General Hydroponics vs Fox Farms side by side

[tyler_ hobbyist]

Yes please

[Grower-Aaron]

These are the 4 getting gen hydro nutes

[Grower-Aaron]

This is from the fox farm pool

[tyler_ hobbyist]

How old are they and have u noticed any difference between the two different nutes?

[Grower-Aaron]

So it's been 29 days since dropping the seeds in rooter plugs and this is where they are at. Got about 4 nodes on each plant and they are around 4 1/2 inches or so tall. All in all doing pretty good.
There isn't much of any distinguishable differences between the ones getting the fox farm and then gen hydro, all about the same size and color and pretty much growing at the same pace. I did notice that the roots developed and starting coming thru the bottoms of the net pots about 3 days earlier in the gen hydro pool than on the fox farm. That being said today it looked like the root mass was about even from pool to pool. I don't know if the FF takes longer to start roots but then they grow faster when they do come out, or what might have caused that but like I said they seem to be even now so I'll keep a close eye on what's happening below the surface.
As far as mixing the nutes and everything they are both pretty easy no big differences there. The gen hydro has a couple more additives than FF but both pretty easy to mix up. The fox farm does take about 25% more ph down to keep the res at 6.0 I have read that it's harder to keep FF in range, I haven't had that issue yet, it has stayed in range nicely, just takes a tad more ph down to get it there

[Jason]

Many thank youz for doing this. Very informative.
I'm in Week 11 of 12 with GH on a first hydro grow.
Yes, keeping pH within 5.5-6.5 does require attention. I'm using a 4" diameter air stone to aerate the two gallon res.
pH can go up a full point in 5-6 hours. I credit excess 02, which I do on purpose. Anti microbial and plants like 02.
pH management, adding pH Down or tap water ( pH 7) is just part of moving the grow through the 5.5-6.5 range.
I check pH 4-6 times a day. Morning, noon, night. And when adding water to top off the res. I let it range from a bit over 5 to
close to 7. Up and down, up and down.
I'm doing this after looking at the nutrient absorption/ pH chart they have online. Ranging pH looks good for giving the plant best access to the mixed nutrients.

[Grower-Aaron]

Jason. I am not sure how it would work for a 2 gallon Rez. Mine are larger than that but I check the ph maybe once every other day or so. When I first started hydro I checked constantly and had a hard time getting my ph dialed in to where I wanted it. Once I took a step back and started letting the ph kinda drift a little more over the couple days it got much more clear to me what I had to do and was able to manage it much easier. Like I said I don't know how it would work with a 2 gallon Rez but maybe try it for a couple days and see what happens. I know my problem ended up being that I was adding WAY to much ph down and not giving it enough time work its way thru the whole rez

[Jason]

Grower-Aaron. It seems to be working fine. Should harvest in a week to ten days. I don't mind adjusting to move it through the range. It did take a little practice to get a handle on it. The 02 moves it up predictably and I tweak it down. It was 6+ this morning, so I added 1 ml of pH Down and .25 gallon of tap water adjusted to 5+. I have to top off the water 2-3 times a day. I think some of the loss is splatter from the drip ring.
I did have adjustment problems when I first set the Water Farm up, as I did not soak the clay balls to neutralize. So pH was swinging wildly up during the day and over night. I also saw swings during early-mid flower. That has calmed down a bit.
Thank you again for your experiment. I'm very interested to see the results.

[tyler_ hobbyist]

That's awesome thank u very much awesome grow and can't wait to see more later on

[furrysparkle]

Hmm I'm very interested in this, dyna gro and emerald harvest? (Next time?)

[Grower-Aaron]

Not sure what the next one will be yet. I am interested in trying advanced nutrients line but I do want to hear the input on what people want to see put against eachother so once I get a little better and comparing I could do that

[St.buds]

Your awesome for doing this I'm a big fan of both brands of nutrients can wait to see you harvest and results

[bobsakamoto]

yes, you are awesome for doing this...thank you Grower-Aaron

[Sonnyhad]

I will be interested in this as well.

[GreenDragonRon]

Very interesting, subscribed.

[Grower-Aaron]

Hey guys haven't updated in a while so here we go. I am at day 90 from planting the seeds and just switched the bulb from metal halide to hps and turned the timers back to a 12/12 cycle yesterday

[OzBud]

90 days in and only just switching to flower? Must have been doing some pretty good training within that time. Got any pics?

[Grower-Aaron]

Yea I usually don't go that long. I was kinda lax and behind schedule on my training. Lots of extra growth got cut. Made for some nice big clones tho lol

[Grower-Aaron]

So like I said I haven't posted in a while and it's mostly because I have seen absolutely ZERO difference in the way each of the pools are growing. I am slightly disappointed with this because I had really hoped that I would be able to look at one side or the other and say without a doubt that one of these companies had a superior product over the other but really the plants are neck and neck with eachother up to the flower transition. I will say that the fox farm nutes come with a foliar spray called flower kiss. Gen hydro does not offer a foliar spray that i am aware of so I do like having/using that and probably will end up working that into my master nutrient schedule when I am done comparing all of these nutrient lines that I want to compare

[Sonnyhad]

Wow, interesting stuff, thanks for taking the time to let us know how it's turning out. Maybe during the stretch there will be a noticeable difference.

[dontknownuttin]

I use Fox Farm harvest next week!

[Grower-Aaron]

With all that being said about things being even throughout the vegetative stage I would say that for vegging general hydroponics is the way to go. They cost less, are easier to use, and take less ph down to get the same results. But as stated above I do like the FF flower kiss. I did learn that from the first half of this experiment and will work that specific part of the FF line into my master nutrient schedule when this is all over.

But as all growers know the vegetative state is all prep work and the really exciting times come in the flowering stage and there is still a lot that can change as these girls start budding I am still keeping to one pool being gen hydro nutes only and one pool being fox farms only. Just because there wasn't much difference between the two in veg is no indicator to me that they won't have different results in the buds. Who knows maybe one side will make a more potent bud and one will make bud that's smells or tastes better. Or maybe they will follow the lead from veg and I won't be able to tell the difference and it'll all be for nothing but satisfying my own curiosity. Either way i am excited to see what happens and I hope you guys are still folowing. Sorry it's been so long since the last post but now being in the flowering stage things will be moving more quickly and i would imagine I will have more frequent posts from here thru harvest