Cannabis Nutrients

Not many people have heard of Cyco nutrients here in the US, and there aren’t a lot of reviews for it either.

I am going to be testing Cyco nutes out and just bought the Cyco Platinum Pro Kit because I think it is important to run a company’s whole line to make a valid judgement about it.

Why Cyco Nutrients?

Well my go to nutes were Dutch Master Gold although I never ran the full line. Dutch master no longer makes it though. I heard they were bought out but at any rate they now have a new 3 part line and I cant source it locally.

I tried the whole line of Canna Nutes and honestly I wasn’t that impressed. PH was very stable but the plants just did not look that good to me. So I am looking for a replacement.

Cyco is an Australian company and their Australian version has PGRs in it. But the US version does not have any PGRs in it at all. There was some bad press in the past about this and some products were pulled from the shelves here but that is no longer an issue.

I have heard good things from growers that have used Cyco and some say it is better than Canna and cheaper too.

So I bought the Cyco Platinum Pro Starter Kit and should have it in a day or 2. Unfortunately or fortunately depending on how you look at it, Cyco launched a few new products that are not in this kit. They are Cyco Suga Rush and Cyco Platinum Series Supa Stiky. This actually completes the line with a solid bud sweetner and booster.

I will be testing this nute lineup on some Dark Plasma from Ocean Grown Seeds so the results should be interesting. Dark Plasma is a cross of Forum Girl Scout Cookies x Obi Wan OG Kush.

It’s Here

So my Cyco nutes arrived today and I mixed up a bunch for my Dark Plasma girls. The nutes are easy to pour from the container which I like. I was struck by how clean they are. Veg A&B are mostly clear with one bottle having a slightly greenish tint so not much dye is being added.

I am still working on fine tuning the mix. Just recalibrated my TDS meter which was about 60 ppm low. I was shooting for 11- 1300 ppm but came up with 960. So it seems following directions wont make a mix that is too hot.

I think if I use 4 liters to the gallon when I mix instead of the actual 3.79 I should be right on the money.

Cyco Nutes PPM Readings

I did some research on Cyco nutes ppm readings and it looks like they are using the truncheon scale and not the .5 scale for their ppm readings which explains why they seem so high.

Here is an EC and PPM conversion chart I found online.

I always used the Hanna scale but I actually found using EC eliminates a lot of confusion.

With my system I should never go above 1.4 EC or 700 PPM and only during peak flower. 600 – 650 ppm is just about ideal.

When I take the numbers into account their feed chart is just about spot on at 1.4 EC or 700 ppm on .5 conversion scale while the truncheon scale shows 980 ppm.

It is actually about 1.1 or 550 ppm without the Grow XL which is added at the end of veg.

For a while I was thinking that either my nutes were watered down or their numbers were artificially high so they would sell more nutes.

Just ordered the Suga Rush and Supa Sticky so I am ready to rock. The girls were flushed earlier and just got their first feeding. Its probably my imagination but they seem a bit greener to me. They were starting to get pale and show some yellowing/interveinal chlorosis. Here they are about 6 hours after being fed:

I have had to reveg these clones and a few have a ways to go to catch up. I am going to veg them about 2 more weeks and then flip. I added the Grow XL this week because it is supposed to cause stretch and some of these girls will benefit while others will get pinched back a bit.

First Week Of Cyco Veg Nutes

My Dark Plasma has been on the Cyco nutrient line for a full week now. They have been run at 800 ppm and pH of 5.9.

I am happy with the results so far. The pH has stayed stable at about 5.8 -5.9 and there are no signs of any deficiencies.

This is the first time in a long time that I have not needed to add any cal/mag. Growth has been very good. I have 2 small DP girls that I wanted to give a chance to catch up. The other girls have been topped and trimmed to keep their size down in the meantime.

I am still undecided if I will run the smaller ones but I should know during the next week of veg. Some of these girls could be flipped right now and I am tempted to do it because they have very good branching.

You can see the smaller girls on the left. They are healthy but way behind because they took longer to reveg. They are in double rows and numbered 1-4 from left to right.

