The biggest difference (and advantage in coco) is that the Lucas Formula with GH provides an adequate amount of Magnesium while other systems will need a touch of Epsom to bring that element into a proper ratio for coco.
They are all, very obviously, different and a smart grower would see this. Different Micro and Bloom from different companies will require different ratios because they have different concentrations. AN will just school it.įirst of all, the ratio of Micro to Bloom for the Lucas Formula depends on the ppm levels of each element from the General Hydroponics Micro and Bloom. If you get too many things it will be really easy to screw things up if you're not comfortable using several different things at different times, and if you use half a dozen AN products it won't be a fair comparison to the GH you're used to. Jungle Juice or the GMB if you want to go with Lucas, any of the three if you don't. So to sum up, I would say to get Jungle Juice, Sensi Grow/Bloom, or the Grow/Micro/Bloom three part depending on your budget and preference. They won't guarantee your pH to be perfect in coco, but there isn't much if any price difference between the two that I've seen, and it definitely wouldn't hurt. If you're set on using coco I'd just say that you would be equally well-off with either the original formula base nutrients or the newer pH Perfect formulas. So their nutes can work great in coco, they're just not "for" coco. I can't give too much first-hand advice there but I know guys that grow with coco and AN nutes and don't have any trouble. I never got a coco grow dialed in quite right so I gave up on it long ago. Advanced Nutrients is coming out with a coco-specific nutrient but I don't know how soon. The main thing with coco is to compensate for its habit of soaking up and withholding certain nutes, which is what "coco nutrients" address. That said, AN doesn't work any worse than anyone else with coco. So it's very difficult to make certain your nutrients will work with all coco regardless of supplier and product age.
And either way, it's a very young organic media that will decompose and radically change, chemically, over time. There aren't any industry standards governing it so some companies just stuff it into bags and sell it as-is (sea salt and all) while others actually rinse it and make sure it's the best quality they can sell. Coco is problematic for nutrient manufacturers because it's so inconsistent. Both work perfectly with the Lucas formula you're already familiar with (in fact, Jungle Juice is the same as GH's Flora series, just made better).Īt the moment AN doesn't have any coco nutrients. If you don't have a problem with the Lucas formula, but just want to switch brands to see if you like the difference, you'll want to stick with the 3 part formulas that Advanced Nutrients makes. If you're tired of the Lucas formula you can use either a 2 or a 3 part formula, it doesn't matter.