it up!
 
H

hbnrmz

Member
rkymtnman said:
you'll have to do side by side grows and see what works and what doesn't as far as additives and or boosters . then report back please.
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Oh yes, that is definitelly something we will do in a future :) Thank you for your answer.

Tolerance Break said:
You're asking two very different questions.

Feeding your plants tap or RO alone in hydro is not sufficient, they will starve to death.

Additives are only nessessary if the plant demands it.

VPD, fertigation frequency aswell as volume, light intensity/spectrum (PAR and DLI), strain, Co2 levels, and feed strength are all going to have an effect.

I've grown weed with just Jacks 321, and I've grown weed with Jacks 321, finish, and Impello brand Mono sililic acid. I got weed every time. So, no, you don't need additives, but they can be helpful.
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Thank you for your detailed response! I apologize for not being clear in my initial post. We are indeed using the basic nutrients for our plants. I appreciate your insights and it seems that the best way for us to truly understand the impact of additives might be to conduct a side-by-side comparison ourselves. Thanks again for your input! and for warm welcome :D

ALPHA.GanjaGuy said:
this is accurate
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As easy as it sounds? :) Thanks for feedback.


By the way, if any future visitors to this thread have come across a side-by-side comparison of using additives versus not, I'd be really interested to hear about your findings. Please share!
 
A

ALPHA.GanjaGuy

Well-Known Member
hbnrmz said:
As easy as it sounds? :) Thanks for feedback.
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it can be, as long as you do what the plant wants and not what you want/think.. us humans usually make a mess of things quite quickly and quite easily, get the basics dialed and from there you can decide if you want to tweak things.. there are some growers putting out fantastic grows with very basic but quality inputs..
 
calvin.m16

calvin.m16

Well-Known Member
Yeah you need fertilizer for hydro. Feed a low EC solution with a properly set pH and you will get great results, try to cut corners and experiment and your gonna have a bad time, unless experimenting is more up your alley.
 
HGCC

HGCC

Well-Known Member
hbnrmz said:
Oh yes, that is definitelly something we will do in a future :) Thank you for your answer.



Thank you for your detailed response! I apologize for not being clear in my initial post. We are indeed using the basic nutrients for our plants. I appreciate your insights and it seems that the best way for us to truly understand the impact of additives might be to conduct a side-by-side comparison ourselves. Thanks again for your input! and for warm welcome :D


As easy as it sounds? :) Thanks for feedback.


By the way, if any future visitors to this thread have come across a side-by-side comparison of using additives versus not, I'd be really interested to hear about your findings. Please share!
Click to expand...
I kind of think you need to do the side by sides yourself. Each grower is going to have several different variables in their environment that will impact how the various additives effect things. Don't get me wrong, it's good to take a look at other people's results and trials...but just because grower A had positive results doesn't mean you will.


Except pee, that's just universally a gift from God.
 
amneziaHaze

amneziaHaze

Well-Known Member
hbnrmz said:
Hey everyone!

After gathering information from various forums, insights from fellow growers, and even getting feedback from grow shops, I'm starting to question: are nutrients even necessary for hydroponics? If, theoretically, the basic conditions like light, temperature, and humidity are perfect, would boosters or nutrients even make a difference? It's a thought that's been bugging me, especially with all the different opinions out there.

While I have all the basic nutrients on hand, I'm curious if there's something additional that's worth considering to give my crops a boost. We all know manufacturers always tout their products as the best, but from what I've gathered, if the basics are properly set, there might not be much more to add. Also, could you point me to some of the top growers on this forum who have a lot of experience with hydroponics and nutrients? I'd love to learn from their experiences and insights.

Thanks in advance for any recommendations and references! :)
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Well first you need hydro nutes because normal nutes dont have microelements.
And you can finish your grow with that my masterblend has all the basics in one powder and cal mag in 2 bags.

Now you can add silica to give your plant power.
You can add bacteria to fight other bacteria and alge and to also eat your nutes and shit food for plant.allsoo bacteria will control ph better.

You can add mycos to have them bind to roots and feed the plant and protect it aswell.

You can use growth hormone from kelp to give your plant a slight boost in growth

You can add food coloring or food extracts to give it smell and taste of random shit...
 
ProPheT 216

ProPheT 216

Well-Known Member
weedemart said:
Is this real? Try grow something out of nothing and tell me if you needed something else once the experiment is done.
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I agree I feel like the way it is worded he is asking do you need nutrients at all, not just the bro additives.

If this is the question. Hatch a seed in rockwool and feed it only water to see the result.

If your asking about all the extras. Leat it alone. If you wanna add something extra buy some recharge.
 
rkymtnman

rkymtnman

Well-Known Member
hbnrmz said:
ProPheT 216 said:
I agree I feel like the way it is worded he is asking do you need nutrients at all, not just the bro additives.

If this is the question. Hatch a seed in rockwool and feed it only water to see the result.
weedemart said:
Is this real? Try grow something out of nothing and tell me if you needed something else once the experiment is done.
Click to expand...
If your asking about all the extras. Leat it alone. If you wanna add something extra buy some recharge.
Click to expand...
While I have all the basic nutrients on hand, I'm curious if there's something additional that's worth considering to give my crops a boost.
Click to expand...
i think the way he worded the title was either click bait or not the best use of English
 
B

bluegill

Well-Known Member
When I first started doing DWC buckets, I tossed some bagseed in on just tap water. I was willing to lose this game because the seeds didn't cost me anything. They were pale. Like... that's an understatement... they looked anemic. I ordered the GH 3 part solution midway through the veg and decided to veg longer after seeing the results. Now I mostly seed expensive, verified, feminized strains, and sometimes bagseed just for fun.

Your tap water might have enough of some nutrients, but not enough of others. But also, if this is the case, your EC would be too low/unstable for hydro, and your pH would probably be too high for the plants (maybe too low in some cases). Where I'm at, we have pH of 8.7 and especially hard water in general. Now I'm using SensiGrow A/B. Both GH and SensiGrow have been able to buffer the pH to the appropriate range and keep it stable.
 
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