The branching is very good on most of these girls and I think they could be flipped right now. They would be twice the size if they were not trained and deleafed. I want a lot of light in the centers to encourage branching and any leaves below 2 feet will be removed in flower.

So why grow something you are going to cut off anyway? I think the plant is better off putting its energy into growing tops that will flower.

Last Week Of Veg

Heading into my final week of veg things are looking very good and I am very happy with how Cyco is performing. No burn, lockout or deficiencies anywhere, just healthy vigorous plants. PH has remained pretty stable this week starting at 5.8 and ending at 6.0 which is a great range for coco.

I will be adjusting my feeding levels so that flower starts off at about 1.0ec/500ppm or 1.1ec/550ppm, gradually ramping it up to 1.4ec/700ppm at bud set. Then I will keep there for 1 or 2 weeks depending on if it’s a 8 or 10 week strain. Then the last 4 weeks I will start to drop it down to plain water for the last 2 weeks .

At least that’s my plan. So right now I am at 750 ppm and I will drop it a bit before starting to flower. I already made the mistake of running too high last grow with Canna nutes. I was feeding like I was in hydro and coco needs a gentler hand for best results.

I don’t like making the same mistake twice. My plants look much better than my grows with Canna so I am really looking forward to seeing what these Cyco nutes can do in flower.

Flowering With Cyco Nutrients

So I am now flowering with Cyco Nutrients and so far everything is looking on point. Here is a picture of first flowers starting at the beginning of day 14:

There are a lot of young flowers and they are stacking together closely so there should be good cola development and a nice yield.

I am feeding at 800 ppm and will continue at that level until week 4 or 5 and then begin to drop off from there to about 300 just before flush.

My only issue has been keeping the pH adjusted. It is stable but it wants to stay at 6.2 – 6.3 which is really too high for coco.

There are several reasons for this problem. My tap water is only 30 ppm but the pH is almost 9.0. If I used my RO water it tests at 7.0 and this problem would disappear most likely but it takes so long to make that I just use tap.

The other main reason is I am not feeding full strength because this is a continuous recirculating drip system so I am only running at half strength so the nutes are less acidic.

The fact the nutrients are being recirculated may also be a factor as well as the fact that silica and Recharge both have high natural pH.

Either way it is not a major concern because I am in the habit of checking pH daily anyway and it only takes a few minutes to correct the situation.

Cyco Nutrients Full Feed

I have decided to change my feeding schedule midway through week 2 of flowering. I have been running at about 800 ppm until now and have upped it to 1300 ppm.

Plants were looking good with no deficiencies but looked a bit hungry to me. I also noticed that with a lighter feeding schedule some of my buds were not filling out like they should. This is true regardless of the nutes I used.

I thought a lighter feed would be better in flood and drain and result in less salt build up. I continued it with my drip system thinking constant feeding would work better with lower ppms.

This is Dark Plasma on day 20 about 24 hours after changing feeding levels. She is stretching and working up through the trellis.

Not the best pic but she is stacking nice and nodes are fairly tight.There are a lot of buds and I want to make sure they have enough nutrients to size up well.

Once I mixed everything at full feed levels (12ml each A+B) and added the rest of the line my ppms and pH were spot on with the feed chart at 1300 ppm and pH was at 5.7. Today it was down to 1240 ppm and pH was 5.9. That ppm drop tells me I had some hungry girls!

I always say less is more but there is such a thing as not enough. I was talking to and old experienced grower who told me he always runs at 12-1500 to be sure the plants are getting everything they need. I was basically running the same nute strength that I was in aeroponics.

I know there are some  growers who never run above 800 ppm but it did not work for me. My plants are greening up and vigor has increased. My pH is where it should be and only rises when nutes are used up. Before it really stayed pretty much the same and pH was always rising. So I am a happy camper and I think my plants are happier too.

Dark Plasma Day 32 Lowering Cyco Nutrient Levels

Growth has been good and the stretch is over. Things are stacking up pretty well. Node spacing varies between phenos a bit but overall it is fairly tight.

