Making Your Own Nutrient Concentrates

I know about being broke, likely more than anyone on the whole site. I've been at rock bottom all of my life and am only now inching my way out. I started here on 420 years ago between shit jobs that demanding more strength than my had to give and using CFLs and other things till I could save up for an iPower 400watt HID. Like serious, who saves up to buy something from China? My motto is go cheap and over compensate with effort till I can afford better. Crop after crop, dollar after dollar. You can enter into salts with Jack's 321 which there's plenty on the web about and you can get it with about $50 if you're frugal enough, but there's no control with that regimen either.

At any rate, I didn't mean to imply everyone's got ends to spare, or shame to those that don't, but was just putting the info out there for your consideration. $200 isn't spent until you choose to spend it.
 
TorturedSoul said:
Now I just need to find a handy app that will allow me to enter in the names of the (estimated) 43 different partial bottles of nutrients and supplements from (estimated) nine different companies, and that will then spit out a "recipe" telling me how to turn the mess into a workable nutrient program.
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Well, you have arrived at exactly the right place. With Skybound’s help I just went through the process of figuring out this program- which is very easy, with just one or two potentially confusing spots. You can absolutely enter all of those bottles of yours and come up with a feeding schedule that, from what I’ve seen so far, will be miles ahead of anything else you could ever guesstimate from the info nutrient companies give you.

PS I know mucho about being broke too...
 
TorturedSoul said:
I thought I mentioned it pretty clearly, actually. When talking about a piece of software, the term "developer" is generally taken to mean "the person who created it." Or at least the person who is actively maintaining the thing, if the creator no longer does so.



Oh? I didn't want to come right out and ask if the application could help me with my little collection of bottles, lol, but was sort of hoping. I'll have to make time to read this entire thread from start to finish this week. (I know, I should have done that before bothering to post in it.)



(Plus a not inconsiderable shipping fee.) Yes, exactly what I was talking about, lol, expensive. I haven't sold cannabis for years, so I cannot simply write such costs off as business expenses. And $200 is like four months' worth of electric bills. More or less, depending on the season. But it's definitely more than the cost of a month's worth of groceries, for example.

Again, I agree that it makes economic sense once you've managed to buy everything. And it's okay to buy in bulk, because this stuff should be extremely stable long-term (assuming its kept dry/sealed). However... Well, it's true what they say about being poor having its own form of tax called "not being able to spend enough to save money," :rolleyes: . It's like... Buying a cheap form of no-frills transportation might make sense, but a person is going to have to skip riding on their local city bus for literal years in order to save up enough money to buy one. And the poor SOBs who can't even afford to regularly ride the bus and, instead, have to walk everywhere, LOFL - they're probably not ever going to save enough money to buy a vehicle.

Me, I'm a walker. I'm doing a lot better this year, though. Still only the one pair of shoes - but this year's pair isn't being held together with duct tape yet ;) .



Thank you. I wonder if I could pester @FelipeBlu into giving me the information I'd need for such a project? I think he's the member who has posted specifics of various nutrient products.

My biggest "need to" right now is that I need to find a different location for my garden. Thinks are a little up in the air right now.
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You’ll need to find the “Guaranteed Analysis” of each bottle, (should be on the label) if not google is your friend and also the “Specific Gravity” or “Relative Density” of each nutrient/additive so hydrobuddy can be accurate. Once you input all of that info into the program you’ll be able to mix and match to your hearts content. You’ll be a mad scientist in no time! Mixing your own isn’t for everyone but it’s ridiculously cost effective and crazy fun to do.
I hope that helps mate.
 
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Ah, fuck it. I'll be back when I can find something with a display larger than a postcard and a eyboard
 
TorturedSoul said:
Ah, fuck it. I'll be back when I can find something with a display larger than a postcard and a eyboard
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What nutrient bottles is on your shelves? If it's known brand names, there's a great shot any of us that already use the app has your solutions in our databases

On a side note to users, I now use HB on organics, anything I can find tha analysis on. For example Maxicrop soluble Seaweed is 0-0-17. If it says K2O on the label, enter it as such, but I noticed my fulvic/humic/kelp blend is plain ole 0-0-4, so I had to enter that 4 as plain K, and not K2O. I had to rev engineer this step, but I think I figured it out. A "dose" of soluble seaweed is 1TSP/Gal, so I scooped 1 TSP and weighed it. That came to 2.28 grams for that TSP. I then converted that 2.28 into 228 as the purity. The default for purity is 100 and is used as a multiplier for diluted solutions. I figured this one out when looking at HB's stock solution called "phosphoric acid (30%)", when that 30% was recorded into the Purity field as 30.

