I’m sure there’s a million of these, but I wanted to give my beginner take on Advanced Nutrients. Mainly words of warning for what I would and will be doing different with the series. I’m kind of a fan boy and I know they can get some hate these days but call me a sucker for branding and obsessive sucker for science talk but they’ve got me hooked. I do think they are less beginner friendly than they claim though and they misrepresent the appropriate feeding schedule. Here’s my recommendations on what to feed for beginners below.
To start, don’t use the full dose in soil. Some extremely large plants could maybe take the full dose late in life but it’s crazy overkill early. Advanced nutrients recommends much lower doses if you query their AI and even those were pretty high in salts. A quarter to half strength seems to be the sweet spot for soil. Go heavy on the base nutrients and minimize boosters. Too little is way better and less problematic than too much.
Voodoo Juice is the only thing needed to start. Great biome balancer that optimizes nutrient and specifically nitrogen uptake while clearing the roots and protecting against impacts from overwatering. Strong roots are the key to a strong plant. There are cheaper versions of this but I know people swear by the strength of voodoo and I felt like there were affordable options. I’m trying the voodoo plus tablets this time which includes piranha and tarantula at a huge discount. I’ve heard good things but I think you could get by with just the voodoo.
Bud candy to feed microbes and increase plant sugars. It’s just fancy molasses but it’s formulated well and there’s usually deals on it.
Any media appropriate pH perfect base. I’ve run the 3 part but plan to switch to Sensi because I think it’ll be easier for stage specific amendments and I overfed a few things in late flower even running high bloom. The pH perfect stuff really works and my soil maintained an appropriate pH with no real adjustments. Salts are another issue and I’ll discuss that below.
Sensizym is then a must once you add any salt based nutrient. They don’t push this enough, but I feel like it should replace b52 in the recommended beginner feeding schedule. B52 seems fine and could have pushed my veg farther but it’s just more salts at the end of the day and I think that’s what beginners really struggle with including myself. To not any heavy synthetic salt line should be watered to runoff to help remove salts and a TDS meter is definitely worthwhile to monitor runoff and ensure proper feeding rates.
Some form of Cal Mag should be added. The Sensi extra stuff works well in veg but it’s super high in nitrogen for flower. Trying to track down the organic version because the nitrogen is replaced with sulfur which is perfect for flower. I’m sure there are cheaper versions out there and please suggest away.
Big bud seems to work but should definitely be used in moderation with the base acting as the main source to address deficiencies. Small doses through flower alongside the cal mag should ensure you never see deficiencies though.
Main take aways. This stuff is super potent and a dab will do a lot so don’t over do it and the suggested dosing are crazy high unnecessary maximum allowable doses. If you’re running any salt heavy nutrient series morning tds and use their respective flushing agent regularly.