There have been no signs of tip burn or nutrient deficiencies. One plant did show some clawing and was probably a lighter feeding pheno. I gave her a flush and have lowered my ppms to 750 this week and will continue to drop them over the next 2 weeks and then it should be time to start flushing.

My guess is these will go 60 to 65 days. I have heard of some growers taking them at 56 days but I doubt mine will have fully matured that early.

Here are some lights out pictures at day 32:

Cyco Nutes And Dark Plasma Reset On Day 37

The Cyco Nutrients have been doing a great job. Trichome development an stickiness are off the chart and the smells are fantastic! Unfortunately I am having issues with the Dark Plasma that are not nute related.

Still not sure but these girls may have hermied on me. This is something Girl Scout Cookies is known for and it is half of Dark Plasma’s genetics.

Bud development and stacking were going along great when I started to notice browning pistils on some of my phenos and there was no stretch, just rock hard little nugs with brown hairs.

I did some research and found that is a sign they seeded. No seeds showing yet but its early. So I decided to move all but 1 plant out and brought 4 new ones in.

I have a nice Cookie leaner that I left because it is stacking and growing. The Jawa Kush also seemed OK so it stayed. So I reset the rest of the room with the same Dark Plasma females.

The only real change is there are 6 plants now instead of 8 and the 4 dark plasma are at day 17 instead of day 37. They are still on Cyco nutes and my evaluation will continue.

I am still fine tuning my feeding. I overfed these girls for sure. When you look at the color difference between the new plants and the older ones it’s unmistakable. So I will be feeding a lot less than before.

Currently feeding is at 640 ppm and pH 5.8 and wont go any higher. Drip feeding is 15 seconds on every 2 hours with lights on. Hopefully plants will not hermie this time.

While overfeeding may have played a factor, it might just be genetics because I have heard finding seeds in GSC is fairly common. At any rate I don’t blame the Cyco for this and those plants were loaded with well stacked buds and had some of the best, dankest  smells I have ever run across.

You can clearly see the color difference between these 2 identical plants. Wont be feeding as much from now on.

Cyco Nutrients Day 47 Everything Is Finally Stable

My rest Dark Plasma is doing well and everything is finally stable. The Cyco nutrients are working just fine and have been all along. It was just a question of dialing my system in.

The sweet spot for me was setting my drip system to 15 sec on and 2 hours off and only running during lights on. I am also recirculating in coco instead of running drain to waste and I think that definitely changes things.

So my reservoir was set to 600 ppm and a pH of 6.0. And it has remained stable at that level for over a week. I just add back about a gallon of water each day to replace what the plants use.

Dark Plasma may not have been the ideal strain to test these nutes. It makes small buds and is not a heavy feeder. If 600 ppm seems low to you remember that plants are being fed continuously. The smart pots fill the container with roots and so everything a plant needs is right there on the roots. No need for them to forage and not much of a buffer once the pot is full. Here are a some pictures:

You can see some tip burn and much darker green color on the older plant. If you decide to run Cyco nutrients I would only run it half strength or maybe a bit less.

Here is a pic of a 25 day old Dark Plasma bud being fed Cyco nutrients at 600 ppm. You can see how healthy it looks. No need to feed more.

Here is my Girl Scout Cookie pheno on day 52 fed on Cyco nutrients. She will be chopped in a few days. She was overfed so been flushing her out and she’s starting to fade. New nutes, new system, new strain = learning curve. But still awesome buds. The ones moved out are plumping up to but this strain makes small, hard nuggets for buds.

Dark Plasma Harvest And Beyond With Cyco Nutrients

My first batch of Dark Plasma was harvested and the rest will be harvested in 2 weeks. Everything is dialed in now and there have been no deficiencies, lock outs or other problems. My pH has also been stable.

Harvested buds are good quality. Sticky and hard. Taste and smells are good. Bud size was pretty small and yield was nothing to write home about.

This was probably not the best strain to showcase Cyco nutes with if you were looking for big colas and chunky buds. Will probably not grow this strain again because of its low yield.

