InTheShed Does A Vulx Comparison Grow

InTheShed said:
Okay, so trying to trouble shoot this comparison is getting a bit scattered. I'm doing my level best to make the Vulx plant a clear winner as I believe they're claims must have merit, but figuring out the reason it's lagging behind the regular plant is not easy.

We've covered pH, chloramine, overwatering, too frequent watering, and not enough product added to the ProMix. That last point is something I raised with their rep when I mentioned that 5% of the weight of the ProMix might have been insufficient given how fluffy ProMix HP is. Most of the folks using this are in soil I believe, which is a whole lot heavier.

I was going to up-pot to 5 gallons and change the ratio of ProMix to Vulx based on a new calculation, but I was stopped and told that, based on what they were seeing, I was giving it too much water at one time.

This seems patently absurd to me, as the roots need to be wet from top to bottom, but since this is their product I'm testing, I am following their recommendations having registered my objection.

By yesterday, the ProMix was so dry it had shrunk away from the edge of the pot. As anyone can see from last week's pic, I let my soil get dry before I water. There are no "wet feet" or nutrient deficiencies from overwatering:
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Here were the roots yesterday:
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  • Media owner InTheShed
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Vulx dry

I gave the non-Vulx plant 32 ounces of 4.5g/gallon MC, but gave the Vulx plant only 16 ounces of 2.25g/gallon water. Knowing that would leave the the bottom half of the soil dry as dust, I split the water in two parts and bottom fed 8 ounces and top fed 8 ounces. Here is the obvious result, with a bone dry gap in the middle:
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  • Media owner InTheShed
  • Date added
Vulx uneven watering

It looked the same this morning.

I have no idea why they think the plant is being overwatered, because the leaves show it starving for nutrients. I think it is much more likely to need more product over less water, but I will follow their instructions.

More updates as they occur.
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I find it odd that there should be limited watering done. Interesting to see how this goes and I hope things work out!
 
Dutchman1990 said:
I find it odd that there should be limited watering done. Interesting to see how this goes and I hope things work out!
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You and me both Dutch! If they don't change their mind I'm thinking this plant will be dead before the comparison is finished.
 
Yea with all those dry pockets in the roots it can’t be good imo. The non vulx plant seems to be thriving and leaving the vulx plant in dust literally lol.✌️
 
One things for sure, they couldn’t have picked a better person to do this comparison. :popcorn:
 
Thanks AW. I'm doing my best to be fair and considerate. I even want their plant to be the clear winner, because who doesn't want a 40% bigger plant while you save 40-50% on the nutes!
 
InTheShed said:
Thanks AW. I'm doing my best to be fair and considerate. I even want their plant to be the clear winner, because who doesn't want a 40% bigger plant while you save 40-50% on the nutes!
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Right on yeah, for sure. I’m coming at from the fact that it’s a mineralized soil and I’m a fan of thems ;)
 
Archiweedies said:
the fact that it’s a mineralized soil and I’m a fan of thems ;)
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Me too. Can you elaborate on what makes this Vulx pot a mineralised soil Archi? :Namaste:
 
Amy Gardner said:
Me too. Can you elaborate on what makes this Vulx pot a mineralised soil Archi? :Namaste:
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Growca2268 said:
Vulx is made from volcanic minerals.
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Yeah, I mean I don’t know what’s in it per se, but when I see the word mineral amendment on their site I imagine it works a lot like the other mineralized soils out there.
That was why I thought there might have been a problem with the Chloramines in his water. No micro-life makes it hard to process the minerals so that the plant can uptake if I’m not mistaken.
 
Ahh ok - it’s not a living soil though, so I’d think the micro-life is on the low side. But I don’t know much about Mega-crop.
 
Here's an update so you don't think this project has been abandoned. I have been watering the Vulx plant with 16 ounces of water (per their instructions) at 2.25g/gallon, and watering the non-Vulx plant to runoff with 4.5g/gallon. I thinned them on Saturday and topped them both. Here they are (Vulx on the left):
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  • Media owner InTheShed
  • Date added
Vulx comparison

I think there have been three waterings done at their requested low-water amount, and it's pretty obvious that the regular plant is doing better than the Vulx one.

I'll be transplanting them to 5 gallon pots next weekend using the increased percentage of Vulx, per their new recommendation of 68g/gal of ProMix HP. This is greater than a 3x increase over the original recommendation of 5% of the weight of the substrate.

And when I transplant I will water to runoff the first time, and I will wait for the @Vulx rep to tell me if he really wants me to stick to the low-water plan after looking at the photograph above.
 
InTheShed said:
Here's an update so you don't think this project has been abandoned. I have been watering the Vulx plant with 16 ounces of water (per their instructions) at 2.25g/gallon, and watering the non-Vulx plant to runoff with 4.5g/gallon. I thinned them on Saturday and topped them both. Here they are (Vulx on the left):
20190518_180748.jpg

20190518_180748.jpg

  • Media owner InTheShed
  • Date added
Vulx comparison

I think there have been three waterings done at their requested low-water amount, and it's pretty obvious that the regular plant is doing better than the Vulx one.

I'll be transplanting them to 5 gallon pots next weekend using the increased percentage of Vulx, per their new recommendation of 68g/gal of ProMix HP. This is greater than a 3x increase over the original recommendation of 5% of the weight of the substrate.

And when I transplant I will water to runoff the first time, and I will wait for the @Vulx rep to tell me if he really wants me to stick to the low-water plan after looking at the photograph above.
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After seeing this it’s hard to belive vulx will improve in anyway over time. Your plant looks hungry
 
It's definitely hungry Dutch, and I'm sure it won't improve with time until there are changes made. The first being more Vulx in the ProMix (at my suggestion) on transplant. I don't think there was ever enough product in there to make a difference, so all I have is an underfed, under-watered plant.
 
InTheShed said:
I think there have been three waterings done at their requested low-water amount, and it's pretty obvious that the regular plant is doing better than the Vulx one...

And when I transplant I will water to runoff the first time, and I will wait for the @Vulx rep to tell me if he really wants me to stick to the low-water plan after looking at the photograph above.
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Your hunch was right, so switching back to normal watering is fine. That being said, the research regarding soil moisture content in soil treated with the constituent ingredients makes this a surprising result. We are picking up some ProMix HP to test as well as reaching out to current customers whom are using light substrates.

InTheShed said:
I'll be transplanting them to 5 gallon pots next weekend using the increased percentage of Vulx, per their new recommendation of 68g/gal of ProMix HP. This is greater than a 3x increase over the original recommendation of 5% of the weight of the substrate.
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We'll be looking forward to watching!
 
Vulx said:
Your hunch was right, so switching back to normal watering is fine. That being said, the research regarding soil moisture content in soil treated with the constituent ingredients makes this a surprising result. We are picking up some ProMix HP to test as well as reaching out to current customers whom are using light substrates.
We'll be looking forward to watching!
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Vulx said:
Your suggestion to increase the application rate will provide incredibly useful info, so thanks again for such a detailed side by side!
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I would imagine that the research on soil moisture content was done with a lot more Vulx in the soil than I've got! Just out of curiosity, did they do the research in clear containers to see how the smaller amounts of water eventually distributed throughout the substrate?

I'm glad the comparative grow is helpful...I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with more Vulx in the mix after transplant.
 
What medium are you going to use TB?
 
Pro mix hp. I'm going to run 3/9 of the plants with vulx. I was going to unhook the drippers and water the vulx plants by hand. But after watching this I'll probably leave the irrigation hooked up and see if the vulxs turn into monsters
 
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