I have heard only pretty good things about this small company. Apparently its basically one guy started in his 'greenhouse' in Humboldt (or so the story goes) and he really only developed Gravity to increase density of flowers (and weight) because he found that all the crap marketed for that was pretty harsh chemistry (KoolBloom being like 20-45-40 or something ridiculous) and others jumped on that bandwagon (Cha Ching by Foxfarm and their whole strain of flower boosters they make like 4 that are all not organic and are like 35-40-35 minimum) and burn plants at the drop of a hat. So he made Gravity which (if you read the ingredients) is basically just Sea Kelp (ascophyllum Nodosum) which has also been sold by Bio-Bizz under the name "Alg-A-Mic" for around $35 for a 1 liter bottle or 32 oz which makes it about 1/4 the cost of Gravity, and BioBiz is OMRI certified Organic, the Euro-Dutch standard which is the toughest and most accurate and honest organic rating system in the world (try googling the USDA "organic" standards, but not on a full stomach. I called Emerald Triangle / the guys who make Gravity, Purple Maxx and Bushmaster and spoke to a young man (phone USA (866-872-9434) who didnt know that Gravity's only listed active ingredient was the Kelp which was also sold by BioBizz for years prior to Gravity. He was very helpful, as far as he could be, but was no chemical / horticultural engineer. Forest was his name.
Bush Master now has a competitor called Dr Nodes made by the same parent company that makes Sun Master bulbs (MH and HPS). It is also about 1/4 the cost, for which you get a quart ($40 compared to $130 for a gallon of Bushmaster) *however* a quart of Dr Nodes treates over 100 gallons of water. I believe it is 2ml / G in the nutrient solution or soil, rockwool, coir whatever you use, and can be used foliar as well. It stops vertical growth by over 95% within 3 days and the hormone / enzyme acts to focus growth on side branches increasing nodal development by over 50% and overall node growth is closer, greater in number and stretch is eliminated as well so that you dont get that annoying 'nice flowers on top, too bad the bottom 1/3 of the plant isnt getting any light so no flowers down there" syndrome.
As for Purple Maxx, it has non-plantfood ingredients only. This is described as 'organic acids and amino acids'. Everyone I have talked to says it works like a charm, however, and that one great thing about this product line is "MORE IS LITERALLY NOT BETTER" and that generally a half-teaspoon per gallon is the maximum levels needed, beyond that you risk burn and your return on the additional ammount is negligable.
It also appears that Purple Maxx is sort of being marketed as a final rinse / nute buildup cleaner-upper. I am using a *******ized variation of their instructions because I use House & Garden from Holland nutes, and for the last 2 weeks they reccomend reducing nute levels back to the ammount found in the first week after clones are rooted. It prevents the damage caused by using only pure water to rinse with (which shocks plants and causes further damage by dangerously reducing levels of nutes which in turn cause a sort of dehydration (bad analogy but I am tired) in the plants. Instead if you do rinse / whatever before harvest, it is always reccomended to use a very low level of your nutes, roughly 1/6 to 1/8 of what you were using prior to final flushing for taste improvement and chemical salt removal.
Hope this helps, will post some photos of the flowers both "with" Purple Maxx and "without" - same strain, Grand-dad and HP-13 and MK Ultra, so with those variables there should be no problem seeing how the Purple Maxx effected appearances, both color-wise and trichromey sparkly.
Guru_Gil
