Feeding: Maxibloom -or- Sensi Bloom A&B?

So this is my first ever grow, and it will be outdoor. I'm familiar with plants and enjoy gardening, but I am not familiar with a regimented feeding schedule using liquid fertilizers.

I've decided to use straight Pro-Mix (with maybe a dash more perlite) in 5 gallon grow bags for my autoflowers.
I've done quite a bit of reading and just wanted to weigh-in here with what type of food and feeding schedule you think is better.
(I know there are endless additional boosters and additional flowing supplements, but for the sake of keeping it simple I'll just ask about the main supplements and ask about boosters later.)

Which would you recommend?

COMBO #1
Advanced Nutrients Sensi Bloom A&B (Veg + Flower)
TaNgs EASY Auto Feeding Schedule
(As per Dr. Autoflower's advice)
Pros: More forgiving with Ph, less Ph testing needed
Cons: Costs more

COMBO #2
Maxibloom (Veg + Flower)
Budybong's Schedule (Seen this going around quite a bit)
Pros: Cheaper, simple, good even on its own
Cons: Measuring/adjusting Ph recommended

I've heard great things about both. I've seen countless HUGE grows on just MaxiBloom alone, and so many people swear by it. Then again, I really like the appeal of Sensi Bloom because the Ph is supposed to be easier to maintain.

Thanks in advance for your vote!

You will find many "haters" of AN, personally, I've been using AN and ProMix for a LONG time. I'm used to it and don't want to go thru another "learning curve", switching to LED's from HPS was enough for me, LOL. I've switched from hydro store ProMix for the ProMix at Menards, 1/3 of the price for basically the same product, the only difference I see, is that it has a few more twigs in the mix, and that doesn't bother me since I can get 3 bags for the price of 1.
I run Connoisseur, have gotten away from Sensi, as I've had better results. Some of the best pricing I've found for AN products have been thru Growgeneration.com and Growgreenmi.com, way better than any local hydro shop, 60-70 % cheaper than anyplace I've found local to me. I have horrible testing well water, and the PH perfect line works very good for my well water, my PH pen sits, because when I do decide to pull it out and check, it's always been good.
Maxi bloom is good also, I've seen some nice grows with it, and it has been around for a long time, and you will find many more users with experience using it than you will with AN. I personally won't use it because it was bought out by Scotts Miracle grow, and won't support that company.
As a 1st time grower, YOU need to pick one, Stick with it, and do a full run. Either one will get you thru to the finish line and get you good results. There are a lot of different nutrient companies, and people generally stick to what works for them after trial and error. Some people will bounce from crop to crop trying different lines until they find what they are looking for.
Good luck on your grow, and hope you get some nice buds to roll some fatty's with.

AN will require less tinkering than Maxibloom. Maxi will have pH crashing unless you're using tap/well water.

How does pH crash when you're using MaxiBloom?

I find it silly that someone would refuse to use GH MaxiBloom because they were bought by Scotts Miracle Grow but have no problems using a product from AN which is one of the most scammy companies out there. Their entire website is like one big infomercial. The only thing missing is the Snake Oil Salesman touting their ridiculous claims and promoting their nonsense.

GH is a decent company regardless of who purchased them in recent years. The products haven't changed and the employees are the same. I'd rather give my money to Scotts than AN any day of the week.

Hate them if you want but Scotts Miracle Gro has probably donated more money towards the legalization of cannabis than most other entities and is continuing to support the legalization of cannabis. They are not the boogeyman some claim them to be.

If you want overpriced products with cool sounding names that come in bottles with cartoon characters then AN is for you.

Maxibloom is awesome, go with that. I have fairly alkaline tap water to begin with, like a good portion of the country, and Maxi adjusts the PH down to 6.3 all by itself-so you might get lucky and not need to adjust PH at all. It all depends on your tap water though, so you may or may not need to add PH up or down depending on your water-which is the same as ANY fertilizer. Here is a great older thread on using Maxibloom KISS https://www.icmag.com/threads/the-k-i-s-s-method.189616/

MaxiBloom for the win.
It costs me a whopping $18 per grow.

Rurumo said:

Maxibloom is awesome, go with that. I have fairly alkaline tap water to begin with, like a good portion of the country, and Maxi adjusts the PH down to 6.3 all by itself-so you might get lucky and not need to adjust PH at all. It all depends on your tap water though, so you may or may not need to add PH up or down depending on your water-which is the same as ANY fertilizer. Here is a great older thread on using Maxibloom KISS https://www.icmag.com/threads/the-k-i-s-s-method.189616/

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yeah I saw that same thread, thanks for reminding me of it I forgot the shaking in the jar tip. Getting my ph tester this week and will find out where the water is at. I googled “my town” “water ph” and looks like we have generally hard tap water but will know for sure once I test. Thanks!