So, as is now, my opinion that we can weigh a serving size of something and convert that weight into purity with no decimal.
 
@TorturedSoul
In this situation, I believe your needs are best served by Hydro Buddy, since it has, as I understand, the ability to sort through the options, and pick the inputs that meet your targets.

Kind of like the cashier at Bed Bath and B that can instantly tell you which combination of coupons gives you the most savings.

My spreadsheet is more hit and miss.
:ganjamon:
 
It’s just a wall of bud
 

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I finally found the edit button (on a mobile device, it's hidden in a menu - that only has one option :rolleyes: ) and removed my profanity. Appears that I left TWO posts instead of one, though, and didn't remove the text of the second. My apologies to everyone.

Skybound said:
What nutrient bottles is on your shelves?
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I had to do an emergency move of everything to another location, so I can't just go check right now, but a bunch of General Hydroponics stuff, leftovers and a few bottles that were gifted. A small bag (each) of GeoFlora "organic" dry Veg and Bloom nutrients that the GeoPots sponsor sent along with some of the fabric containers. Dutch Nutrient Formula (IIRC), Grow A & B, Bloom A & B, and either humic or fulvic acid. Fox Farm Trio. A two-part (grow and bloom) set from a company that I don't wish to mention in a public thread because the company was once a sponsor but was terminated and its name added to the old forum software's auto-censor. Between three and three-and-a-half gallons of Terpinator. Osmocote Plus. Some miscellaneous stuff (African violet bloom food, stuff like that mostly). Some kind of popular non-cannabis dry "organic" multi-nutrient that includes a bunch of microbial life (think it's a five- or ten-pound sack). Some kind of earthworm castings product. Calcium nitrate (dry). I may still have some ammonium nitrate, blood meal, bone meal... et cetera. There's a 50-pound bag of Diazanon out there that I haven't had to open yet, and there might be some more dry "fruit and vegetable" garden stuff behind it, IDK. And I'm probably forgetting some, lol, but I've given a LOT of things away in the past few years, so that's likely the majority at least.

Skybound said:
If it's known brand names, there's a great shot any of us that already use the app has your solutions in our databases
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I'll make a list of specific products when I'm able to access them.

Skybound said:
If it says K2O on the label, enter it as such, but I noticed my fulvic/humic/kelp blend is plain ole 0-0-4, so I had to enter that 4 as plain K, and not K2O. I had to rev engineer this step, but I think I figured it out.
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Something is hard-coded in the application that you cannot change without the above workaround? The source code is freely available from the developer, so you could take a look at it and, if changes seem to be warranted, make them and compile your own version.

Skybound said:
A "dose" of soluble seaweed is 1TSP/Gal, so I scooped 1 TSP and weighed it. That came to 2.28 grams for that TSP. I then converted that 2.28 into 228 as the purity. The default for purity is 100 and is used as a multiplier for diluted solutions. I figured this one out when looking at HB's stock solution called "phosphoric acid (30%)", when that 30% was recorded into the Purity field as 30.
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Yeah, that kind of thing is going to make this application unusable for me, I expect. The only scale I own is the kind you step on. No longer having access to the lab really sucks - there was a scale that either weighed out to five decimal places or six (five, I think). Super-accurate, was mounted on a 1,200-pound granite (marble?) table so that you didn't screw up the reading by walking across the (concrete) floor, and inside a glass case so that you didn't screw up the reading by allowing a stray air current to pass too close. Which made it kind of a minor PITA to weigh your harvest on, LMAO, but it did the job.

Oh, here's the GeoFlora Nutrients website:

GEOFLORA Organic Dry Nutrients

Geoflora Organic Nutrients is a dustless, 2-part fully organic dry nutrient formulated to deliver a balanced charge of beneficial bacteria and organic inputs to make large scale organic growing and cultivation easy and safe.
geofloranutrients.com
I'm assuming it's okay to post it, since a forum sponsor sent me the products.
 
TorturedSoul said:
Something is hard-coded in the application that you cannot change without the above workaround? The source code is freely available from the developer, so you could take a look at it and, if changes seem to be warranted, make them and compile your own version.
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There is a difference between P and P2O5, as well as K2O and K, SIO2 and Si. Most references on packaging is for SiO2, K2O or P2O5, but every once in a while you find a product that merely has the percentage listed in the N-P-K listing on the front of the label. It is then that I assume the P or the K is listed as P or K.
 
FelipeBlu said:
I recommend that you don’t use this for cannabis.
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Wouldn't be the first time, LOL. But... no. I used a long time ago, and happen to have a small bottle of it, so I figured I'd add it to the list.