I had one Jawa Kush stuck in back where it was hard to get at. It was neglected and it was short and never made it to the trellis. It was the stickiest plant in the room and it made some pretty decent buds even though it was not taken care of properly. Here is a mix of pics from this grow:

Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Connoisseur Bloom is now available. Advanced Nutrients is a company people either love or hate. I like to make up my own mind and not blindly follow other peoples opinions. So I am here to say that Connoisseur Bloom is really good stuff.

Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Connoisseur Bloom Really Works

I found that it does adjust itself to about pH 6 and it grows nice healthy green plants. I wouldn’t throw my pH pen away just yet though.

The thing you have to remember about Advanced Nutrients is they market their products heavily and throw around lots of hype. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have some good products.

I would not ever use their whole line of supplements it just costs too damn much but I did use their Connoisseur Bloom Part A+B along with Big Bud and Overdrive and produced an excellent crop of OG Kush with just that and some supplemental Cal Mag.

Using it like that it really is not any more expensive than any other high quality nutrients.

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According to its maker, Primordial Solutions , Sea Green nutrient will improve your plants nutrient absorption and make everything more available to your plants.

Sounds too good to be true, but I decided to give it a try. So this is my Sea Green review.

I have been growing some Biker Kush and it just wasn’t looking right to me so I decided to give Primordial Solutions Sea Green a try.

I was feeding Dutch Master and Cal/Mag at 1200 ppm. But increasing either of these did not seem to improve the appearance my plants. They were growing OK but not showing the best leaf color.

There were no nutrient lockouts or burn but the plants just looked hungry, like they were needing something that just wasn’t there.

I never had experienced anything like this before so I was totally clueless because everything these plants needed should have been there.

If you grow weed for any amount of time you can tell when your girls are really happy and when they are not.

Sea Green Nutrients Benefits

According to the manufacturer Beneficial Biologics Sea Green does the following:

• Make nutrient absorption possible even under high salt conditions!
• Break down nutrients into forms that can be easily absorbed by your plants!
• Increase the amount and type of nutrients that can be absorbed.
• Keep essential nutrients available.
• Prevent nutrients from leaching out of the soil

Yeah, I know it seems too good to be true, but my girls were crying the blues so I knew I needed to try something different.

So I went to my local hydro store and picked up a bottle of Sea Green. I had read of some growers getting good results with it. When I got home I prepared a foliar spray at the recommended 1/2 ml per gallon. Since they had just started to flower I didn’t want to use a spreader sticker that might get in the buds and so I just sprayed my plants that evening to run off with the Sea Green.

The next morning just before lights off the plants were much greener and healthier looking. The improvement was very noticeable and there were no signs of any leaf burn. So I decided to add it to my res  at the recommended rate of 1 ml per gallon rather than continue foliar feeding.

That evening at lights on the plants were a healthy dark green and looking better than they ever had before. Please bear in mind that I grow aeroponic weed and with the high pressure mist and exposed roots changes can occur extremely fast. In soil or coco it may take a bit longer to see results but that is actually what primordial solutions sea green was designed to work for and they actually have a new product called Sea Green Hydro for hydroponic grows.

Sea Green Nutrient Spray – Before And 4 Days Later

Lights make it hard to get true colors sometimes but here is a before and after shot of the same spot on the trellis and you can see the plants on the right are noticeably greener than those on the left.

This stuff is black, super concentrated and very thick and is supposed to foam a lot in hydro. I had no problems with it though because my reservoir isn’t aerated. Still, I imagined a bubble bath coming out of my misting nozzles, but there was none. It also mixed very well with my existing nutrients.

I don’t really know what is in it but it definitely did the trick. It does have a 1.5-0.5-4.0 NPK ratio in it but this certainly isn’t enough to have made that much of a difference. The exact formula is a secret but they do say it has fish protein hydrolysate and humic acid in it. I believe it also has beneficial bacteria in it and possibly some kelp extract too because of its black color.

Beneficial Biologics Sea Green is a game changer in my opinion. The label says it promotes vigorous growth and it does all of that. It works in soil, coco or hydroponic systems. It is very concentrated and a little goes a long way. Next grow I will be using it right from the start. Sea Green has earned a place in my nutrient line up for sure. With so many over hyped products out there it’s a relief to actually find a great product that actually works as advertised.

