General Hydroponics / General Organics?

[Lotusyde]

I'm interested in trying out the General Organics Go Box.

Has anyone tried this one?

If so what can you tell me about the results you had?

I hope you're all having a great grow! Thanks for the input in advance.

[PigSquishy]

I used to love General Hydroponics... and then suddenly one day I had an issue with their pH Down, went to the Forums to ask around and some others had issues around the same time... which got me to wanting to know what happened, what changed as the same time they stopped making pH Down in the powder form, now you can just get the liquid. So many things changing I wanted to know what was going on so I did some digging and I found this, and maybe it will matter to you or maybe it won't...
Scotts Miracle-Gro Buys General Hydroponics:
From the article below-
"Scotts Miracle-Gro, a convicted corporate criminal that sells low-end fertilizers, Monsanto’s Round-Up, and other poisons, has purchased hydroponics nutrients manufacturer General Hydroponics.

It has also purchased Dutch lighting company Gavita, and Arizona-based hydroponics nutrients company Botanicare."

http://bigbudsmag.com/scotts-miracle...juana-growers/

[StoneyTony]

Say it isn't so! I hadn't heard that and I can't &^%$#@ stand MG or Monsanto. Crap I'm going to have to find something else to use.

[GDTRFB95]

Im going to have to make a switch after this run. Any recommendations?

[OzBud]

StoneyTony the MG takeover of GH is old news.

[Sonnyhad]

Yeah, that happened last summer, I wouldn't think they would change anything that would lose their customer base.

[StoneyTony]

If it made them more money they would.

[PigSquishy]

Well I think you had better read that article from Big Buds Mag I posted above then, because clearly you missed some of the BIG points... because #1 they are 100% against MJ growers and dump tons of money every year into fighting to ensure cannabis stays illegal... but hey if you want to use their products, and dump more money into fighting cannabis legalization then that in my eyes would be a problem. The 2nd problem, if nothing is going to change... then why is pH Down in powdered form no longer being made or sold? Still I could on but really the article made all those major points and so many more I didn't even catch in why this merger really should matter to us all.

[Flockshot]

I used the Go Box as a supplement to my 'just add water' mix and it worked well. Like with any organic plant food, it takes about 10 days to see the results when you make an adjustment.
I am using the GH Trio now, and enjoy the ability to make changes immediately.

[Flockshot]

I got this from a Cana video on YouTube.
You weigh your pot "bone dry" (whatever you call bone dry I guess)
Then you weigh your pot "fully watered" (whatever you call fully watered I guess)

When the pot is lighter by 1/2 the difference between the hi and lo, it is time to water. That is your 'light pot' weight and once you get used to how much a light weight weighs you won't need to weigh. (told you it was good pot)

All forums tell us to water when the pot is light. Nobody tells you how much a light pot is supposed to weigh though

My current coco grow has a 5 gallon bone dry weight of 12 1/2 lbs I won't have the fully watered weight till I go to 5 gal pots.

[GDTRFB95]

Wow thats very helpful. I would say by feel alone then that only 1 plant was actually too light for comfort. The rest were probably right on time. Thank you. Im also going to try giving alittle less water. Having to deal with runnoff is whats making my waterings so difficult and time consuming in the first place!!

[GDTRFB95]

And using up all my nutrients! My go box is getting very low on all of my vegging bottles at week 7. Fed 6 plants 2x a week max. Less in the beggining too. And 2 others only 3x so far. Im thinking i might try something different on my next grow. Super soil? With some nutes for boosting bloom? Idk. Have some time to figure it out though

[Jason]

I use the Micro, Gro, Bloom GH trio in my Water Farm. The reason I do not use organics is the tendency for them to foster unwanted growth in the nutrient.

[Lotusyde]

Please elaborate further. What happened?

[PigSquishy]

I can elaborate for you as I do hydroponics and I know exactly the issue Jason here is referring too... When I used Fox Farm an "Organic Fertilizer" my tank developed a smell that in short was awful... but when I used 100% pure Citric Acid the pH Down Powder sold by Earth Juice my reservoir turned to having a smell which to put it lightly required me to wear a full breathing mask to filter the air and the smell out so I could then pump out all the water 48-72-hours after having just mixed it all... because I couldn't keep from vomiting from the smell it was so unbelievably horrible.

The short of it is simply this, organics in water means lots of fast growing bacteria's and such in water which equally a lot of smell and thus chemical fertilizers are much easier to go with, so you don't need to wait for the bacteria's
to break down the food for the plant to then be able to eat it.

[Lotusyde]

Originally I thought by "fostered growth" they meant disease or pest problems due to the specific nutes.

Wonderful explanation, thank you for clearing that up for me. I have experience with organic growing and am all to familiar with the interesting smells. And luckily my living soil is rich enough to digest it pretty quick. I usually see a reaction in 3-4 days. I have about 15 cubic ft worth of microbes cultures and activators per 4 cubic ft container, they are happy.

Primarily I was interested in peoples knowledge & experience with these specific products from General Organics

Luckily i I have you guys & gals to help me full in the blanks.

Thanks everyone

[GDTRFB95]

Im currently using it for the first time starting week7 of veg. The girls seem to like the stuff to me. Just dont over do it 1/4 to half of what they recommend per gallon at least until your plants are large enough to need more. I messed up and went with their schedule for my first few feedings and got a magnesium lockout on one of my sweettooths. I believe theres something about ppm like don't exceed 1600, and more nutrients equals higher ppm. Overall I'm happy with the stuff but not happy reading theyve been bought out by scotts.

[Jason]

I don't have the Go Box. I bought separate bottles of Micro, Gro, Bloom and CaMg+. . On the labels of the three nutrients there is a Basic Applications Table.
I started using that when I set up the Water Farm. Then switched to the online (higher concentrations) schedule when I bumped into it. For soil, I have no idea how it compares to the Applications Table. I also use a plastic pipette for precise measuring. Quick, easy and clean.
All three girls appear very happy. I've had to adjust pH far more often than expected. O2 takes it up, GH Down takes it down. Adding .5 ml to 1 ml of Down once or twice a day to let it "range" and stay within desired limits.
My first grow was soil. I did absolutely everything wrong. No pH balance of commercial potting soil, over watering, over prune, under feed. You name it, I did it wrong. I really like the hydro with clones. Monitoring is much easier and closer to the lab work I like.

[GDTRFB95]

I have a big syringe like pipette I use and its accurate but i just use alitte less or more depending on how im gauging the overall growth.. feel out the needs.. trying to be connected with them. They like the mix Ive been feeding with now a lot but Im going to have to try to figure out the transition to bloom soon. I have to water tonight and was thinking I could up the amount of the biogrow alittle. I had a small problem with nutrient burn a couple weeks ago and thats when i started using less. It basically corrected itself and all i did was start watering with half strength. I habe another weird thing with this grow. I started out in some cheap soil mix and then when I transplanted i switched to soiless mix with promix hp. Was thinking that contributed to the nute burn some but the roots have grown and think theyve adjusted well. Going to transplant either Sunday night or during the week sometime. I've def made some mistakes but thanks to this forum and site I've been able to limit and fix what i couldnt completely avoid. I upped my calmag after reading that leds make the plant use more than traditional hid lighting. Not sure if thats accurate but seems to be working

[Lotusyde]

Thanks for the input. Please keep the updates coming about your grow. I'm very interested in seeing how it works for you.