Y
YosemiteSam
I do not consider additives from hydro stores to be must have besides silica. I for one make extensive use of PGRs which definitely do increase yield, growth rate, phototropism, rate of photosynthesis, amount of trichs, etc; but the PGRs I use do not come from any hydro store or cannabis company. The cost of PGRs is so little it's not even funny, $50 worth of PGRs will last a year or more unless you have a huge garden...but I digress.
In terms of supplements from a hydro store, ProTekT is the only must have IMO. The reason being, Si (silcia) is a very needed element, rates as high as ~50-100 ppm assist plant growth greatly, and assist plant biological functions, along with assisting Ca movement from source tissue (roots) to sink tissue (leafs). Si is a very underrated element because when plant ash tests were first concluded (near a century ago) Si was not tested, thus, today Si is not included in most 'base' ferts even tho it's very beneficial. I can provide many peer-reviewed white papers (studies and reviews) published in respected academic journals if you wish to read further. Using 2.5 ml per gallon of ProTeKt provides a good amount of Si and means one bottle of ProTeKt will last a long time, thus it's a sound investment.
Another very useful additive is citric acid. The reason citric acid is a great additive is it bonds to P anions keeping them soluble in the rhizosphere and soil solution. Also citric acid helps the Krebs cycle. The reason P anions are not needed by plants at the same level of N, K or Ca is that P anions are not readily available to plants in nature, thus they have evolved to use lower levels of P than other major elements. I could explain all the why's but this post would get long and IME most people don't care about the why's as it gets technical in the topic of soil science.
In short, P anions are not very mobile in the soil solution (thin layer of water surrounding particles in media, soilless and soil) and are readily bound and made insoluble to media particles and other elements and organic substances; critic acid prevents this. The soil solution holds cations in equilibrium to the cations held in cation exchange sites of media particles. Roots exude large amounts of citric acid that keeps P anions soluble in rhizosphere and soil solution. Roots also 'feed themselves' by exuding critic acid (and other acidic chemicals/substances) that mineralizes P anions from organic matter like soft rock phosphate, etc.
I agree with Carl Carlson that your plants do not look healthy, no offense intended, just being honest. They look over fed and it looks like they have have pH issues. In all your pics the leafs are in bad shape which is a main indicator of plant health. What Carl wrote "In pics 3 and 4 we can see the leaf tips and margins curled up. This indicates that the plant is trying to retain moisture. Are you battling high temps? Is the bulb too close? A strong fan blowing directly on the plants? Not enough air exchange?" is pretty much what I would write, with a few caveats and a few additions:
The leaf canoeing issue in all your pics can be from a few issues Carl listed, but it's not necessarily from plant trying to retain moisture because plants simply reduce stomatal conductance to retain moisture (close down stoma) in repose to high "Air to Leaf Vapor Pressure Deficit" (i.e. low RH and high temp) which in turn limits the translocation of Ca to leafs do to low "E" (rate of transpiration). Thus, the leaf canoeing can be from Ca issues which could be caused by too dry (or too dry and too hot) atmosphere (i.e. high VPD) which hinders translocation of Ca from roots to shoots/leafs due to reduced E.
Also, if your providing too much irradiance (lamps to close in terms of light, not heat) the leaf margins can curl which if the plant attempts to reduce the surface area of the leaf thus limiting the photons striking the leaf. If the top leafs are 'praying' that is another sign you are proving too much light, if leafs pray that is often the plants attempt to limit surface area of leaf thus reducing the photons striking the leaf. However, if plants on the perifery of the light/garden are praying toward the light it can mean the plant is trying to get more light, but in that case usually only the far side of the plant's leafs will pray toward the light and the side closer to the light will stay horizontal. So, both leaf curling inward (canoeing) and leafs praying can indicate light saturation which hinders the plant and can cause the plant leaf tissue to respire (photorespiration) which is a bad thing as it greatly hinders photosynthesis in C3 plants such as cannabis.
I too would be interested in your use of PGRs along with where you source them. I would also be interested in where you source citric acid. And lastly (well for now anyways) why do you prefer Pro-Tekt...why not just buy some potassium silicate bulk and then mix it fairly dilute so that adding it does not cause precipitation?