Maxibloom ( from start to finish ) - forget that buttbong schedule.

You can easily run a grow with just maxibloom.
Maxigrow is good also for long veg grows - never had ph problems. I run this on tap water / minor ph tweak ( ph down ) for both hempy buckets and my soil use.

I start at 1 teaspoon per gallon to check ppm range and adjust from there. No guessing ratios with multi bottle bullshit.

Budzbuddha said:

Maxibloom ( from start to finish ) - forget that buttbong schedule.

You can easily run a grow with just maxibloom.
Maxigrow is good also for long veg grows - never had ph problems. I run this on tap water / minor ph tweak ( ph down ) for both hempy buckets and my soil use.

I start at 1 teaspoon per gallon to check ppm range and adjust from there. No guessing ratios with multi bottle bullshit.

Click to expand...

I moved from GH Trio to MaxiBloom earlier this year, and it's been solid. Haven't noticed any pH crash...and now I'm using it in a drip system rather than hand-watering. I get slight upward drift across 24-48 hours, starting with an adjusted pH of 5.9 and ending up around 6.2 or so. Seems reasonable.

I'm also using ProMix HP for my medium.

The schedule that the OP points to wouldn't work for me. I hit 6g per gallon (back when I was hand-watering) and it definitely led to burnt tips. I'm still having some occasional nutrient issues, but not due to Maxi, more due to Ca/Mg related water stuff, and way less variables than when I was using Trio.

Budzbuddha said:

Maxibloom ( from start to finish ) - forget that buttbong schedule.

You can easily run a grow with just maxibloom.
Maxigrow is good also for long veg grows - never had ph problems. I run this on tap water / minor ph tweak ( ph down ) for both hempy buckets and my soil use.

I start at 1 teaspoon per gallon to check ppm range and adjust from there. No guessing ratios with multi bottle bullshit.

Click to expand...

Haha. I like cutting through the BS. I know it’s a hobby and it can be fun to buy all sorts of seemingly cool products that promise this or that, but like any other hobby — where your excitement and nativity can cost you — I knew it didn’t have to be that convoluted. That’s why I scoured this and other forums trying to figure out what I need to ignore. I think maxibloom alone and one or two Ph tests will do it.

I do have a question about the first 10 days though. Do you go with just water to start? Does a plant need to get accustomed to the food first. Do you start off lower and work your way up to 1tspn?

I’m familiar with gardening and how you need to ease seedlings into the environment, but not with feeding seedlings. I‘ve fed adult tomatoes Miracle Grow but never small plants as I see them as being too small to handle it.

thx!

Budzbuddha said:

Maxibloom ( from start to finish ) - forget that buttbong schedule.

You can easily run a grow with just maxibloom.
Maxigrow is good also for long veg grows - never had ph problems. I run this on tap water / minor ph tweak ( ph down ) for both hempy buckets and my soil use.

I start at 1 teaspoon per gallon to check ppm range and adjust from there. No guessing ratios with multi bottle bullshit.

Click to expand...

Buttbong schedule, LMAO that was hilarious

bc_southbuds said:

Haha. I like cutting through the BS. I know it’s a hobby and it can be fun to buy all sorts of seemingly cool products that promise this or that, but like any other hobby — where your excitement and nativity can cost you — I knew it didn’t have to be that convoluted. That’s why I scoured this and other forums trying to figure out what I need to ignore. I think maxibloom alone and one or two Ph tests will do it.

I do have a question about the first 10 days though. Do you go with just water to start? Does a plant need to get accustomed to the food first. Do you start off lower and work your way up to 1tspn?

I’m familiar with gardening and how you need to ease seedlings into the environment, but not with feeding seedlings. I‘ve fed adult tomatoes Miracle Grow but never small plants as I see them as being too small to handle it.

thx!

Click to expand...

HP doesn't really have any nutrient charge to work with, so after a week (the seed has some nutrition for the plant to start), I start feeding a mild solution (1g. per gallon) and ramp it up from there. Within a few weeks you'll be at ~4-5g.

bc_southbuds said:

Haha. I like cutting through the BS. I know it’s a hobby and it can be fun to buy all sorts of seemingly cool products that promise this or that, but like any other hobby — where your excitement and nativity can cost you — I knew it didn’t have to be that convoluted. That’s why I scoured this and other forums trying to figure out what I need to ignore. I think maxibloom alone and one or two Ph tests will do it.

I do have a question about the first 10 days though. Do you go with just water to start? Does a plant need to get accustomed to the food first. Do you start off lower and work your way up to 1tspn?

I’m familiar with gardening and how you need to ease seedlings into the environment, but not with feeding seedlings. I‘ve fed adult tomatoes Miracle Grow but never small plants as I see them as being too small to handle it.

thx!