I also have a couple SNS (Sierra Natural Science) nutrient/supplement products and... Doggone it, I forgot again. Hmm... Neptune's Harvest, that's it, two or three of that company's products.

The name "Epsoma" is ringing a faint bell, too.
 
Coolbananas said:
This is what I’m running as of week 6 flower:
N03: 70.5
NH4: 9.5
Total N: 80ppm
P: 65
K: 160
Ca: 100
Mg: 40
S: 65
Si: 20
Fe: 4
Zn: 0.52
B: 0.4
Mn: 0.96
Cu: 1
Mo: 1
All chelated micros with Fe DPTA
and Fe EDDHA.
I set may target for 650ppm,
(1.3 EC) and I subtract my water ppm, silica ppm and my micro ppm,(which comes to around 145ppm) which leaves me with 505ppm to play with. Then I just play with N P K Ca Mg S until they add up to 505ppm and away we go. Is it perfect? No way. Does it work? Yes it does but so do a lot of other formulations. Is it close? Buggered if I know but that’s why we’re here!!!
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Update.
Micro levels are fantastic. I was initially worried about the Mo being at 0.1 ppm as most other sources use of Mo are usually hanging around the 0.06 mark so big tick there. Fe at 4 ppm is excellent. I’ve been reading up a lot on high brix growing, ( Skybound piqued my interest ) I won’t go all out with high brix but instead I’m going to use aspects of it to maybe increase my coco grown brix as far as I can. First thing I’ve done put Fe in the luxury level, the second thing is I’m using more amino acids to lessen my nitrate usage. I want to run the nitrates at the bare minimum but replace the nitrogen with amino inputs and NH4 etc.
so at the moment I’m running,
Total N - 80ppm
N03 - 60.5
NH4 - 9.5
P - 65
K - 160
Ca - 100
Mg - 55
S - 70
Si - 10
So I’ve managed to remove almost 20ppm of nitrate. I’m looking to see if I can at least do 30ppm of N from other sources rather than just nitrates. Also as soon as I dropped the N from 95ppm to 80ppm I noticed a bit of fade out on some leaves. Yellowing like an N deficiency. I upped the Mg from 45ppm to 55ppm (my tap water has 5ppm Mg which is why the numbers differ from the above numbers) which fixed the issue.
So I’m seeing Mg needing to be around 50ppm minimum and micros can be at the higher end without problem including luxury Fe levels. I’m aiming to introduce some really good organic type inputs with a bit of foliar feeding of calcium phosphate etc.
Plants are about to go into the 6th week flower growth has been fantastic this grow.
 

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I think there may be some confusion as to what type of N is in amino acids. I recently read that the organic N is NH2, not NH4+ which would be helpful to know when making decisions. With no rhyme or reason, I am forming the opinion that aminos aren't performing well in my res. FWIW, I only use less than half the smallest recommended dose and ever since I started adding it, growth has slowed some. Perhaps they'll be better used in a spray? How long have you had total N @70? I had deficiency symptoms at 90ppm and toxicity at a little over 100, but that's when CalNite was my only source of ammonium and it's N ratio is 14.4 : 1.1. It could have been the relationship to my other levels that made 90N too low, but yourself being 20ppm even lower, keep aware and have an N rich spray on standby. Neptune's Harvest Fish Hydrolysate has a good balance of N in it with 3parts nitrate to 1 part ammonical. I'm using it once a week @ 4ml/Gal plus other organics, epsom and gypsum.

I upped my Fe to 2.5 and if all goes well, when I mix another micro nutrient concentrate, I will target for 3ppm. All of my resources aside from you is telling me ideal is in the 2-3 ppm range, so I will inch my way north.

I have read that Mg can be as high as Ca, just not more. I'm currently at 2:1, but I did briefly experiment with 1.5:1 and didn't see any adverse reactions, but it being so involved in the creation of carbs and energy, I do also intend to soon revert to working my Mg levels higher than 50% of Ca.
 
Hey guys, Just learning hydrobuddy i think i've got most of the basics down, I have my full nutrient line in the database ect I punched in some target numbers but i can't seem to get anything to work gives me stuff all over the show. i'm week 4 bloom can anyone give me some Nutrient numbers to aim for? Here is a pic of what they have been getting following the lines schedule which explains my N issues...
 

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I had great vigorous growth and a lower EC to boot with these targets some months back. I've since been exploring new ranges and am trying new things so I didn't want to share my most current levels until I'm more certain they're productive. But this mid bloom blend will get your macros in order, but your micros look like they're out of whack with Fe being a lot lower than Zn. That might become problematic, but it also might not, I'm just not used to seeing anything in the micros being used more than Fe.

safe start.JPG
 
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