Get Sea Green Online At Amazon

I just picked up an Aptus Believer pack from my local hydro store. It contains a trial size of Aptus Fasilitor and StartBoost, enough to make 50 gallons.

I have heard a lot about this stuff and want to find out if it’s all hype or if Fasilitor really is something special.

You are supposed to use these along with your regular base nutrients. So my Aptus nutrient reviews will be based on using Dutch Master Gold Flower A&B nutrients and the trial will be done on my new Biker Kush Grow.

I will only be trialing the Fasilitor because the StartBoost would likely cause serious problems in my aeroponic system. The Aptus Plant Tech site says:

Do not keep StartBoost in your reservoir for more than 2-3 days in order to avoid organic biofilm buildup and blockage of irrigation drip lines. – See more at: http://aptus-usa.com/startboost#sthash.dyoHog21.dpuf

I will give the StartBoost a try in my RainForest where I keep some cuttings and probably on some house plants I have that are in soiless medium.

What Does Fasilitor Do For Your Plants

What Is In Fasilitor?

Fasilitor is supposed to provide readily available silicon, boron and molybdenum and have a profound effect on plant health. It is their flag ship product. The idea behind the Believer Pack is that once you see the results you will be hooked on their products.

Aptus nutrients are pricey and Fasilitor is the most expensive of them all. Some growers simply refuse to try it simply because of the price. But this stuff is extremely concentrated and with running an aeroponics grow a little can go a long way.

Some very experienced growers swear by this stuff and most that actually try it say it works really well. Of course most of the critics object solely based on price and without actually trying it. They always argue you can make your own silicon supplement for pennies. But is it really the same?

Aptus holds a patent on this stuff. Most silicon is not readily available to plants until acids convert it to useable form. Fasilitor contains silica as silicic acid which is immediately available. They claim it is very expensive to manufacture to justify its high price.

I have never used any silicon supplements in my grows and are not really completely convinced of the benefits but seeing will be believing. If it really works as advertised it would not add much cost to my grow.

The effects are so dramatic according to its manufacturer that some are claiming it has PGRs in it.

Are There PGRs (Plant Growth Regulators) In Aptus Fasilitor?

Aptus says: “Some of the effects seen with FaSilitor can appear like those of plant growth regulators (PGRs). Aptus products contain no synthetic or unnatural PGRs! The key thing to understand is that FaSilitor works with natural plant mechanisms rather than trying to manipulate in unnatural ways.”

OK, well if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck it probably is a duck. Please notice the wording used is “synthetic or unnatural PGRs” Below is an analysis done by the state of California:

So as you can see there are no artificial or synthetic PGRs in Fasilitor. That does not mean it doesn’t have natural PGRs in it though. Triacontanol is the secret ingredient in products like Canna’s Boost and it occurs naturally in alfalfa. Other natural PGRs occur in kelp and I see no harm with using these in my grow.

They may be present in Fasilitor and Aptus, like many nutrient manufacturers don’t list everything they use on the label. This is how they protect their exclusive formulas from being copied. After all, does Coke list all its ingredients on the can?

To me the real proof will be in how the plants react. If my plants are growing and yielding better and appear healthier I will use the stuff.  I am not concerned about the cost it adds to my grow, but I am concerned about my plant health. Healthy, happy plants yield more – really it’s a no brainer.

Aptus Nutrient Review

After test out this believer pack I must admit that I am not a believer. I did see some node shortening with the fasilitor on my OG Kush but it was minimal. Maybe a few inches height reduction.

The grow was in a recirculating coco system and plants did very well but I really cant say how much these nutes had to do with that.

I did not notice any significant results with these products when added to my grow. I guess I would need to do a side by side to know for sure if they made much of a difference. It is possible they increased yield a bit but at their price point I would need to see some major changes to buy them again.

It might be worth testing these in your own grow because they are all different but at this point I would just try to find a Believer Pack for that. Nothing I have seen makes me want to rush out and buy this product in a larger size.

My final thoughts are forget all the hype and save your money.