Click to expand...

Depends on medium used - ( soil / peat ) i let medium do the “ initial “ feeding alone , then supplement as it begins to exhaust. Hempy i start right from the beginning stages.

For veg - i run between 650-800 ppm
And keep it at higher end as plant moves thru growth.
All the way til “ stretch phase “ then move to ppm up to a 1000 ( depending on strain ) for mid / late bloom.

Maxigrow ( i use for longer veg plants that i plan for ) and works great in straight hempy ir when using milder mixes like promix. Then after stretch i move over to maxibloom.

I tend to use maxibloom more over the grow but maxigrow is also a good starting nute.

Seedlings i can feed them 200 ppm maxigrow in a solo cup start. I sometimes even soak and squeeze rapid rooters in a mild solution for cuttings or sowing seeds.

Totally pleased with its powdered form - better shelf stability over “ liquids “ that end up falling out of solution and shaking crunchy bits at bottom of bottle.

Lookin at you Dynagro.

I fill mix container with 1/2 hot water - add teaspoon of maxi ( whisk it well to blend ) then top fill container with cool water. That way i know it dissolves. Only thing I don’t like but nitpicking is the pink dye. Other than that all good.

Medium strength numbers of GH chart is pretty close to what im sayin -


Your mileage may vary

I have used Maxigrow/bloom on and off for years but I hate the amount of pH up I have to use. My city tap water is at 8.3 and 1 teaspoon of bloom per gal. takes me down to 5.8. I'm in soil so my target is around 6.6. 4+ mils of GH pH up is required.

Budzbuddha said:

Only thing I don’t like but nitpicking is the pink dye. Other than that all good.

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Recently I didn't label 3 of my 5 gal buckets (grow and bloom) and I was almost out of fertilizer. That pink dye saved my ass haha.

blueberrymilkshake said:

Recently I didn't label 3 of my 5 gal buckets (grow and bloom) and I was almost out of fertilizer. That pink dye saved my ass haha.

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True. One benefit is being able to tell when you've already put some in vs. not! Or if you keep both the green solutions and the pink solutions on hand you know one from the other.

Snafu34 said:

I have used Maxigrow/bloom on and off for years but I hate the amount of pH up I have to use. My city tap water is at 8.3 and 1 teaspoon of bloom per gal. takes me down to 5.8. I'm in soil so my target is around 6.6. 4+ mils of GH pH up is required.

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That's specific your your water and not the Maxigo/bloom

My Lake Michigan water has a similar pH but plenty of alkalinity (100ppm CaCO3), requiring PH down to get to target pH
About the same amount of pH down with FloraNova, GH 3-part, or maxigro/bloom

Billy the Mountain said:

That's specific your your water and not the Maxigo/bloom

My Lake Michigan water has a similar pH but plenty of alkalinity (100ppm CaCO3), requiring PH down to get to target pH
About the same amount of pH down with FloraNova, GH 3-part, or maxigro/bloom

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I was gonna say...

I have well water that starts at ~7.3pH, and after I add Ca/Mg and Maxiboom, I add pH down to drop it further. I have a few liter bottles of pH plus that are just sitting on the shelf.

Budzbuddha said:

Depends on medium used - ( soil / peat ) i let medium do the “ initial “ feeding alone , then supplement as it begins to exhaust. Hempy i start right from the beginning stages.

For veg - i run between 650-800 ppm
And keep it at higher end as plant moves thru growth.
All the way til “ stretch phase “ then move to ppm up to a 1000 ( depending on strain ) for mid / late bloom.

Maxigrow ( i use for longer veg plants that i plan for ) and works great in straight hempy ir when using milder mixes like promix. Then after stretch i move over to maxibloom.

I tend to use maxibloom more over the grow but maxigrow is also a good starting nute.

Seedlings i can feed them 200 ppm maxigrow in a solo cup start. I sometimes even soak and squeeze rapid rooters in a mild solution for cuttings or sowing seeds.

Totally pleased with its powdered form - better shelf stability over “ liquids “ that end up falling out of solution and shaking crunchy bits at bottom of bottle.

Lookin at you Dynagro.

I fill mix container with 1/2 hot water - add teaspoon of maxi ( whisk it well to blend ) then top fill container with cool water. That way i know it dissolves. Only thing I don’t like but nitpicking is the pink dye. Other than that all good.

Click to expand...

So should I get a TDS meter?
I thought measuring the Ph before feeding would be enough to avoid root burn and so on. I figured as long as I do 1tspn (or 7g) of Maxi per gallon (4L) I would be fine since I don’t intend on adding other nutes to my water.

I’ll read some threads on the topic to understand it more, but for now: how is ppm adjusted? Do you dilute more/less with water? Does measuring ppm still fall under KISS? Seems like it goes against KISS.